CLUSTERING NETWORK MODULES WITH DIFFERENT IMPLEMENTATIONS FOR DELAY MINIMIZATION

In recent years there has been an extensive interest in clustering the modules of a network so that the maximum delay from any primary input to any primary output is minimized [8, 7, 6]. Clusters have a maximum capacity and modules may have different implementations. All existing CAD frameworks initially select an implementation of each module, and at a later stage they cluster the modules. We present an approach tha t clusters the nodes, while considering their alternative implementati ons, so that we further minimize the maximum delay after the clusterin g. Our approach is based on optimal algorithms for restricted versions of this complex problem in circuit design, and outperforms the conven tional approach, which first obtains an implementation for each circui t module without considering clustering and then, in a later step, per forms clustering.