A DSM design flow: putting floorplanning, technology-mapping, and gate-placement together

This paper presents an integrated design flow which combines floorplanning, technology mapping, and placement using a dynamic programming algorithm. The proposed design flow consists of five steps: maximum tree sub-structure formation, levelized cluster tree construction, minimum area implementation using 2-D shape functions, critical path identification, and repeated application of simultaneous floorplanning, technology mapping and gate placement along the timing critical paths. Experimental results obtained from an extensive set of benchmarks demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed flow.