Floorplanning with consideration of white space resource distribution for repeater planning

Abstract

In this paper, we proposed an effective and efficient model to evaluate the while space resource distribution in the floorplan/placement. The model discretizes the chip with a homogeneous rectangular mesh, in which the cost of each grid depends on the white space area and the routing congestion. The model has received application in our floorplanner to plan a good white space resource distribution to favor the later stage of repeater planning. On the other hand, non-zero area white-space blocks, which will join the formation of floorplan configurations, are introduced to adjust the amount and distribution of white space resources. Finally, a novel graph-based repeater assignment algorithm is devised to achieve the repeater planning. The number of nets failing to meet the repeater insertion constraint is reduced by 15.6 % on penalty of 2.2 % area usage reduction.