Iterative Remapping for Logic Circuits - Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems, IEEE Transactions on

This paper presents an aggressive optimization technique targeting combinational logic circuits. Starting from an initial implementation mapped on a given technology library, the network is optimized by finding optimal replacements to clusters of two or more cells at the same time. We leverage a generalized matching algorithm that finds symbolically all possible matching assignments of library cells to a multioutput network specified by a Boolean relation and automatically selects the minimumcost replacement. The remapping technique can be applied to area minimization under delay constraints, power minimization under delay constraints, and unconstrained delay minimization. Our remapping tool is based on a fully symbolic algorithm geared toward flexibility and robustness. The tool has been tested on a large set of benchmark circuits. The quality of the results proves the practical relevance of the technique. We obtain sizable improvements in i) speed (6% in average, up to 20.7%), ii) area under speed constraints (13.7% in average, up to 29.5%), and iii) power under speed constraints (22.3% in average, up to 38.1%).