A Macro Legalization Approach Considering Minimum Channel Spacing and Buffer Area Reservation Constraints

Macro legalization is an important physical design problem for mixed-size circuits. Unlike previous studies that mainly focus on obtaining a non-overlapping macro placement with minimal total displacement, this work considers the minimization of the total macro displacement and the total standard-cell non-placeable area subject to the minimum channel spacing constraint and the buffer area reservation constraint. An effective approach is proposed to tackle the addressed problem. Encouraging experimental results are shown to support the robustness of our approach.