IJSTE - International Journal of Science Technology & Engineering | Volume 2 | Issue 10 | April 2016

ISSN (online): 2349-784X

Comparative Analysis GA Based Hybrid

Algorithms for Standard Cell Placement in VLSI
Design
Dr. Aaquil Bunglowala
Associate Dean & Professor
Department of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering
MPSTME, Shirpur, Maharashtra

Dr. Nidhi Asthana

Assistant Professor
Department of Engineering Mathematics
SAIT, Indore, M.P.

Abstract
Local search algorithm (LSA), genetic algorithm (GA) and Hopfield neural network (HNN) were independently used for solving
the standard cell placement (SCP) problem. This paper deals with the concept of hybridization and reports application of
hybridizing on GA and HNNA, GA and LSA. In first section we compare the operation of the hybrid of GA and HNNA. In the
second section we present a new hybrid of GA and LSA named Memetic Algorithm (MA). In the last section of the paper we
compare the results of hybrid system of GA and HNN with MA in respect of wire length and cpu time in association with the
standard cell placement problem.
Keywords: Genetic Algorithm, Hopfield Neural Network, Local Search Algorithm, Memetic Algorithm, NP Hard,
Standard Cell Problem
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
I.

INTRODUCTION

Placement is the most crucial problem during physical design stage. It is accountable for minimizing the area of the chip and
interconnection wire-length. Therefore, placement is the key step in minimizing the fabrication cost per chip and optimizing its
performance. The standard cell problem is stated as: Given an electrical circuit consisting of fixed rectangular shaped cells and a
net-list stating interconnections among terminals on the periphery of the cells and on the periphery of the circuit itself, it is required
to construct a layout indicating the position of each cell such that all the nets can be routed and the total area is minimized. The
idea for high performance systems is to reduce the delay of the system by decreasing the length of the critical paths [9]. The quality
of placement is based on layout area, completion of routing and circuit operations. SCP is computationally NP-hard. These
problems cannot be solved in polynomial time.
II. HYBRID TECHNIQUES OF SCP
Hybrid of GA and HNN for SCP
A hybrid system of a HNN and GA is introduced. The performance of the HNN was shown inferior to SA and GA. The computing
time taken by the HNN had also been prohibitively high. The reason has been the use of bilinear energy function that minimizes
the pair-wise wire-length and not the required total bonding rectangle wire-length. In this paper, we suggest methods to overcome
these constraints. Here, we make use of the observation that the HNN takes very long to converge and in that 90% of the time is
spent for the placement of about 20% of the last cells, in our strategy to reduce convergence time in hybrid. It is apparent that
placement by HNN is almost rigorous. The cells which are once placed are least disturbed while placing the remaining cells. Then
why not to run the HNN to place say, 75% of the cells and explore other method to place the remaining cells. This instigates us to
propose a method using hybridizing. Thus, we use HNN for the placement of 50% to 80% of the cells. Remaining cells are proposed
to be placed by GA. GA is designed to put the unplaced cells at the empty positions on the layout while minimizing the wire length.
The placements so obtained are sent back to HNN for validation. The flow of algorithm is expressed in fig. 1

Fig. 1: Flow of hybrid algorithm of HNN and GA

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Comparative Analysis GA Based Hybrid Algorithms for Standard Cell Placement in VLSI Design
(IJSTE/ Volume 2 / Issue 10 / 162)

