phys_opt_design - 2023.1 English

Vivado Design Suite Tcl Command Reference Guide (UG835)

Document ID
UG835
Release Date
2023-05-16
Version
2023.1 English

Optimize the current placed netlist.

Syntax

phys_opt_design [‑fanout_opt] [‑placement_opt] [‑routing_opt]
    [‑slr_crossing_opt] [‑insert_negative_edge_ffs] [‑restruct_opt]
    [‑interconnect_retime] [‑lut_opt] [‑casc_opt] [‑cell_group_opt]
    [‑critical_cell_opt] [‑dsp_register_opt] [‑bram_register_opt]
    [‑uram_register_opt] [‑bram_enable_opt] [‑shift_register_opt]
    [‑hold_fix] [‑aggressive_hold_fix] [‑retime]
    [‑force_replication_on_nets <args>] [‑directive <arg>]
    [‑critical_pin_opt] [‑clock_opt] [‑path_groups <args>] [‑tns_cleanup]
    [‑sll_reg_hold_fix] [‑quiet] [‑verbose]

Usage

Name Description
[-fanout_opt] Do cell-duplication based optimization on high-fanout timing critical nets
[-placement_opt] Do placement based optimization on timing critical nets
[-routing_opt] Do routing based optimization on timing critical nets
[-slr_crossing_opt] Do placement optimization of SLR-crossing timing critical nets
[-insert_negative_edge_ffs] Insert negative edge triggered FFs for hold optimization
[-restruct_opt] Do LUT restructuring optimization
[-interconnect_retime] Do interconnect retiming optimization
[-lut_opt] Do single LUT replacement/replication optimization
[-casc_opt] Do LUT cascade placement/replication optimization
[-cell_group_opt] Do critical cell group optimization
[-critical_cell_opt] Do cell-duplication based optimization on timing critical nets
[-dsp_register_opt] Do DSP register optimization
[-bram_register_opt] Do BRAM register optimization
[-uram_register_opt] Do UltraRAM register optimization
[-bram_enable_opt] Do BRAM enable optimization
[-shift_register_opt] Do Shift register optimization
[-hold_fix] Attempt to improve slack of high hold violators
[-aggressive_hold_fix] Attempt to aggressively improve slack of high hold violators
[-retime] Do retiming optimization
[-force_replication_on_nets] Force replication optimization on nets
[-directive] Mode of behavior (directive) for this command. Please refer to Arguments section of this help for values for this option Default: Default
[-critical_pin_opt] Do pin-swapping based optimization on timing critical nets
[-clock_opt] Do clock skew optimization in post-route optimization
[-path_groups] Work only on specified path groups
[-tns_cleanup] Work on all nets in the design that meet criteria for the specified optimizations to improve design tns
[-sll_reg_hold_fix] Do hold fixing on SLL Tx-Rx paths
[-quiet] Ignore command errors
[-verbose] Suspend message limits during command execution

Categories

Tools

Description

Performs timing-driven optimization on the negative-slack paths of a design. A path should have negative slack near the worst negative slack (WNS) to be considered for optimization. Optimization will not be performed on designs without negative slack.

This optional command can be run for post-place or post-route optimizations.

Note: Because physical optimization requires timing data that is only available after placement, the command cannot be run prior to placement. However, the write_iphys_opt_tcl and read_iphys_opt_tcl commands let you write out the physical optimizations performed on the post-placed design, and then apply those optimizations to the design netlist prior to placement. Refer to the Vivado Design Suite User Guide: Implementation (UG904) for more information on interactive physical optimization.

Post-place phys_opt_design performs the following optimizations by default:

  • high-fanout optimization
  • placement-based optimization of critical paths
  • rewire
  • critical-cell optimization
  • DSP register optimization
  • Block RAM register optimization
  • URAM register optimization
  • a final fanout optimization
Tip: Using command-line options for specific optimizations results in phys_opt_design performing only the specified optimizations and disabling all others, even the ones that are usually performed by default.

