用逻辑编程精准计算芯片电路最大延迟，提升处理器性能
Fine-grained Timing Analysis of Digital Integrated Circuits in Answer Set Programming
- 将电路延迟分析建模为答案集编程问题，利用高效求解器精确计算
- 实验表明该方法可突破传统近似分析的性能瓶颈，实现更高速度
- 适合芯片设计、硬件验证领域的研究人员与工程师参考
在集成电路设计中，组合模块引入的最大延迟是一个关键指标，它决定了计算所需时间——例如在算术逻辑单元中代表执行一次运算的最长时间。当该电路是同步系统（如CPU）的一部分时，最大延迟直接影响整个系统的最高时钟频率。通常，硬件设计师使用静态时序分析来计算最大延迟的上界，因其可在多项式时间内完成。然而，依赖此上界可能导致处理器速度未达最优，错失性能提升机会。本文针对这一难题，不采用近似值，而是精确计算实际最大延迟。由于问题本身计算复杂，我们将其建模于答案集编程（ASP）框架中，这是一种具备高效求解器的逻辑编程语言。提出非平凡的ASP编码方式，实验结果表明，ASP能够有效解决硬件设计中的复杂延迟分析问题。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
In the design of integrated circuits, one critical metric is the maximum delay introduced by combinational modules within the circuit. This delay is crucial because it represents the time required to perform a computation: in an Arithmetic-Logic Unit it represents the maximum time taken by the circuit to perform an arithmetic operation. When such a circuit is part of a larger, synchronous system, like a CPU, the maximum delay directly impacts the maximum clock frequency of the entire system. Typically, hardware designers use Static Timing Analysis to compute an upper bound of the maximum delay because it can be determined in polynomial time. However, relying on this upper bound can lead to suboptimal processor speeds, thereby missing performance opportunities. In this work, we tackle the challenging task of computing the actual maximum delay, rather than an approximate value. Since the problem is computationally hard, we model it in Answer Set Programming (ASP), a logic language featuring extremely efficient solvers. We propose non-trivial encodings of the problem into ASP. Experimental results show that ASP is a viable solution to address complex problems in hardware design.
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