The ISPD98 circuit benchmark suite

TLDR

From 1985–1993, MCNC introduced and maintained circuit benchmarks, but in the past five years no new circuits have been added, leaving the largest benchmark at over 100,000 modules and the second largest at just over 25,000 modules—small by current standards. This paper introduces the ISPD98 benchmark suite comprising 18 circuits ranging from 13,000 to 210,000 modules. The authors compiled these 18 circuits and evaluated three existing partitioning tools on them. The results demonstrate that the new benchmarks enable researchers to assess partitioning heuristics more effectively.

Abstract

From 1985-1993, the MCNC regularly introduced and maintained circuit benchmarks for use by the Design Automation community. However, during the last five years, no new circuits have been introduced that can be used for developing fundamental physical design applications, such as partitioning and placement. The largest circuit in the existing set of benchmark suites has over 100,000 modules, but the second largest has just over 25,000 modules, which is small by today's standards. This paper introduces the ISPD98 benchmark suite which consists of 18 circuits with sizes ranging from 13,000 to 210,000 modules. Experimental results for three existing partitioners are presented so that future researchers in partitioning can more easily evaluate their heuristics.