On the Bounded-Skew Clock and Steiner Routing Problems

We study the minimum-costbounded-skewrouting tree (BST) problem under the linear delay model. This problem captures several engineering tradeoffs in the design of routing topologies with controlled skew. We propose three tradeoff heuristics. (1) For a fixed topology Extended-DME (Ex-DME) extends the DME algorithm for exact zero-skew trees via the concept of a merging region. (2) For arbitrary topology and arbitrary embedding, Extended GreedyDME (ExG-DME) very closely matches the best known heuristics forthe zero-skew case,and forthe infinite-skew case(i.e.,the Steiner minimal tree problem). (3) For arbitrary topology and single-layer (planar) embedding, the Extended Planar-DME (ExP-DME) algorithm exactly matchesthe best known heuristic for zero-skew planar routing, and closely approachesthe best known performance for the infinite-skewcase. Ourwork provides unificationsof the clock routing and Steiner tree heuristic literatures and gives smooth cost-skew tradeoff that enable good e...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1995
• Where: DAC
• Authors: Dennis J.-H. Huang, Andrew B. Kahng, Chung-Wen Albert Tsao
• Keywords: Arbitrary Embedding, Arbitrary Topology, Computer Architecture, DAC 1995, Steiner Minimal Tree