Current projects within the group include the following:

Feng Shui standard cell placement tool. Included in this work is consideration of multiple-voltage circuit design, which is supported by SRC and IBM. The multiple-voltage research is performed in conjunction with Prof. Cheng-Kok Koh of Purdue University. Source code for the current placement tool is available for download from our software page. Mehmet Can Yildiz is responsible for the bulk of the source code; Mohammed ElAbellaoui is currently working on new optimization techniques that will be integrated into the tool. Related to this work is IEEC-supported study of the packaging impact for multiple-voltage systems.

Chi Router. The routing effort is supported by NSF, and investigates a new approach to area routing. Ryon M. Smey is responsible for the bulk of the source code; Patrika Agarwal and Arvind Vidyarthi are working on capacitance and crosstalk estimation, while Ameya Agnihotri and Udayan Deshpande are looking into applying preferred direction Steiner tree algorithms to improve route distribution.

GSRC Benchmarks. The group has been active within the GSRC Bookshelf to improve the quality of benchmarks available for placement and routing. We have been contributing to the design of new file formats, and have made source code and placement results for our tools available.

SIGDA Web Server. We are currently working on a redesign of the SIGDA web server and pages, to make information more easily available.

GLSVLSI2002. Patrick H. Madden is acting as co-chair for GLSVLSI2002, which will be held somewhere near New York City in March of next year.