Interconnect complexity-aware FPGA placement using Rent's rule

Abstract

Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) have gained in commercial acceptance because they offer instant manufacturing turnaround and low costs. However, FPGAs are constantly hard pressed to keep up with the requirements of the more complex and larger scale circuits which are being targeted for them. Routability of a circuit depends on the FPGA architecture, the placement, and the interconnection complexity of the circuit to be placed and routed. This paper explores the use of Rent's rule as a complexity metric for improving the placement of circuits on a target FPGA architecture, such that routing resource utilization is improved. A new simulated annealing based placement algorithm is presented and experimental results are presented to illustrate the validity of the approach for certain example circuits and the ISCAS benchmarks.