Basic Concept of Cooperative Timing-driven Design Automation Technology for High-speed RISC Processor HARP-1

This paper outlines the concepts and the key technologies of design automation for developing high-performance microprocessor chips. The goals of the design automation system are twofold: (1) reducing the development period, (2) implementing high performance. Problems in design automation include concurrent verification of both logic and timing design, incremental physical design, and a cooperative timing-driven placement and a routing procedure which accept various designer´s specifications. Solutions to these problems are presented.