Local ratio cut and set covering partitioning for huge logic emulation systems

Given a system represented at gate level, we propose an algorithm mapping the design into the minimum number of FPGA´s for logic emulation. We first devise a Local Ratio-cut clustering scheme to reduce the circuit complexity. Then a Set Covering partitioning approach, utilizing the paradigm of Espresso II, is proposed as an alternative to the widely adopted recursive partitioning paradigm. Experimental results have shown that our approach achieved significant improvement with much shorter run times compared to the recursive Fiduccia-Mattheyses approach on large designs. For instance, on a benchmark of 160 K gates and 90 K nets, we reduced the number of FPGA´s required and the run time by 41 and 86%, respectively