Integer Program formulations of Global Routing and Placement Problems

Abstract

Received (received date) Revised (revised date) Communicated by (Name of Editor) ABSTRACT Global routing is an essential phase during the process of physical design of integrated circuits. Combinatorially, this problem amounts to a set of interdependent Steiner tree problems. Several versions of the problem are of importance in practical applications. All of them can be formulated as integer programs. Several such formulations have been investigated in the past, and diierent solution methods have been developed for diierent formulations. In this paper we give an overview of integer program formulations of the global routing problem and their solution methods, and we introduce new concepts for solving this important combinatorial problem. Finally, we present integer program formulations that integrate placement with global routing.