########################################################
###         Fast Placer Implementation (FPI )        ###
###                    v 2.0                         ###
########################################################

1. Introduction

FPI is used to boost the performance the existing standard
cell placers. The idea is to reduce the placement problem
size by Fine Granularity Clustering (FGC) such that the 
time-consuming placer only needs to deal with a netlist of
reduced size. 


2. How to use fpi2.0 with Capo8.5/Capo8.6

Step 1 : download Capo8.5/Capo8.6 to your ~/bin directory. 
         create a symbolic link called Capo which points to
         Capo8.5 or Capo8.6 in the same directory.

Step 2 : prepare input files of GSRC format. For the time
         being, fpi2.0 only support GSRC format files. 
         Input files include the following:
         xxx.aux, xxx.nodes, xxx.nets, xxx.pl, xxx.scl, xxx.wts
         In addition, you should also have a file named ice.scl
         in the same directory as those input files, and ice.scl
         must be the same as xxx.scl. So you can simply do
         the following:
         cp xxx.scl ice.scl
         
Step 3 : use the standard total wire length minimization script
         script.wm to run fpi2.0 as follows:

         fpi2.0 -f xxx.aux -skip < script.wm
         
         You can download script.wm from FPI homepage.

         http://cornet.ece.ucsb.edu/~hu/fpi/fpi.htm


3. How to use fpi2.0 with dragon

Step 1 : download dragon to your ~/bin directory. 

Step 2 : prepare input files of GSRC format. For the time
         being, fpi2.0 only support GSRC format files. 
         Input files include the following:
         xxx.aux, xxx.nodes, xxx.nets, xxx.pl, xxx.scl, xxx.wts
         In addition, you should also have a file named ice.scl
         in the same directory as those input files, and ice.scl
         must be the same as xxx.scl. So you can simply do
         the following:
         cp xxx.scl ice.scl
         
Step 3 : use the standard total wire length minimization script
         script.wm.dragon to run fpi2.0 as follows:

         fpi2.0 -f xxx.aux -skip < script.wm.dragon
         
         You can download script.wm.dragon from FPI homepage.

         http://cornet.ece.ucsb.edu/~hu/fpi/fpi.htm


4. For further assistance

Maybe you want to try FPI with your own placer. Drop me an email
at hb@ece.ucsb.edu. It is not hard to work it out.



Bo Hu
ECE Department
Univeristy of California, Santa Barbara
hb@ece.ucsb.edu