Timing-Driven and Placement-Aware Multibit Register Composition

Multibit register (MBR) composition is an effective and proven method for clock tree power reduction. The proposed MBR composition follows a balanced restructuring approach that is applied after global or detailed placement. Its goal is to minimize the total number of registers in a design, and simplify subsequent clock tree synthesis, while taking care that any potential degradations in timing slack, wire length, or routing congestion do not offset the power benefits of a lighter clock tree. The proposed methodology identifies nearby compatible registers that can be merged without degrading timing, and without reducing the "useful clock skew" potential. These registers are merged, provided that the MBR placement can be legalized according to the proposed simplified physical constraints. A new integer linear programming formulation minimizes the total number of registers in the design. Additional optimization steps give significant reductions in register count and clock tree capacitance, as shown by experimental results on industrial benchmarks that are already rich in MBRs after logic synthesis. These steps include: MBR decomposition; initial allowance of incomplete MBRs, and the partial recovery of them by the end of the flow; and MBR-specific register sizing.