Hybrid of GA and LSA for SCP

For SCP, simple local search techniques are embedded with GA to improve the performance. As Genetic algorithms are not
appropriate for fine tuning, we use a local advancement operator into re-compound step of GA. Then GA applies local optimization
method on the offspring. In general, GAs are competent of exploring and exploiting promising regions of the search space. They
take relatively long time to locate the exact local optimum within the region of convergence. Memetic algorithms (MAs) are
extension of GA with the introduction of individual learning as an additional process of local refinement to accelerate local search.
Recent studies of MA have demonstrated that they converge to high-quality solutions more efficiently than the conventional
counterparts [1,3,7,8,10,11] on many real world applications. Moreover, many dedicated MAs have been evolved to solve domain
specific problems more efficiently.MA applies separate local search process to improve the fitness of individuals by hill climbing.
To operate exploration, MA collaborate global and local search algorithms by using GA while the local search operations are
applied for. A kind of local search algorithm is injecting constructive initial solutions within a population. Moreover, the idea of
clustering can be considered another form of repetitive improvement embedded within the MA, used to smooth the landscape.
Many of the local search procedures embedded within the MAs are not standard, they intend to perform a shorter truncated local
search.
Set population size, generation size
Set mutation rate and cross-over rate
Set generation=0
Generate initial population Npop randomly
REPEAT
Select individuals for mating
Apply cross over
Apply mutation
Apply Hill-Climbing to Npop
UNTIL (generation generation size
Fig. 2: Generic Memetic Algorithm

III. COMPARISON AND RESULTS

Test results of hybrid of HNN and GA for SCP
Two placement problems consisting of 20 and 40 cells [test cases A to F] are taken for illustration. In table 1, the results of the six
placement problems is solved by hybrid approach treating 20%, 40%, 60% and 80% of cells placed by HNN and remaining by
GA. It is observed that:
1) To place 20 cells, the Hybrid system (A, B,C) needs approximately 20-25 minutes. To place 40 cells, the hybrid system takes
about two hours (D, E, F), a fivefold improvement.
2) Wire Length: It is within 1% variation in hybrid techniques

Test Case
A
A
B
B
C
C
D
D
E
E
F
F

No. of cells placed by

HNN
4 (20%)
4 (40%)
4 (20%)
8 (40%)
4 (20%)
8 (40%)
4 (20%)
8 (40%)
4 (20 %)
8 (40%)
4 (20%)
8 (40%)

Table - 1
Results of hybrid system of HNN and GA
CPU time taken by HNN CPU time taken by GA Total CPU time
Wire-length by hybrid method (m)
(sec)
(sec)
(sec)
746
685
1431
3086
970
514
1484
3118
638
614
1252
3230
724
461
1185
3196
658
605
1263
2644
762
454
1216
2638
7680
1973
9653
4110
7948
1480
9428
4126
7290
1911
9201
3990
7824
1433
9257
3968
6842
1750
8592
3816
7023
1313
8336
3824

It is apparent that hybrid of HNN and GA offers a significant improvement in the performance of algorithm reducing the CPU
time many fold. Note that when compared to average CPU time with pure GA, the time taken by the hybrid increases with the size
of problem. So, for placement of more number of cells, this approach is not recommended.
Test results of hybrid of GA and LSA (MA) for SCP
In this subsection, we present results of MA for different parameter settings like population size, cross over rate, mutation rate and
number of generations as shown in table 2. The GA has been combined with LSA at both the stages mentioned in previous section.
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Comparative Analysis GA Based Hybrid Algorithms for Standard Cell Placement in VLSI Design
(IJSTE/ Volume 2 / Issue 10 / 162)

It is observed that application of LSA in generating initial good population and subsequently applying it after GA, It is noteworthy
that application of local search before and after GA produces improved results. For smaller test cases it is clear from table 2, we
get that before and after GA, application of LSA give better results of wire lengths than that of pure GA and for complex test cases
the performance of LSA is comparable to that of pure GA. The results improve with population size. The results presented in the
table 2 show that the wire lengths are reduced as much as 12-15% in case of MA-IX.
Table - 2
Results of Memetic Algorithms [wire length in m]
Wire length in m
Test Case Result Quality MA
MA
MA II MA III MA IV
MA VI MA VII MA VIII MA IX
I
V
Best
3505 3498 3318 3458 3456 2950 3401 3416 3269
A
Worst
3757 3596 3364 3523 3520 2987 3645 3558 3448
Average 3582 3555 3360 3496 3475 2927 3506 3520 3385
Best
2712 2644 2511 2632 2640 2281 2586 2543 2440
B
Worst
2844 2735 2598 2738 2746 2353 2664 2584 2480
Average 2769 2680 2545 2673 2687 2320 2625 2564 2461
Best
2588 2580 2455 2554 2565 2199 2515 2525 2418
Worst
2694 2688 2554 2646 2624 2245 2656 2598 2418
C
Average 2641 2626 2504 2594 2592 2215 2596 2562 2418
Best
3368 3357 3188 3327 3309 2849 3253 3224 3047
D
Worst
3537 3480 3306 3456 3430 2990 3395 3291 3081
Average 3477 3433 3257 3405 3381 2935 3343 3270 3079
Best
2810 2818 2636 2895 2884 2678 2333 2352 2248
Worst
2958 2925 2766 3013 2990 2792 2496 2415 2248
E
Average 2897 2868 2713 2957 2951 2756 2437 2387 2248
Best
2736 2782 2555 2808 2772 2603 2313 2333 2192
F
Worst
2876 2832 2690 2924 2911 2715 2432 2348 2192
Average 2828 2798 2629 2867 2851 2621 2398 2337 2192

