Disclosed are embodiments of a method of designing and producing an
integrated circuit. During the pre-release chip design process, the
method subdivides the overall process window for an integrated circuit
design into smaller successive intervals corresponding to achievable
performance. Each performance interval is independently optimized for
performance versus power by assigning to each interval a different
corresponding supply voltage. Timing for the design is then closed for
each interval at each assigned voltage. After chip manufacturing, the
method measures the performance of the integrated circuits that are
manufactured according to the design. Using these performance
measurements, the circuits are sorted into bins corresponding to each
performance interval and appropriately labeled (e.g., with the
performance goal and previously assigned supply voltage corresponding to
the performance interval).