Practical Problems in VLSI Physical Design Automation contains problems and solutions related to various well-known algorithms used in VLSI physical design automation. Dr. Lim believes that the best way to learn new algorithms is to walk through a small example by hand. This knowledge will greatly help understand, analyze, and improve some of the well-known algorithms. The author has designed and taught a graduate-level course on physical CAD for VLSI at Georgia Tech. Over the years he has written his homework with such a focus and has maintained typeset version of the solutions.

Table of Contents

Dedication. List of Figures. List of Tables. Foreword. Preface. Acknowledgments. 1. CLUSTERING. 1 Rajaraman and Wong Algorithm. 2 FlowMap Algorithm. 3 Multi-level Coarsening Algorithm. 4 More Practice Problems. 5 Probing Further. 2. PARTITIONING. 1 Kernighan and Lin Algorithm. 2 Fiduccia and Mattheyses Algorithm. 3 EIG Algorithm. 4 FBB Algorithm. 5 More Practice Problems. 6 Probing Further. 3. FLOORPLANNING. 1 Stockmeyer Algorithm. 2 Normalized Polish Expression. 3 ILP Floorplanning Algorithm. 4 Sequence Pair Representation. 5 More Practice Problems. 6 Probing Further. 4. PLACEMENT. 1 Mincut Placement. 2 GORDIAN Algorithm. 3 TimberWolf Algorithm. 4 More Practice Problems. 5 Probing Further. 5. STEINER ROUTING. 1 L-Shaped Steiner Routing Algorithm. 2 Bounded Radius Routing Algorithms. 3 Steiner Routing Algorithms. 4 Elmore Routing Tree Algorithms. 5 More Practice Problems. 6 Probing Further. 6. MULTI-NET ROUTING. 1 Steiner Min-Max Tree Algorithm. 2 Multi-Commodity Flow Routing Algorithm. 3 Iterative Deletion Algorithm. 4 Yoshimura and Kuh Algorithm. 5 More Practice Problems. 6 Probing Further. References.

About the Author

Dr. Sung Kyu Lim received his PhD at UCLA in Los Angeles, USA and he majored in VLSI CAD. He recently received tenure at Georgia Tech.