README.md

Sequence Pair

Programming Asignment #2 of Physical Design for Nanometer ICs, Spring 2022

日期
2022-4-9

Read my report on HackMD

How to compile?

To generate an executable binary ./bin/fp, simply type make.

make

How to execute?

Use the following command format to execute.

./bin/fp <alpha value> <input.block file name> <input.net file name> <output file name>

How to plot?

Use the following command format to plot every resulting floorplan in the directory ./output_pa2/.

python3 plot.py

How to verify?

Use the following command format to verify the output.

• NTU checker:

./checker/checker <input.block file name> <input.net file name> <output file name> <alpha value>

• NCTU verifier:

./checker/verifier  <alpha value> <input.block file name> <input.net file name> <output file name>

Simple commands

Simple commands to solve/plot/check/verify all testcases.

sh run            // solve all testcase in input_pa2
sh run_plot       // generate plots for all output.rpt in output_pa2
sh run_checker    // check all output.rpt (NTU)
sh run_verifier   // verify all output.rpt (NCTU)

Directory Structure

├─ .
    ├─ bin/         
    ├─ checker/
    ├─ input_pa2/
    ├─ output_pa2/
    ├─ plot/   
    ├─ src/         

Program Structure

├─ src
    ├─ main.cpp  // Main
    ├─ module.h  // Terminal/Block header file
    ├─ sp.h      // Sequence Pair header file
    ├─ sp.cpp    // Sequence Pair 
    ├─ veb.h     // Van Emde Boas Tree header file
    ├─ veb.cpp   // Van Emde Boas Tree
    ├─ plot.py   // Plot floorplan

Features

• Implement Sequence Pair.
• Follow the paper FAST-SP: A Fast Algorithm for Block Placement based on Sequence Pair to compute the coordinates of every block with the longest common subsequence algorithm.
• Generate 100 random partition for initail partition
• Utilize Van Emde Boas Tree structure which support search, successor, predecessor, insert and delete operations in $O(\lg\lg n)$ time.
• Following Google C++ Style Guide.

Issues

• Cost function only considers area and does not condsider wirelength.
• Random shuffle is not really random in ./src/sp.cpp line 205, 206. This may be handle by shuffle with random engine in ./src/sp.cpp line 203, 204. However, the testcases perform better with random shuffle, I did not use shuffle with random engine.
  • There is no hidden case in this PA 🙃.

Fixed Outline Floorplanning

Problem Description

Given a set of rectangular blocks and a set of nets, generate a floorplan of all blocks within a given boundary size and without any overlaps.

Input.block File Format

Outline: <outline width> <outline height>
NumBlocks: <number of blocks>
NumTerminals: <number of terminals>

<block name> <block width> <block height>
... more blocks ...

<terminal name> terminal <terminal x coordinate> <terminal y coordinate>
... more terminals ...

Example:

Outline: 100 100
NumBlocks: 4
NumTerminals: 2

A 40 50
B 60 50
C 60 50
D 40 50

VSS terminal 0 0
VDD terminal 100 0

Input.nets File Format

NumNets: <number of nets>

NetDegree: <number of terminals in this net>
<terminal name>
... more terminal names ...

... more "NetDegree" and "terminal names"

Example:

NumNets: 2 
NetDegree: 3 
A 
C 
D 
NetDegree: 2 
B 
D 

Output File Format

<final cost>
<total wirelength>
<chip area>
<chip width> <chip height>
<program runtime>

<block name> <x1> <y1> <x2> <y2>
... more blocks ...

Note that $cost = \alpha A+ (1 - \alpha)W$, where $A$ is the total area and $W$ is the total wirelength.

Example:

5085 
170 
10000 
100  100 
0.24 
A  0   50  40  100 
B  40  50  100 100 
C  0   0   60  50 
D  60  0   100 50 

Experiment

• All testcase can find a legal solution.
• My optimization only considers area and does not condsider wirelength. That is, the alpha value does not affect my result.
• The solutions of the same testcase may vary from each execution because of the random operations in Simulated Annealing.
• For testcase ami49, it may take much longer time to find a legal solution when the random operations are with bad luck.

Results

testcase	outline width	outline height	chip width	chip height	chip area	total wirelength	cost $\alpha = 0.5$	runtime (s)
ami33	1326	1205	1204	1078	1297912	124551.5	711231.75	12.54
ami49	5336	7673	5068	7448	37746464	1892576.0	19819520.0	24.41
apte	11894	6314	9478	5490	52034220	997334.0	26515776.5	0.53
hp	5412	3704	3892	2520	9807840	314478.0	5061159.5	0.62
xerox	6937	5379	5264	3885	20450640	686979.0	10568810.0	0.57

Floorplan visualization

I wrote a python program plot.py to visualize the generated floorplan.

ami33

ami49

apte

hp

xerox

Roadmap

• Understand Sequence Pair
• Implement Sequence Pair
  • Parse input files
  • Print output format
  • Data Structure
    • module.h
      • Terminal
      • Block
      • Net
    • veb .h
      • Van Emde Boas Tree
    • sp.h
  • Coordinates Computation
  • Cost Computation
    • Wirelength
      • HPWL
    • Area
  • Simulation Annealing
• GUI to show the floorplannning
  • Simple Plot