Provably good algorithms for performance-driven global routing

The authors propose a provably good performance-driven global routing algorithm for both cell-based and building block design. The approach is based on a new bounded-radius minimum routing free formulation, which simultaneously minimizes both routing cost and the longest interconnection path, so that both are bounded by small constant factors away from optimal. The authors´ method generalizes to Steiner global routing in arbitrary weighted graphs, and to the case where varying wirelength bounds are prescribed for different source-sink paths. Extensive simulations confirmed that the approach gave very good performance, and exhibited a smooth tradeoff between the competing requirements of minimum delay and minimum total wirelength