A grid-based approach for connectivity binding with geometric costs

This paper discusses the problem of connectivity binding with geometric costs and a connectivity binder (GB) built to solve it. The goal of GB is to produce bindings with short interconnection lengths. This is important because routing can account for a significant portion of the layout area and long communication lines tend to lead to longer cycle times due to increased capacitance. Long lines also tend to increase power consumption, so it is important to decrease the interconnection lengths for low-power designs. This issue becomes even more critical as feature sizes are reduced. GB uses a new grid-based connectivity binding approach that incorporates these layout issues into the binding process. The usefulness of this grid-based approach is discussed and demonstrated.