Minor Project

2016

Project Synopsis on
TimberWolf Placement Program Implementation

Submitted to
Dr. M S Bhat

By
Aamodh K (15VL01F) and Arjun S Kumar (15VL04F)
(M.Tech VLSI Design)

As a part of
VL897: Minor Project

Department of Electronics and Communication,

National Institute of Technology Karnataka
Surathkal
31st January 2016

Department of ECE, NITK Surathkal

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Minor Project

2016

Project Synopsis
What we plan to do:

In this project we plan to implement Timberwolf[1] program, which is a

placement algorithm using simulated annealing.

This program involves calculation of Cost function, Perturb function and

Schedule function.

We plan to interface the Magic layout design tool with the Timberwolf
program.

Program flow:

The script asks the user to enter the netlist and the coordinates of standard
cells in initial placement.

The script writes the initial placement into .mag file.

The Cost function calculates the initial cost as per the metrics mentioned in
Timberwolf program. Then the placement is reorganized by the Perturb
function.

The script calculates the cost for the new placement. The acceptance or
rejection of the new placement is carried out as per simulated annealing
algorithm.

The cooling rate is determined by the Schedule function.

Several intermediate placement solutions which do not violate Design Rule

Checks will be written into .mag file.

The script arrives at the final solution after several iterations heuristically
and writes it to .mag file.

Department of ECE, NITK Surathkal

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Minor Project

2016

Project Timeline
Week

Date

Action

13

11 Jan 31 Jan

Literature survey

1 Feb 7 Feb

8 Feb 14 Feb

15 Feb 21 Feb

22 feb 28 feb

8-9

29 feb 12 mar

No.

10

11

Interfacing with Magic (file handling, placement of

standard cells at user defined coordinates)
Writing into .mag file of initial placement
Mid Semester Exam
Development of graphical representation from initial
placement (calculating net length)
Development of Cost function (minimizing
wirelengths and overlap penalty)

13 march -19

Development of Perturb function (exchange of cells,

march

displacement of cell)

14 march 20

Development of Schedule function (temperature

march

scheduling)
Implementation of Main function (integration of Cost,

12-13

21 march 3 april

14

4 april 10 april

Potential troubleshooting

15-16

11 april 20 april

Buffer

Perturb and Schedule modules)

Reference
[1] C. Sechen and A.S.Vincentelli, The TimberWolf Placcement and Routing
Package, IEEE Journal of Solid State Circuits, Vol. SC-20, No. 2, April 1985.

Department of ECE, NITK Surathkal

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