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Rsyn: An Extensible Physical Synthesis Framework

Published: 19 March 2017 Publication History

Abstract

Due to the advanced stage of development on EDA science, it has been increasingly difficult to implement realistic software infrastructures in academia so that new problems and solutions are tested in a meaningful and consistent way. In this paper we present Rsyn, a free and open-source C++ framework for physical synthesis research and development comprising an elegant netlist data model, analysis tools (e.g. timing analysis, congestion), optimization methods (e.g. placement, sizing, buffering) and a graphical user interface. It is designed to be very modular and incrementally extensible. New components can be easily integrated making Rsyn increasingly valuable as a framework to leverage research in physical design. Standard and third party components can be mixed together via code or script language to create a comprehensive design flow, which can be used to better assess the quality of results of the research being conducted. The netlist data model uses the new features of C++11 providing a simple but efficient way to traverse and modify the netlist. Attributes can be seamlessly added to objects and a notification system alerts components about changes in the netlist. The flexibility of the netlist inspired the name Rsyn, which comes from the word resynthesis. Rsyn is created to allow researchers to focus on what is really important to their research spending less time on the infrastructure development. Allowing the sharing and reusability of common components is also one of the main contributions of the Rsyn framework. In this paper, the key concepts of Rsyn are presented. Examples of use are drawn, the important standard components (e.g. physical layer, timing) are detailed and some case studies based on recent Electronic Design Automation (EDA) contests are analyzed. Rsyn is available at http://rsyn.design.

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    cover image ACM Conferences
    ISPD '17: Proceedings of the 2017 ACM on International Symposium on Physical Design
    March 2017
    176 pages
    ISBN:9781450346962
    DOI:10.1145/3036669
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    Published: 19 March 2017

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    Author Tags

    1. eda
    2. framework
    3. open source
    4. physical design
    5. physical synthesis

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    March 19 - 22, 2017
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    Overall Acceptance Rate 62 of 172 submissions, 36%

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    • (2024)A High Performance Detailed Router Based on Integer Programming with Adaptive Route Guides2024 29th Asia and South Pacific Design Automation Conference (ASP-DAC)10.1109/ASP-DAC58780.2024.10473934(975-980)Online publication date: 22-Jan-2024
    • (2024)iPD: An Open-source intelligent Physical Design Toolchain2024 29th Asia and South Pacific Design Automation Conference (ASP-DAC)10.1109/ASP-DAC58780.2024.10473932(83-88)Online publication date: 22-Jan-2024
    • (2023)Task-Based Parallel Programming for Gate SizingIEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems10.1109/TCAD.2022.319749042:4(1309-1322)Online publication date: Apr-2023
    • (2023)Circuit Optimization for 2D and 3D ICs with Machine LearningMachine Learning Applications in Electronic Design Automation10.1007/978-3-031-13074-8_10(247-275)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2023
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    • (2021)Autonomous Application of Netlist Transformations Inside Lagrangian Relaxation-Based OptimizationIEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems10.1109/TCAD.2020.302554140:8(1672-1686)Online publication date: Aug-2021
    • (2021)Incremental Lagrangian Relaxation based Discrete Gate Sizing and Threshold Voltage Assignment2021 10th International Conference on Modern Circuits and Systems Technologies (MOCAST)10.1109/MOCAST52088.2021.9493338(1-5)Online publication date: 5-Jul-2021
    • (2020)Design Optimization by Fine-grained Interleaving of Local Netlist Transformations in Lagrangian RelaxationProceedings of the 2020 International Symposium on Physical Design10.1145/3372780.3375566(87-94)Online publication date: 30-Mar-2020
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