Recent Advances in VLSl Layout

Research in layout design during the past decade has had a significant impact on the entire VLSl industry. Because of advances made in automatic placement and routing, application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) design now represents a sizeable portion of the chip market. The influence of computer-aided physical design will continue to be felt in the future; for example, in further popularizing the sea-of-gates and building-block design styles. Recent advances in floorplanning and placement and in global and detailed routing pertinent to these design styles are reviewed. Also included are the subjects of computational geometry and layout engines. The former has received a great deal of attention among computer scientists and has found interesting applications in gridless routing and compaction. The latter is becoming an interesting research topic along with other hardware accelerators and specialpurpose engines. Although all these subjects are carefully reviewed, much greater emphasis is placed on the discussion of the authors' own research.