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C.A.D.: Bookshelf June 18, 8:00am-11:00am. Outline. Review: [some of] bookshelf objectives Where we want to go vs what we have now Invited presentations Herman Schmit, CMU Paul Villarrubia, IBM Technology Group On-going work Current challenges Future foci ?.
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Outline • Review: [some of] bookshelf objectives • Where we want to go vs what we have now • Invited presentations • Herman Schmit, CMU • Paul Villarrubia, IBM Technology Group • On-going work • Current challenges • Future foci ?
Review: [some of] our objectives • to provide benchmarking infrastructure relevant for • research • publishing • industrial use • offer high-qualify design tools • preferably open-source • integrate design tools into tool flows
Where we are now • So far, mainly focused on physical design • Available now • partitioning, floorplanning and placement benchmarks • floorplanner in Java (no source?) • partitioners (MLPart, hMetis) • placers (Capo, Dragon, Feng Shui) • a global router (Labyrinth) • a DB with LEF/DEF parsers and PERL/Tcl/Python interfaces • scan chain slot with codes • RSMT/RMST and BST slot with codes, etc
Where we are now (cont’d) • Know-how regarding integration with Cadence and IBM P&R tools • Links to lots of related general-purpose goodies • network-flow solvers • LP and non-linear solvers • etc, etc...
We need • Feedback from the industry and use by the industry • More integration, esp. with commercial tools • Wider participation and adoption • Need to refine future focus
Industrial participation/requirements and vertical benchmarking • Paul Villarrubia, IBM • "An overview of important features for industrial placement problems" • Issues: relevant benchmarks and industrial adoption • Herman Schmit, CMU • "The Vertical Benchmarking Project at CMU" • Issues: relevant benchmarks and design tool integration
On-going work • Ivan Kourtev: optimal clock skew scheduling • C.-K. Cheng: interconnect delay/timing analysis • John Lillis: SITS • Integration and comparisons with commercial tools • Cadence Pearl, WarpRoute (UCLA, UMich) • e.g., CapoT > Pearl > WarpRoute > Pearl • IBM ChipBench (UMich, IBM) • e.g., CapoT > EinsTimer > XRouter > EinsTimer
On-going work (cont’d) • “Simple" (but not easy) benchmarks w/o all bells and whistles • solvable with both commercial and academic tools • can give apples-to-apples comparisons • WL-driven and timing-driven placement (UCLA, UMich) • routing benchmarks (UMich)
On-going work (cont’d) • New tools • an open-source floorplanner in C++ (UMich) • more versatile open-source routing tools (UMich, SUNY, etc) • UCSD is committed to filling in special engines (clock, power, test, area fill, etc.) that are needed to get reasonably complete layouts
Discussion: current challenges • “Separating" global and detail routing (data format, evaluations, at least one engin for each) • “Merging" floorplanning and large-scale placement • Correlating and anti-correlating • placement wirelength with routability and routed WL • placement wirelength with timing objectvies • formulating and validating "simple"/clean design metrics and optimization objectives for consistent research in multiple groups (e.g., the overflow metric used by Majid Sarrafzadeh's group)
Future foci ? • More attention to data-modeling ? • Fully open-source CAD design flows? • Comprehensiveness • Formulations of open problem submitted by the industry ? • remember the "Top-ten list for Physical Design" @ ISPD ? • More formal and automated interface • peer reviews for some of bookshelf content • hit statistics • Lobbying for an official status with DAC ?
Future foci(?) cont’d • “Same old" • more benchmarks ? • better tools ? • more empirical comparisons ?