Table 3 indicates that the time taken for the MA for completion is almost 20-30% less than that of GA with population size of
64. On comparing these results with that of GA for population size of 132 MA is almost twice as fast as GA. Also as seen from
table 2 the wire lengths in case of MA are better making it a better alternative to GA in all respects.

Test Case

Table - 3
Results of Memetic Algorithms [CPU time in seconds]
CPU time in seconds
Result Quality
MA I MA II MA III MA IV MA V MA VI MA VII

MA VIII

MA IX

Best

99

111

209

133

182

249

285

313

352

Worst

134

154

215

192

276

257

384

431

365

Average
Best

109
107

123
122

212
205

149
148

208
208

254
243

313
310

359
353

360
346

Worst

119

136

210

167

238

249

342

385

353

Average
Best

112
102

127
115

207
202

155
140

219
196

246
239

323
300

365
340

350
343

Worst

134

155

208

194

281

244

387

428

350

Average
Best

118
263

135
288

205
642

166
333

238
436

242
774

341
747

383
885

345
1085

Worst

272

299

672

345

454

814

786

933

1146

Average
Best

266
255

292
278

660
627

338
321

443
418

792
765

769
720

907
864

1118
1067

Worst

291

322

665

378

505

799

828

970

1122

Average
Best

277
234

305
254

644
610

356
289

471
370

784
755

780
665

926
815

1092
1050

Worst

250

273

619

315

409

783

706

875

1080

Average

236

257

614

293

376

769

673

833

1066

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Comparative Analysis GA Based Hybrid Algorithms for Standard Cell Placement in VLSI Design
(IJSTE/ Volume 2 / Issue 10 / 162)

IV. CONCLUSION
This paper investigated in detail the hybrid systems based on GA, HNN and LSA. MA presents results better than the other hybrid
techniques of HNN & GA in specific as shown in table 4 and table 5 (refer fig. 3 and fig. 4), and moreover proves to be even better
than any of the iterative, local search or coupled network approach in general. It is true that the parameters set play a major role in
defining the performance and results of any hybrid algorithm. Hybrid of HNN and GA has been attempted first and it quite
significantly contributed in speeding up the performance of HNN but it is still very slow. The hybrid method employing GA and
LSA implemented and tested in this work is MA The performance of MA surprisingly varied with different combinations of the
values of mutation and cross-over rates, sometimes giving very poor results and at other occasions give results far better than any
previously established technique. The results, with right parameter sets of this algorithm proved to be the best as compared to any
stand alone or hybrid technique.
Table - 4
Comparison of wire length (in m)
Test Case

Hybrid of HNN and GA

Hybrid of GA and LSA (MA)

3118

3422.89

3196

2591.56

2638

2527.56

4126

3286.67

3968

2690.44

3824

2613.44

Test Case
A

Table - 5
Comparison of CPU time (in seconds)
Hybrid of HNN and GA
Hybrid of GA and LSA (MA)
1484
231.89

1185

233.78

1216

241.44

9428

620.56

9257

626.11

8336

568.56

Fig. 3:

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Comparative Analysis GA Based Hybrid Algorithms for Standard Cell Placement in VLSI Design
(IJSTE/ Volume 2 / Issue 10 / 162)

Fig. 4:

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