JPH04318956A - Automatic arranging/wiring device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To be able to perform automatic arrangement of a block cell as to a special arrangement hitherto required a manual arrangement while shortening a working hour in a block cell arrangement and shortening a construction period in a layout design of a semiconductor integrated circuit. CONSTITUTION:The data, in which a physical information able to specify a special arrangement condition is added for each block cell, are inputted into a data base 7 by a new physical information adding means 8. An automatic arrangement means 4 reads out such a physical information from the data base 7 in order to perform automatic arrangement of each block cell according to the read-out data.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an automatic placement and routing apparatus for designing the layout of semiconductor integrated circuits using CAD, and more particularly to automatic placement of block cells.

0002

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing the structure of such a conventional automatic placement and wiring apparatus. In the figure, reference numeral 1 indicates an input section for inputting various data into the database 7. Further, various data are outputted from the database 7 to the output section 2. The database 7 includes automatic wiring means 3 that performs automatic wiring according to data read from the database 7.
automatic placement means 4 for automatically placing block cells in accordance with data read from database 7; editor means 5 for performing manual wiring and manual placement of block cells in accordance with data read from database 7;
A compaction means 6 for reducing the area of the integrated circuit is connected.

Next, the operation of the conventional apparatus having such a configuration will be explained with reference to FIG. 9 showing its procedure and FIG. 10 showing physical information.

Connection information between block cells is extracted from the circuit diagram (S11). Next, block cells for automatic placement and wiring are created from the layout diagram (S12), and physical information as shown in FIG. 10 is extracted (S13). The extracted connection information and physical information are input into the database 7 from the input unit 1. Next, based on this information, if there is no need to consider the placement of the block cells, the automatic placement means 4 automatically places the block cells at positions where wiring between the block cells can be optimally performed ( S15). After completing the block cell placement, manually route the power supply, ground, and critical net using the editor means 5.
The remaining wiring is automatically routed by the automatic wiring means 3 (S1
6). After the wiring is completed, the area of the integrated circuit is reduced using the compaction means 6 (S17). On the other hand, when considering the arrangement of block cells, the editor means 5
The block cells were manually placed using (S14
), the operations of S16 and S17 are performed.

[0005]

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] Conventional automatic placement and routing devices, when it is necessary to consider the placement of block cells,
For example, if specific block cells need to be placed close to each other, these block cells cannot be placed automatically and must be placed manually, which poses a problem in that it takes a lot of time.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an automatic placement and routing device that can automatically place block cells even when the placement of block cells needs to be considered. shall be.

[0007]

[Means for Solving the Problems] The automatic placement and routing device according to the present invention provides physical information (group name, within group) that specifies placement conditions for each block cell when creating block cells for automatic placement and routing. physical information such as cell orientation, cell stage within a group, and group position in an integrated circuit)
The present invention is characterized by comprising means for inputting information into a database, and means for automatically arranging block cells based on this physical information.

[0008]

[Operation] The automatic placement and routing device of the present invention has a means for inputting such physical information and a means for automatically arranging block cells, so there is no need for block cells to satisfy special placement conditions. Even if there is a block cell, the block cell is automatically placed in this special position based on this physical information. .

[0009]

[Examples] Examples of the present invention will be explained in detail below.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an automatic placement and routing apparatus according to the present invention. In the figure, reference numeral 1 indicates an input section for inputting various data into the database 7. Also,
Various data are output from the database 7 to the output section 2. The database 7 includes automatic wiring means 3 that performs automatic wiring according to the data read from the database 7, automatic placement means 4 that automatically places block cells according to the data read from the database 7, and automatic wiring means 4 that performs automatic wiring according to the data read from the database 7. an editor means 5 that performs manual wiring and manual placement of block cells according to the data; a compaction means 6 that reduces the area of the integrated circuit; and when special placement conditions are set for each block cell, this arrangement condition is New physical information adding means 8 for adding new physical information for specifying to the database 7 is connected.

Next, the operation of the automatic placement and wiring apparatus of the present invention having such a configuration will be explained with reference to FIG. 2 showing its procedure.

Connection information between block cells is extracted from the circuit diagram (S1). Next, block cells for automatic placement and wiring are created from the layout diagram (S2). The new physical information adding means 8 adds, for each block cell, the group name, the direction of the cell within the group, the cell stage within the group,
Physical information indicating the position of the group on the integrated circuit is added to the database 7. Next, physical information similar to the conventional one is extracted (S3), and the extracted information is input into the database 7 from the input section 1. The physical information in each block cell stored in the database 7 is as shown in FIG.

Next, as shown in FIG. 4, the automatic placement means 4 reads the block cell name and group name from the database 7 and collects block cells with the same group name.
As shown in FIG. The relative position of the group in the integrated circuit ((i, j) in the figure is read from the database 7 as shown in FIG. 7 to determine the position of the cell within the group. Determine the position of the group above. By performing as described above, automatic arrangement of block cells is completed (S4).

After completing the arrangement of the block cells, the power, ground, critical net, etc. are manually routed using the editor means 5, and the remaining wires are routed using the automatic wiring means 3.
Automatic wiring is performed (S5). After the wiring is completed, the area of the integrated circuit is reduced using the compaction means 6 (S6).

[0015]

As described above, with the automatic placement and routing device of the present invention, it is possible to automatically place block cells even in special placements that conventionally required manual placement, and the work time for block cell placement can be reduced. It is possible to shorten the construction period for designing the layout of a semiconductor integrated circuit.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a device configuration of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operating procedure in the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing physical information in the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing grouping of block cells in the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing orientation of block cells in the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing the positioning of block cells in the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing the positioning of groups on an integrated circuit according to the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a conventional device.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure in a conventional example.

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram showing physical information in a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

3 Automatic wiring means 4 Automatic placement means 7 Database 8 New physical information addition means

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An apparatus for automatically arranging each block cell constituting the semiconductor integrated circuit based on physical information stored in a database when designing the layout of a semiconductor integrated circuit, the apparatus comprising: means for inputting physical information specifying conditions into the database;
and means for automatically arranging each of the block cells based on the physical information from the database.