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An attractor-repeller approach to floorplanning

An attractor-repeller approach to floorplanning
An attractor-repeller approach to floorplanning
The floorplanning (or facility layout) problem consists in finding the optimal positions for a given set of modules of fixed area (but perhaps varying height and width) within a facility such that the distances between pairs of modules that have a positive connection cost are minimized. This is a hard combinatorial optimization problem; even the restricted version where the shapes of the modules are fixed and the optimization is taken over a fixed finite set of possible module locations is NP-hard. In this paper, we extend the concept of target distance introduced by Etawil and Vannelli and apply it to derive the AR (Attractor-Repeller) model which is designed to improve upon the NLT method of van Camp et al. This new model is designed to find a good initial point for the Stage-3 NLT solver and has the advantage that it can be solved very efficiently using a suitable optimization algorithm. Because the AR model is not a convex optimization problem, we also derive a convex version of the model and explore the generalized target distances that arise in this derivation. Computational results demonstrating the potential of our approach are presented.
facilities planning and design, floorplanning, VLSI macro-cell layout, combinatorial optimization, convex programming, global optimization
1432-2994
3-27
Anjos, Miguel F.
0103b24d-cab5-4109-9924-dc9eebd04257
Vannelli, Anthony
9a7b04fe-5c8a-4193-8548-4344a4056f48
Anjos, Miguel F.
0103b24d-cab5-4109-9924-dc9eebd04257
Vannelli, Anthony
9a7b04fe-5c8a-4193-8548-4344a4056f48

Anjos, Miguel F. and Vannelli, Anthony (2002) An attractor-repeller approach to floorplanning. Mathematical Methods of Operations Research, 56 (1), 3-27. (doi:10.1007/s001860200197).

Record type: Article

Abstract

The floorplanning (or facility layout) problem consists in finding the optimal positions for a given set of modules of fixed area (but perhaps varying height and width) within a facility such that the distances between pairs of modules that have a positive connection cost are minimized. This is a hard combinatorial optimization problem; even the restricted version where the shapes of the modules are fixed and the optimization is taken over a fixed finite set of possible module locations is NP-hard. In this paper, we extend the concept of target distance introduced by Etawil and Vannelli and apply it to derive the AR (Attractor-Repeller) model which is designed to improve upon the NLT method of van Camp et al. This new model is designed to find a good initial point for the Stage-3 NLT solver and has the advantage that it can be solved very efficiently using a suitable optimization algorithm. Because the AR model is not a convex optimization problem, we also derive a convex version of the model and explore the generalized target distances that arise in this derivation. Computational results demonstrating the potential of our approach are presented.

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More information

Published date: 2002
Keywords: facilities planning and design, floorplanning, VLSI macro-cell layout, combinatorial optimization, convex programming, global optimization
Organisations: Operational Research

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 29670
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/29670
ISSN: 1432-2994
PURE UUID: c34ee815-24f5-4e82-bec3-21ba2f4632e2

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Date deposited: 11 May 2006
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 07:33

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Contributors

Author: Miguel F. Anjos
Author: Anthony Vannelli

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