A fast and efficient heuristic hierarchical global router for Sea-of-Gates(SOG) with embedded macro-blocks is described. The key point in the method is carry out a new optimal domain decomposition scheduling at every hierarchical level. This scheduling is intended to avoid macro-block-through wirings and to reduce wiring congestion near macro-blocks which may occur at lower levels. The new global router yielded superior results compared with previous hierarchical routers and a non-hierarchical maze router by evaluating with several actual SOG circuits including a 300K gate master chip and benchmark data supplied from MCNC. Overflows were reduced to one-half or one-quarter for macro-block embedded data compared with previous hierarchical routers. Concerning the running time, the router remarkably outperformed the non-hierarchical maze router, which took more than 390 times longer time for the tested large data.

This paper describes an efficient SPICE netlist reduction method, which enables collective simulation of large circuits. The method reduces a SPICE netlist to only those devices which affect the simulation results. Parts of the netlist can be significantly reduced in size, with relatively discrepancies arising between the original SPICE simulation and the reduced SPICE simulation. The authors' reduction method is more general than previous works, since it reduces circuits using the features of MOS transistors. According to experimental results, reduction rates can range from 1/2 to 1/223. Depending on the reduction, the time taken time to run a SPICE simulation was reduced by between one and two oder of magnitude. Using this method and working on the reduced netlist, SPICE could even handle netlist for very large circuits which it could not ordinarily handle. The simulation error between the original SPICE simulation and the reduced SPICE simulation was about 3.5%.

This paper proposes a method for achieving low-power control-logic modules using a combination of CMOS complex gate reorganization, transistor size optimization, and transistor layout. Complex gate reorganization minimizes transistor count and net count without changing the functionality of the circuit. Transistor sizing and layout are interdependent, the optimization of one results in the optimization of the other. The authors applied the reorganization method to a 10,846-transistor circuit, and succeeded in reducing the transistor count by 10%, and the net count by 9%. Transistor sizing and layout compaction reduced the average transistor size by one tenth, while the same delay was maintained. Total circuit capacitance, which is strongly related to power dissipation, was cut to 36%, even when wiring capacitances were dominant.

The paper ptoposes a method to synthesize low-power control-logic modules by combining transistor-size optimization and transistor layout. Transistor sizing and layout work synergistically to achieve power/area optimization. Transistor size minimization provides more spaces for layout to be compacted. Layout compaction results in shorter wire length (i.e. smaller load capacitance), which allows transistors to become smaller. The details of transistor sizing and layout compaction are also described. When applied to circuits with up to 10,000 transistors, the optimizer reduced the average transistor size to one eighth while maintaining the same delay. The power dissipation is cut to half even when wiring capacitances are dominant.