Segmented channel routing

Routing channels in a field-programmable gate array contain predefined wiring segments of various lengths. These may be connected to the pins of the gates or joined end-to-end to form longer segments by programmable switches. A segmented channel routing problem is formulated, and polynomial time algorithms are given for certain special cases. The general problem is NP-complete, but it can be adequately solved in practice with reasonable CPU time by heuristics. The experiments show that a segmented channel can generally accommodate connections using only a few more tracks than a conventional channel would