Fast and robust quadratic placement combined with an exact linear net model

— This paper presents a robust quadratic placement approach, which offers both high-quality placements and excellent computational efficiency. The additional force which distributes the modules on the chip in force-directed quadratic placement is separated into two forces: hold force and move force. Both of these forces are determined without any heuristics. Based on this novel systematic force implementation, we show that our iterative placement algorithm converges to an overlapfree placement. In addition, engineering change order (ECO) is efficiently supported by our placer. To handle the important trade-off between CPU time and placement quality, a deterministic quality control is presented. In addition, a new linear net model is proposed, which accurately models the half-perimeter wirelength (HPWL) in the quadratic cost function of quadratic placement. HPWL in general is a linear metric for netlength and represents an efficient and common estimation for routed wirelength. Comp...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2006
• Where: ICCAD
• Authors: Peter Spindler, Frank M. Johannes
• Keywords: Force-directed Quadratic Placement, Hardware, ICCAD 2006, Linear Net Model, Robust Quadratic Placement