Hierarchical random-walk algorithms for power grid analysis

Abstract— This paper presents a power grid analyzer that combines a divide-and-conquer strategy with a random-walk engine. A single-level hierarchical method is first described and then extended to multi-level and “virtual-layer” hierarchy. Experimental results show that these algorithms not only achieve speedups over generic random-walk method, but also are more robust in solving various types of industrial circuits. For example, a 71K-node circuit is solved in 4.16 seconds, showing a more than 4 times speedup over the generic method; a 348K-node wirebond power grid, for which the performance of the generic method degrades, is solved in 75.88 seconds.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2004
• Where: ASPDAC
• Authors: Haifeng Qian, Sachin S. Sapatnekar
• Keywords: ASPDAC 2004, Generic Method, Generic Random-walk Method, Single-level Hierarchical Method