Method and Apparatus for Circuit Partitioning and Trace Assignment in Circuit Design
First Claim
1. A method for designing at least one integrated circuit (IC), the method comprising:
- partitioning a circuit into portions which represent a partitioning solution;
assigning traces to interconnect the portions to generate a trace assignment solution; and
optimizing the circuit through a modification of at least one of the partitioning solution and the trace assignment solution, the optimizing based on evaluating a design parameter which is based at least in part on the trace assignment solution.
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Abstract
Methods and apparatuses for incremental circuit partitioning and incremental trace assignment. In one embodiment of the present invention, a cost function based on both the partitioning solution and the trace assignment solution is used for the partitioning of a circuit; in reducing the cost function, blocks of circuits are moved among partitions and the trace assignment are updated accordingly to evaluate the cost function. In one embodiment, the traces and nets are grouped according to the partitions they connect for trace assignment. In one embodiment, a flow diagram is constructed for assigning nets to traces; and, maximum flow algorithms are used. In one embodiment, a flow diagram includes feedthrough solutions, in which flow conservation is not preserved at certain nodes. In one embodiment, integer linear programming techniques are used for assigning nets to traces. In one embodiment, a distribution of nets, which defines the numbers of blocks that each net has in each partition, is computed and maintained for efficient determination of the number of nets in net groups.
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Citations
21 Claims
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1. A method for designing at least one integrated circuit (IC), the method comprising:
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partitioning a circuit into portions which represent a partitioning solution; assigning traces to interconnect the portions to generate a trace assignment solution; and optimizing the circuit through a modification of at least one of the partitioning solution and the trace assignment solution, the optimizing based on evaluating a design parameter which is based at least in part on the trace assignment solution. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A machine readable medium containing executable computer program instructions which when executed by a digital processing system cause said system to perform a method for designing at least one integrated circuit (IC), the method comprising:
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partitioning a circuit into portions which represent a partitioning solution; assigning traces to interconnect the portions to generate a trace assignment solution; and optimizing the circuit through a modification of at least one of the partitioning solution and the trace assignment solution, the optimizing based on evaluating a design parameter which is based at least in part on the trace assignment solution. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A data processing system for designing at least one integrated circuit (IC), the data processing system comprising:
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means for partitioning a circuit into portions which represent a partitioning solution; means for assigning traces to interconnect the portions to generate a trace assignment solution; and means for optimizing the circuit through a modification of at least one of the partitioning solution and the trace assignment solution, the circuit being optimized based on evaluating a design parameter which is based at least in part on the trace assignment solution. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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Specification