Timing Analysis of Computer Hardware

Timing Analysis is a design automation program that assists computer design engineers in locating problem timing in a clocked, sequential machine. The program is effective for large machines because, in part, the running time is proportional to the number of circuits. This is in contrast to alternative techniques such as delay simulation, which requires large numbers of test patterns, and path tracing, which requires tracing of all paths. The output of Timing Analysis includes “slack” at each block to provide a measure of the severity of any timing problem. The program also generates standard deviations for the times so that a statistical timing design can be produced rather than a worst case approach. This system has successfully detected all but a few timing problems for the IBM 3081 Processor Unit (consisting of almost 800,000 circuits) prior to the hardware debugging of timing. The 3081 is characterized by a tight statistical timing design.