System and method for performing transistor-level static performance analysis using cell-level static analysis tools

1. A method of using a static performance analyzer that accepts as input a cell-level netlist, to perform static timing analysis on a circuit represented by a transistor-level netlist, said method comprising:

converting said transistor-level netlist to a cell-level netlist by modeling each transistor within the transistor-level netlist as a corresponding tri-state buffer cell within the cell-level netlist, wherein an enable pin of a tri-state buffer is used to model a gate terminal of a corresponding transistor, and wherein an input pin of the tri-state buffer is used to model a drain of the corresponding transistor, and wherein an output pin of the tri-state buffer is used to model a source of the corresponding transistor;

operating a computer implemented analysis tool separate from the static performance analyzer to determine gate-to-drain timing arc data and source-to-drain timing arc data for each transistor within the transistor-level netlist;

storing the determined gate-to-drain and source-to-drain timing arc data for each transistor as enable timing arc data and input-to-output timing arc data, respectively, for the tri-state buffer used to model the transistor, within a computer readable library accessible by the static performance analyzer; and

operating a computer to execute the static performance analyzer to perform a static timing analysis of the cell-level netlist, wherein the static timing analysis is performed based on the enable timing arc data and the input-to-output timing arc data stored within the computer readable library for each tri-state buffer in the cell-level netlist, whereby results of the static timing analysis of the cell-level netlist represent static timing analysis results of the transistor-level netlist.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein said transistor-level netlist is in the form of a hardware description.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the tri-state buffer used to model the transistor includes a dummy terminal having a capacitor attached to model an inter-transistor effect caused by transistors stacked under the modeled transistor.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the capacitance value of the capacitor depends on effective drive strength of the transistors stacked under the modeled transistor.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one set of transistors are grouped together into one cell.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein said cell is a gate.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein said static timing analysis is a best case static timing analysis.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein said static timing analysis is a worse case static timing analysis.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein said static timing analysis is a statistical worse case static timing analysis, finding a distribution of worse case timing performances, in dependence on a distribution of circuit device performance characteristics.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein said static timing analysis is a statistical best case static timing analysis, finding a distribution of best case timing performances, in dependence on a distribution of circuit device performance characteristics.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein results of the static timing analysis of the cell-level netlist represent static timing analysis results of the transistor-level netlist obtained without execution of a transistor-level static timing analysis tool.