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The ART Focus Group advocates for verifying published research, encourages scientific evaluations of algorithms, and refutations with proof for improved publication standards. This proposal emphasizes the need for a validation process, offering multiple advantages and promoting industry integration.
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Benchmarks Focus groupBenchmarks Andre Reis (UFRGS) Jarrod Roy (Univ. Michigan) Vivek Shende (Univ. Michigan) Igor Markov (Univ. Michigan) Fan Mo (UC Berkeley) Andreas Kuehlmann (Cadence)
The “Benchmark” Focus Group • The Benchmark discussion is a… • forever ongoing mutual fingerpointing to assign blame for bad result sections in papers • Igor and Prabhakar (OUR IWLS BENCHMARK CHAIR!!!!)will talk about the IWLS benchmark effort • Assuming that… • after wasting many more IWLS benchmark chairs… • we finally get companies to give us some circuits with more than 100 gates… • we have put all data nicely into a well defined open format… • What would be left ?????
The “Benchmark” Focus Group Accountability Reproducibility Transparency … for reporting research results • So, we decided to rename ourselves into … The “ART” Focus Group
A Disclaimer • The following statements… • do not apply to the • attendees of this year’s IWLS • advisors or supervisors of members of this Focus group • but to some of our colleagues who try to publish in the same area
The “ART” Focus Group • Long time ago, when CAD was still real CAD…. • Models were simple • Few previous papers written on my favored topic • Results could be reported in simple numbers • Number of rows and columns in a PLA • Number of literals in a ML circuit • Runtime on a VAX 11/780 (IBM 360 ??) • Area overhead of a floorplan • Main focus was on point tools • Results were intuitive and easily verifiable • And then there were simple focused benchmarks • Deutsch’s difficult example for routing • PLA benchmarks • And then there was also SPICE
The “ART” Problem • Today… • Things got really messy… • No hope for point tools anymore • Model boundaries broke down many years ago… … and we are in permanent denial about it • Nobody wants to tell us the real technology and timing data • Big divergence between academic research and industry use • Assumptions are oversimplified “Keep twisting the problem untill it finally fits the solution” • Results are not reproducible
The “ART” Problem • Publication ethics versus effort … • There are sooooo many papers out there and I need to get mine in. • Citation cache is < 5 years • Authors don’t read old papers …. …. and neither do the reviewers • Using “MyMath” helps hiding that I reinvented the wheel “To the best knowledge of the authors this work was not done before” • Too hard to make results comparable… • So, why bother?
The “ART” Problem • There is no validation process of published results • The papers just stay out there “uncommented” • Poor developers suffer just to find out that it does not work … … and don’t tell anyone. • This is different in other communities
Remember This “Breakthrough”? Hendrik Schon does not work for Bell Labs anymore…
The “ART” Proposal • Need publication channel for verifying published research • Common practice in Physics and Medical community • As “messy” environment as ours has become • Encourage publishing scientific evaluations of previously reported algorithms/experiments • Currently a straight “reject” in conferences/workshops because contribution is not “novel” • Should confirm/refute results in a scientific manner • Not just replicate • Refutation requires proof, not just “doesn’t work” • E.g. Sum of the block areas of some floorplan greater than chip area
The “ART” Proposal • Multiple advantages…. • Graduate students can get familiar with an area and still get some publication out of it • Authors will be more careful when submitting papers • Tremendous help for industry and others to integrate solutions • Independent evaluation, different point of view • More experiments • No “convenient” hiding of some benchmarks • More emphasis on implementation details • Heuristic choices • And for our more senior academic fellows…. • Additional input for tenure evaluation • Instead of Citeseer numbers