Post-route phys_opt_design performs the following optimizations by default:

  • placement-based optimization of critical paths
  • routing optimization
  • rewire
  • critical-cell optimization

Physical optimizations involve replication, re-timing, hold fixing, and placement improvement. The phys_opt_design command automatically performs all necessary netlist and placement changes.

To perform re-timing you must specify the -retime option, or the -directive AddRetime option.

To perform hold fixing you must specify the -hold_fix option, or the -directive ExploreWithHoldFix option.

If the phys_opt_design command is used iteratively, the subsequent run optimizes the results of the prior run.

Tip: The phys_opt_design can be multi-threaded to speed the process. Refer to the set_param command for more information on setting the general.maxThreads parameter.

The command reports each net processed, a summary of any optimizations performed, and the WNS before and after optimization. Replicated objects are named by appending _replica to the original object name, followed by the replicated object count.

Arguments

-fanout_opt - (Optional) Performs delay-driven optimization on high-fanout timing critical nets, by replicating drivers to reduce delay.

Note: The -fanout_opt argument is optional, as are the other optimizations. However this optimization is run by default unless explicitly overridden by another optimization.

-placement_opt - (Optional) Moves cells to reduce delay on timing-critical nets.

-routing_opt - (Optional) Performs routing optimization on timing-critical nets to reduce delay.

-slr_crossing_opt - (Optional) Performs post-place or post-route optimizations to improve the path delay of inter-SLR connections. The optimization adjusts the locations of the driver, load, or both along the SLR crossing after potential replication. For use with UltraScale™ and UltraScale+™ devices.

-rewire - (Optional) Refactors logic cones to reduce logic levels and reduce delay on critical signals.

-insert_negative_edge_ffs - (Optional) Inserts negative edge triggered FFs for hold optimization.

-critical_cell_opt - (Optional) Replicates cells on timing critical nets to reduce delays.

-dsp_register_opt - (Optional) Improves critical path delay by moving registers from slices to DSP blocks, or from DSP blocks to slices.

-bram_register_opt - (Optional) Improves critical path delay by moving registers from slices to block RAMs, or from block RAMs to slices.

-uram_register_opt - (Optional) Improves critical path delay by moving registers across the URAM cell boundary, from slices into URAMs, or from URAMs to slices.

-bram_enable_opt - (Optional) The block RAM enable optimization improves timing on critical paths involving power-optimized block RAMs. Pre-placement block RAM power optimization restructures the logic driving block RAM read and write enable inputs to reduce dynamic power consumption. After placement the restructured logic may become timing-critical. The block RAM enable optimization reverses the enable-logic optimization to improve the slack on the critical enable-logic paths.

-shift_register_opt - (Optional) Performs shift register optimization to improve timing on negative slack paths between shift register cells (SRLs) and other logic cells. If there are timing violations to or from shift register cells (SRL16E or SRLC32E), the optimization extracts a register from the beginning or end of the SRL register chain and places it into the logic fabric to improve timing. The optimization shortens the wire length of the original critical path. Refer to the Vivado Design Suite User Guide: Implementation (UG904) for more information.

-hold_fix - (Optional) Performs optimizations to insert data path delay to fix hold time violations.

-aggressive_hold_fix - (Optional) Performs optimizations to insert data path delay to fix hold time violations. Considers significantly more hold violations than the standard hold fix algorithm.

-retime - (Optional) Re-time registers forward through combinational logic to balance path delays.

-force_replication_on_nets <args> - (Optional) Forces the drivers of the specified net objects to be replicated, regardless of timing slack. This option requires the use of the get_nets command to specify net objects. Replication is based on load placements and requires manual analysis to determine if replication is sufficient. If further replication is required, nets can be replicated repeatedly by successive commands.

