Profit maximization through process variation aware high level synthesis with speed binning

Mengying Zhao, Alex Orailoglu, Chun Jason Xue

Abstract: As integrated circuits continuously scale up, process variation plays an increasingly significant role in system design and semiconductor economic return. In this paper, we explore the potential of profit improvement under the inherent semiconductor variability based on the speed binning technique. We first accordingly propose a set of high level synthesis techniques, including allocation, scheduling and resource binding, thus essentially constructing designs that maximize the number of chips that can be sold at the most advantageous price, leading to the maximization of the overall profit. We explore subsequently the optimal bin placement strategy for further profit improvement. Experimental results confirm the superiority of the high level synthesis results and the associated improvement in profit margins.