u201d step 510 a first cell in an ic design is selected then in a u201c determine operational parameter value s u201d step 520 one or more operational parameter values e g values for input slew and output capacitance associated with a performance parameter type e g delay are specified for that cell next in an u201c apply preconditioning u201d step 530 the preconditioning function s associated with the cell are applied to the operational parameter value s to generate preconditioned input values those preconditioned input values are then substituted into the mathematical model for the performance parameter type being calculated for the cell in a u201c substitute in to model u201d step 540 the resulting output of the mathematical model is provided as the performance parameter value for the cell under the given conditions in a u201c generate performance parameter value u201d step 550 note that if the mathematical model was derived using preconditioned performance parameter data step 550 involves applying an inverse preconditioning function to the output of the mathematical model to generate the performance parameter value for the cell then in an u201c additional cells u201d step 555 if more cells in the ic design remain to be analyzed the process loops back to step 510 where a new.