Delay estimation for technology independent synthesis

This paper proposes “path mapping”, a method of delay estimation for technology independent combinational circuits. Path mapping provides fast and accurate delay estimation using the common ideas with the tree covering based technology mapping. First, path mapping does technology mapping for all paths in the circuit with minimum delay. Then, it finds the most critical path among all the paths in the circuit. Finally, it answers its path delay as the circuit delay. Experimental results show path mapping estimates more accurate circuit delay than unit delay, and runs much faster than the technology mapper.