Patent Document ID: 7484194
Application ID: 11183414
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A computer-implemented method for automated design of a circuit specified by a machine-readable file having a specified timing constraint, comprising: identifying, using a computer system, a set of timing endpoints for corresponding circuit paths in the circuit defined by the machine-readable file, wherein said corresponding circuit paths include respective sets of components and said timing endpoints in said set comprise nodes on circuit paths having respective path lengths equal to an amount of time for a signal to propagate through the circuit path; assigning, using the computer system, respective values for slack for the timing endpoints in said set of timing endpoints; and processing said respective values for slack to produce a first combination of probability distribution functions for the respective values of slack, wherein the first combination is a probability distribution representing said set of timing endpoints, the probability distribution being weighted in favor of probability distribution functions for values for slack of timing endpoints having negative slack, wherein said processing includes: assigning Gaussian or approximately Gaussian distributions of respective values for slack of the plurality of timing endpoints, with said distributions having respective means equal to a function of the respective value for slack of the corresponding timing endpoint, and having respective standard deviations equal to a function of the respective path lengths.