SPFD-based Global Rewiring



      In this project studied the theory and algorithm for SPFD-based global rewiring (SPFD-GR). SPFD-GR allows us to globally replace a target wire with some alternative wire possibly far away from the target, thereby successfully overcoming the limitations of the existing SPFD-based local rewiring algorithm (SPFD-LR), which can only replace a wire with another wire that has the same destination node. In order to perform SPFD-based global rewiring, we developed the theory and algorithm for solving a fundamental problem in SPFD-based rewiring:  Given the in-pin functions of a node and the SPFD at the node’s out-pin, is there a way to modify the node’s internal function so that the SPFD at the node’s out-pin can be satisfied? Combined with a state-of-art partitioning algorithm, SPFD-GR scales well to large circuits with good synthesis quality. 
 
       Extensive experimental results show that for LUT-based FPGAs, the rewiring ability of SPFD-GR (in terms of the number of wires that have alternative wires) is 1.45, and 3 times that of SPFD-LR and an ATPG-based rewiring algorithm (with a preliminary experimental flow), respectively, while the run time is quite acceptable. When applied to the post-mapping area reduction for large LUT-based FPGAs under circuit depth restriction, SPFD-GR achieves 17.1% average area reduction, with no delay increase.