ICCAD-2017 CAD contest in multi-deck standard cell legalization and benchmarks

Abstract

An increasing number of multi-deck cells occupying multiple rows (e.g. multi-bit registers) are used in advanced node technologies to achieve low power and high performance. The multi-deck standard cell legalization not only should remove all overlaps between cells but also should satisfy delicate and complicated design rules with preserving the quality of the given placement by applying the minimal perturbation. In addition, the process must be fast and robust to handle the sheer number of cells in the state-of-the-art designs. For this purpose, we have defined an evaluation metric based on maximum, average cell movements, and Half Perimeter Wire Length (HPWL) as well as runtime of the legalization algorithm. In addition, we have introduced a set of benchmarks that include multi-deck cells with a range of heights (1–4 row heights).