FEEDBACK-AWARE SLACK STEALING ACROSS TRANSPARENT LATCHES EMPOWERING PERFORMANCE OPTIMIZATION OF DIGITAL INTEGRATED CIRCUITS

To increase the efficiency of electronic design automation, in a putative electronic logic circuit design, at least one transparent latch is identified as a candidate for slack stealing. An initial timing slack, available for stealing, and associated with the at least one transparent latch, is determined. Responsive to a determination that the initial timing slack available for stealing is insufficient, it is determined whether the initial timing slack available for stealing is on a feedback path. If so, responsive to determining that the initial timing slack available for stealing is on the feedback path, the initial timing slack available for stealing is replaced with a next worse slack.