Geometric Embeddings for Faster and Better Multi-Way Netlist Partitioning

We give new, effective algorithms for k-way circuit partitioning in the two regimes of k ≪ n and k = ⊝(n), where n is the number of modules in the circuit. We show that partitioning an appropriately designed geometric embedding of the netlist, rather than a traditional graph representation, yields improved results as well as large speedups. We derive d-dimensional geometric embeddings of the netlist via (i) a new "partitioning-specific" net model for constructing the Laplacian of the netlist, and (ii) computation of d eigenvectors of the netlist Laplacian; we then apply (iii) fast top-down and bottom-up geometric clustering methods.