A FINAL DESIGN METHOD OF A PROGRAMMABLE LOGIC DEVICE THAT IS BASED ON AN INITIAL DESIGN THAT CONSISTS OF PARTIAL UNDERLYING PHYSICAL TEMPLATE

A method of making an integrated circuit (IC) includes establishing an initial design for a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) to be included in the IC that includes programmable connections that can be programmed to implement a desired function; establishing an underlying physical template for the IC wherein at least a portion of the template is based on the initial design for the FPGA; selecting a specific configuration of the programmable connections in the FPGA; performing a manufacturing process of the IC using the underlying physical template, and, during the manufacturing process of the IC, bypassing selected on-state transistors in the FPGA used to implement the specific configuration of the programmable connections with metal connections while conserving the underlying physical template. An IC includes a semiconductor substrate and an FPGA fabricated on the semiconductor substrate. The FPGA has a final design that is based on an initial design contemplated by at least a portion of an underlying physical template used for making the IC. The initial design includes programmable connections that can be programmed to implement a desired function and the final design implements a specific configuration of the programmable connections of the initial design. The FPGA includes a plurality of transistors configured to implement the programmable connections of the initial design, and metal connections configured to bypass selected ones of the plurality of transistors as part of implementing the final design.