Routing method and apparatus
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method of routing a net within a region of an integrated-circuit (“
- IC”
) layout, the method comprising;
a) for the net, identifying a route that uses a first path within the region, wherein the first path shares a common region in the IC region with a set of adjacent paths, wherein said set has at least one path and each path in the set is adjacent to the first path;
b) determining whether embedding the route in the region will cause congestion about the first path and the set of paths to exceed a threshold combined capacity for routes to traverse along the first path and the set of paths; and
c) embedding the route for the net based at least partially on a determination that embedding the route in the region will not cause congestion about the first path and the set of paths to exceed the threshold combined capacity for routes to traverse along the first path and the set of paths.
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Abstract
A routing method that uses diagonal routes. This method routes several nets within a region of a circuit layout. Each net includes a set of pins in the region. The method initially partitions the region into several sub-regions. For each particular net in the region, the method then identifies a route that connects the sub-regions that contains a pin from the set of pins of the particular net. Some of the identified routes have edges that are at least partially diagonal.
153 Citations
30 Claims
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1. A method of routing a net within a region of an integrated-circuit (“
- IC”
) layout, the method comprising;a) for the net, identifying a route that uses a first path within the region, wherein the first path shares a common region in the IC region with a set of adjacent paths, wherein said set has at least one path and each path in the set is adjacent to the first path;
b) determining whether embedding the route in the region will cause congestion about the first path and the set of paths to exceed a threshold combined capacity for routes to traverse along the first path and the set of paths; and
c) embedding the route for the net based at least partially on a determination that embedding the route in the region will not cause congestion about the first path and the set of paths to exceed the threshold combined capacity for routes to traverse along the first path and the set of paths. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A method of routing nets within a region of an integrated-circuit (“
- IC”
) layout, the method comprising;a) partitioning the IC region into a plurality of sub-regions, wherein a plurality of paths exist between the sub-regions, each path representing a plurality of routing tracks, and at least a first path shares routing tracks with a set of paths;
b) for the net, identifying a route that uses the first path;
c) determining whether embedding the route will cause congestion along the first path and the set of paths to exceed the number of tracks available along the first path and the set of paths; and
d) embedding the route for the net based at least partially on a determination that embedding the route will not cause the congestion along the first path and the set of paths to exceed the number of tracks available along the first path and the set of paths. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A method of routing nets within a region of an integrated-circuit (“
- IC”
) layout, the method comprising;a) partitioning the IC region into a plurality of sub-regions, wherein a plurality of paths exist between the sub-regions, each path representing a plurality of routing tracks, and at least a first path shares routing tracks with a set of paths;
b) for the net, identifying a route that uses the first path; and
c) determining whether to embed the route at least partially based on the number of tracks available along the first path and the set of paths;
wherein the number of available tracks equals the number of tracks along the first path and along the set of paths minus the number of tracks shared between the first path and the set of paths minus the number of tracks used and blocked along the first path and the set of paths. - View Dependent Claims (22)
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23. A computer readable medium comprising a computer program having executable code, the computer program for routing a net within a region of an integrated-circuit (“
- IC”
) layout, the computer program comprising;a) a first set of instructions for identifying a route for the net, said route using a first path within the region, wherein the first path shares a common region in the IC region with a set of adjacent paths, wherein said set has at least one path and each path in the set is adjacent to the first path;
b) a second set of instructions for determining whether embedding the route in the region will cause congestion about the first path and the set of paths to exceed a threshold combined capacity for routes to traverse along the first path and the set of paths; and
c) a third set of instructions for embedding the route for the net based at least partially on a determination that embedding the route in the region will not cause congestion about the first path and the set of paths to exceed the threshold combined capacity for routes to traverse along the first path and the set of paths. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
- IC”
Specification