Wire segmenting for improved buffer insertion

TL;DR: Weshow that using wire segmenting as a precursor to buffer insertion produces solutions within a few percent of optimal, while using only seconds of CPU time is shown.

Abstract: Buffer insertion seeks to place buffers on the wires of a signal netto minimize delay. Van Ginneken [Buffer Placement in Distributed RC-tree Networks for Minimal Elmore Delay] proposed an optimal dynamicprogramming solution (with extensions proposed by [7] [8][9] [12]) such that at most one buffer can be placed on a singlewire. This constraint can hurt solution quality, but it may be circumventedby dividing each wire into multiple smaller segments.This work studies the problem of finding the correct number of segmentsfor each wire in the routing tree. Too few segments yieldssub-par solutions, but too many segments can lead to excessive runtimes and memory loads. We derive new theoretical results forcomputing the appropriate number of buffers (and hence wire segments)which motivate our new wire segmenting algorithm. Weshow that using wire segmenting as a precursor to buffer insertionproduces solutions within a few percent of optimal, while usingonly seconds of CPU time.