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Course contents

  • How to Use This Course
  • Reading Path
  • STA Glossary
  • STA Metrics Reference
  • STA Mastery Cheatsheet
  • Timing Paths and Checks16
  • Constraints & SDC Fundamentals20
  • Delay Graph & Path Analysis16
    • Graph Traversal & Slack
    • Cell vs Net Delay Budgets
    • Path Group Prioritization
    • Report Timing Deep Read
      • Anatomy of a Path Report
      • Reading the Clock Paths
      • Reading the Data Path
      • Common Misreadings
  • Beyond Setup and Hold16
  • Multi-Corner Multi-Mode Signoff16
  • OCV, AOCV, POCV and Variation16
  • Crosstalk and Noise16
  • ECO and Closure16
  • STA Debug Playbook16
  • STA Interview Prep26
  • Capstone Timing Signoff Lab4
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‹Delay Graph & Path Analysis
  1. Topics
  2. Static Timing Analysis
  3. Delay Graph & Path Analysis
  4. Report Timing Deep Read

Part 3 · Delay Graph and Path Analysis · All levels

Report Timing Deep Read

How to read a path report line by line: its parts, the clock paths, the data path, and the misreadings that cost the most time.

  • 4topics
  • 4lessons

The path report is the working document of timing closure. This topic reads one line by line: the header, the data path with its increments, the clock paths with latency, uncertainty and pessimism removal, and the required time. It ends with the misreadings that most often send people down the wrong fix. The report format shown is generic and illustrative; real tools differ in layout but not in content.

Lesson

After it you can...

Anatomy of a Path Report

Name every part and recompute the slack.

Reading the Clock Paths

Read latency, uncertainty and the pessimism credit.

Reading the Data Path

Find what dominates the path and read a hold report.

Common Misreadings

Avoid the eight most common mistakes.

Check yourself Which two numbers in a path report give the slack?

The data arrival time and the data required time. Slack is required minus arrival for setup (and arrival minus required for hold).

Interview

Be able to recompute the slack from a printed report. It shows you understand it rather than just read it.

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See also

  • Graph Traversal & Slack
  • Cell vs Net Delay Budgets
  • Path Group Prioritization