A Parallel Bit Map Processor Architecture for DA Algorithms

Bit maps have been used in many Design Automation (DA) algorithms such as printed circuit board (PCB) layout and integrated circuit (IC) design rule checking (DRC). The attraction of bit maps is that they provide a direct representation of two-dimensional images. The difficulty with large scale use of bit maps (e.g., for DRC on VLSI) is that the large amounts of data can consume impractical amounts of computation on sequential machines. This paper describes a processing architecture that is specifically designed to operate on bit maps. It has an inherently two-dimensional construction and has a very large parallel processing capability. Also included in this paper are descriptions of algorithms that exploit the architecture. Algorithms for routing, DRC, and bit vector manipulation are included.