Fixed-outline floorplanning with constraints through instance augmentation

A new algorithm addressed to fixed-outline floorplanning is proposed. The proposed algorithm differs from general simulated annealing based algorithms in that it starts with a sub-instance (i.e. instance with fewer modules) of the given floorplanning instance and progressively augments the sub-instance until a feasible solution of the given instance is found. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm is quite promising in fixed-outline floorplanning, even when tight outline and boundary and pre-placed constraints are imposed.