Datapath implementation: bit-slice structure versus standard cells

In some CAD systems, the implementation of regular or semi-regular datapaths is eased by providing specific tools, called 'datapath compilers'. These tools take profit from the regularity in the datapath specification and generally use a bit-slice structure for the implementation. In other systems, no specific tool is provided and the datapaths are implemented using classical standard cell or block place and route tools. This paper proposes a framework for both evaluating the interest of using datapath compilers and comparing the effectiveness of different tools. Then, some experiments on commercially available datapath compilers demonstrate that a standard cell implementation is less efficient, at least for two-level metal technologies. >