A novel method is presented for mapping a signal driver of an integrated
circuit to one of a plurality of interconnect pads. The output impedance
of the signal driver and desired slew rate for a signal generated by the
signal driver is used to calculate a desired characteristic capacitance
to provide a resulting characteristic time constant required to achieve
the desired slew rate on a transmission line connected to receive the
signal. The characteristic capacitance associated with each at least one
possible interconnection path between the driver and pad is estimated,
and one of the interconnection paths whose associated characteristic
capacitance is substantially equal to the desired characteristic
capacitance is selected, and the output driver is then mapped to the pad
associated with the selected interconnection path.