Simulation Based Algorithms Comparison of Simulation Based Algorithms

Both the simulated annealing and simulated evolution are iterative and probabilistic methods. They can both produce optimal or near-optimal placements, and they are both computation intensive. However, the simulated evolution has an advantage over the simulated annealing by using the history of previous trial placements. The simulated annealing can only deal with one placement configuration at a time. In simulated annealing it is possible that a good configuration maybe obtained and then lost when a bad configuration is introduced later. On the other hand, the good configuration has much better chance to survive during each iteration in simulated evolution since there are more than one configurations being kept during each iteration. Any new configuration is generated by using several configurations in simulated evolution. Thus, history of previous placements can be used. However, the genetic method has to use much more storage space than the simulated annealing since it has to memorize all individual configurations in the population. Unlike simulated annealing and simulated evolution, force directed placement is applicable to general designs, such as full custom designs. The force-directed methods are relatively faster compared to the simulated annealing and genetic approaches, and can produce good placement.