A connectivity based clustering algorithm with application to VLSI circuit partitioning

Circuit partitioning is a fundamental problem in very large-scale integration (VLSI) physical design automation. In this brief, we present a new connectivity-based clustering algorithm for VLSI circuit partitioning. The proposed clustering method focuses on capturing natural clusters in a circuit, i.e., the groups of cells that are highly interconnected in a circuit. Therefore, the proposed clustering method can reduce the size of large-scale partitioning problems without losing partitioning solution qualities. The performance of the proposed clustering algorithm is evaluated on a standard set of partitioning benchmarks-ISPD98 benchmark suite. The experimental results show that by applying the proposed clustering algorithm, the previously reported best partitioning solutions from state-of-the-art partitioners are further improved.