A Structural Study and Hyperedge Clustering Technique for Large Scale Circuits

In this paper, a study of the effects of different clustering techniques on the structure of a circuit is performed with the intent of improving circuit partitioning results. In this study, each clustering technique is shown to have a signature effect on the majority of circuits in the ISPD98 benchmark suite. A score based hyperedge clustering technique is developed based on these results. The main focus of this technique is to first quickly find high quality clusters for a circuit while keeping the cells and net clustering ratios close to one another. The empirical results on ISPD98 benchmark circuits show that the application of the proposed technique can result in clustered circuits where the cell clustering ratio and the net clustering ratio are very close and runtime is improved and the partitioning solution is slightly enhanced