Wire-routing machines—New tools for VLSI physical design

Interconnection of components in a VLSI chip is becoming an increasingly complex problem. In this paper we examine the complexity of the wire routing process and discuss several new approaches to solving the problem using a parallel system architecture. The machines discussed range from compact systems for highly specialized applications to more general designs suited for broader applications. The process speedup due to parallelism and the cost advantage due to the use of large numbers of identical VLSI parts make these new machines practical today.