Performance driven placement with global routing for macro cells

The authors present an effective performance driven placement with global routing algorithm for macro cells. Their algorithm is a hierarchical, divide and conquer, quad-partitioning approach. The quad-partitioning routine uses the Tabu search technique. Their algorithm uses the concept of proximity of regions to approximate the interconnection delays during the placement process. In addition, their algorithm can handle modules whose positions are fixed or are restricted to a particular subregion on the layout frame. The experimental results indicate the superiority of their placement in terms of quality of solutions and run times when compared to those by I. Lin and D. Du (1990)