CAD for IC Design

(MEL ZG641)

Lecture 7 8: Floorplanning

August 14, 2021

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 Outline

1 Introduction

2 Problem definition

3 Cost functions

4 Terminology

5 Slicing Floorplan

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 Introduction

Tasks to be followed sequentially to obtain layout from specification:

1 Layout hierarchy
2 Computing overall silicon area
3 To determine the aspect ratios of each module
4 Pin and IO pad locations
5 Placement
6 Routing (clock and power/ground signal)

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 Introduction

VLSI circuit as a set of rectangular blocks with interconnection

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 Introduction

VLSI circuit as a set of rectangular blocks with interconnection

Placing blocks on a 2-d surface such that no two blocks overlap

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 Introduction

VLSI circuit as a set of rectangular blocks with interconnection

Placing blocks on a 2-d surface such that no two blocks overlap

Certain objectives are to be optimized

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 Introduction

More flexible than placement

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 Introduction

More flexible than placement

Block orientation, shapes and sizes may be chosen for optimization or

to fulfill user specified constraints

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 Problem Definition

Input:
– A set of n rectangular modules S = {1, 2, ..., n}
– S1 and S2 are partition of S
– Interconnection matrix of size n × n
– A list of N triplets (Ai , ri , si ) A: area, r and s are lower and upper bound
constraints of the shape
– Lower (p) and upper bound (q) constraints for enveloping rectangle
containing n blocks

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 Floorplanning model

Output:
– Area of each module ≤ Ai
– Aspect ratio (H/W) should be within r and s
– Each rectangle should be large enough to accommodate the given
module
– No space left (may be rotated)
– The enveloping rectangle aspect ratio should be within p an q

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 Example

Figure: Modules to be placed

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 Cost functions

For a given problem the number of possible solution is very large

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 Cost functions

For a given problem the number of possible solution is very large

For an unbounded total area it is infinite

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 Cost functions

For a given problem the number of possible solution is very large

For an unbounded total area it is infinite

Objective function allows to select the best possible solution

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 Cost functions

1 Minimum area
2 Minimum wire-length
3 Maximum routability
4 Minimum delay
5 Any combination of above

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 Performance

Speed is treated as the deciding factor

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 Performance

Speed is treated as the deciding factor

Decided by identifying the critical path

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 Performance

Speed is treated as the deciding factor

Decided by identifying the critical path

Implementation where the connected modules are placed nearby are

considered better for minimizing the interconnect delay

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 Performance

To find a feasible floorplan with minimum overall area

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 Performance

To find a feasible floorplan with minimum overall area

Rectangles are kept in sorted queue (W /H)

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 Performance

To find a feasible floorplan with minimum overall area

Rectangles are kept in sorted queue (W /H)

Queue is dynamic

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 Performance

To find a feasible floorplan with minimum overall area

Rectangles are kept in sorted queue (W /H)

Queue is dynamic

Cost function is a weighted sum of area and the overall length as:

cost = α × A + β × L

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 Terminology

Rectangular dissection:
– Subdivision of a rectangle by a finite number of horizontal and
vertical line segments

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 Terminology

Rectangular dissection:
– Subdivision of a rectangle by a finite number of horizontal and
vertical line segments

Slicing structure:
– Rectangular dissection that can be obtained by repetitively
subdividing rectangles horizontally and vertically into smaller
rectangles

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 Slicing Floorplan

Slicing tree (slicing floorplan tree):

– Similar to binary tree with leaves (rectangle) and nodes
(vertical/horizontal cut lines)
– More than one slicing tree is possible for a given structure

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 Slicing Floorplan

Slicing tree (slicing floorplan tree):

– Similar to binary tree with leaves (rectangle) and nodes
(vertical/horizontal cut lines)
– More than one slicing tree is possible for a given structure
Slicing floorplans:
– Floorplan that corresponds to a slicing structure is called slicing
floor plan

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 Slicing Floorplan

Slicing tree (slicing floorplan tree):

– Similar to binary tree with leaves (rectangle) and nodes
(vertical/horizontal cut lines)
– More than one slicing tree is possible for a given structure
Slicing floorplans:
– Floorplan that corresponds to a slicing structure is called slicing
floor plan
Non-slicing floorplans:
– Floorplan that corresponds to non-slicing structure is called
non-slicing floorplan (wheel)

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 Example

Figure: Obtain slicing tree for the above floor plan

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