Timing-driven system partitioning by constraints decoupling method

A method called constraints decoupling for solving the MCM system partitioning problem under capacity and timing constraints is proposed. Advantage is taken of the small number of chip slots (compared to the large number of circuit components) and the problem is formulated as an integer programming problem. The dual-constraint problem is then decomposed into two independent single-constraint problems, which are much easier to solve. Experimental results indicate that all timing and capacity violations in the initial designs can be eliminated. One important application, solving practical MCM partitioning problems, is illustrated through 7 industrial examples. Extensive experiments confirmed the stability of the method