-directive <arg> - (Optional) Directs the mode of physical optimization with specific design objectives. Only one directive can be specified for a single phys_opt_design command, and values are case-sensitive. Supported values include:

  • Explore - Run different algorithms in multiple passes of optimization, including replication for very high fanout nets.
  • ExploreWithHoldFix - Run different algorithms in multiple passes of optimization, including hold violation fixing and replication for very high fanout nets.
  • ExploreWithAggressiveHoldFix - Run different algorithms in multiple passes of optimization, including aggressive hold violation fixing and replication for very high fanout nets.
  • AggressiveExplore - Similar to Explore but with different optimization algorithms and more aggressive goals.
  • AlternateReplication - Use different algorithms for performing critical cell replication.
  • AggressiveFanoutOpt - Uses different algorithms for fanout-related optimizations with more aggressive goals.
  • AlternateFlowWithRetiming - Perform more aggressive replication and DSP and Block RAM optimizations, and enable register re-timing.
  • AddRetime - Performs the default phys_opt_design flow and adds re-timing.
  • RuntimeOptimized - Provides a reduced set of physical optimizations with the shortest runtime. Use this directive when compile time reduction is more important than design performance. RuntimeOptimized includes fanout_opt, critical_cell_opt, placement_opt, and bram_enable_opt.
  • RQS - Instructs phys_opt_design to select the phys_opt_design directive specified by the report_qor_suggestion strategy suggestion. Requires an RQS file with a strategy suggestion to be read in prior to calling this directive. See report_qor_suggestions -help for more details.
  • Default - Run phys_opt_design with default settings.

Refer to the Vivado Design Suite User Guide: Implementation (UG904) for more information on the effects of each directive.

Note: The -directive option controls the overall optimization strategy, and is not compatible with any specific optimization options. It can only be used with -quiet and -verbose.

-critical_pin_opt - For LUT inputs, this optimization performs remapping of logical pins to physical pins, also known as pin-swapping, to improve critical path timing. A critical path traversing a logical pin that has been mapped to a slow physical pin, such as A1 or A2, is reassigned to a faster physical pin, such as A6 or A5 if it improves timing.

Note: A cell with a LOCK_PINS property will be skipped and the cell will retain the pin mapping specified by LOCK_PINS. Logical-to-physical pin mapping can be obtained with get_site_pins for a selected logical pin object.

-clock_opt - (Optional) Perform clock skew optimization during post-route optimization. Insert global clock buffers to delay destination clocks to improve setup on critical paths. Optimization will modify CLK_MOD delays for Versal devices.

-path_groups <args> - (Optional) Perform optimizations on the specified path groups only.

-tns_cleanup - (Optional) This option can be used with the -slr_crossing_opt option. This performs a Total Negative Slack (TNS) cleanup, which supports optimizing SLR crossing paths while allowing some slack degradation on other paths, as long as the overall WNS does not degrade. This is applicable to UltraScale and UltraScale+ devices.

-sll_reg_hold_fix - (Optional) Performs SLL register hold fix optimization. You can use this option when the router is having trouble resolving hold violations on SLR crossing paths.

-quiet - (Optional) Execute the command quietly, returning no messages from the command. The command also returns TCL_OK regardless of any errors encountered during execution.
Note: Any errors encountered on the command-line, while launching the command, will be returned. Only errors occurring inside the command will be trapped.
-verbose - (Optional) Temporarily override any message limits and return all messages from this command.
Note: Message limits can be defined with the set_msg_config command.

Examples

The following example performs a physical optimization of the current post-placement design, and then writes the iphys_opt Tcl script for use before placement:

phys_opt_design
write_iphys_opt_tcl C:/Data/my_iphys_opt.tcl

This example sets the LOCK_PINS property on the specified cell, then performs physical optimizations including register re-timing, optimization of registers across DSP blocks and block RAMs, and pin swapping (excluding the locked pins) to improve timing:

set_property LOCK_PINS {I3:A1 I2:A4} [get_cell cpuEngine/qmem_dack_reg_i_1]
phys_opt_design -retime -dsp_register_opt -bram_register_opt \
   -critical_pin_opt

This example directs phys_opt_design to run more iterations, with hold violation fixing, to achieve potentially better results:

phys_opt_design -directive ExploreWithHoldFix

This example directs phys_opt_design to consider more nets for replication:

phys_opt_design -directive AggressiveFanoutOpt