Perturber: semi-synthetic circuit generation using ancestor control for testing incremental place and route

FPGA architects are always searching for more benchmark circuits to stress CAD tools and device architectures. In this paper we present a new heuristic to generate benchmark circuits specifically for incremental place and route tools. The method removes part of a real circuit and replaces it with a modified version of the same circuit to mimic an incremental design change. The generation procedure exactly preserves key circuit characteristics and achieves a post-routing channel width, critical path, and wire length that closely approximates those of the original circuit. Additionally, the method is fast and thus is suitable for use in on-the-fly benchmark generation