: We propose a novel evolutionary approach to the problem of timing-driven FPGA placement. The method used is evolutionary programming (EP) with incremental position encoded in the population. This uses considerably less memory compared to a method with direct position-encoding for members of the population. The algorithm has been implemented in C++, and the results on MCNC benchmark circuits are presented. The results are superior to those obtained using conventional Simulated Annealing (SA) based approach. The results of an EP-SA approach using the proposed evolutionary programming method are also presented.
R. Venkatraman, Lalit M. Patnaik