Navigating registers in placement for clock network minimization

The progress of VLSI technology is facing two limiting factors: power and variation. Minimizing clock network size can lead to reduced power consumption, less power supply noise, less number of clock buffers and therefore less vulnerability to variations. Previous works on clock network minimization are mostly focused on clock routing and the improvements are often limited by the input register placement. In this work, we propose to navigate registers in cell placement for further clock network size reduction. To solve the conflict between clock network minimization and traditional placement goals, we suggest the following techniques in a quadratic placement framework: (1) Manhattan ring based register guidance; (2) center of gravity constraints for registers; (3) pseudo pin and net; (4) register cluster contraction. These techniques work for both zero skew and prescribed skew designs in both wirelength driven and timing driven placement. Experimental results show that our method can reduce clock net wirelength by 16% -33% with no more than 0.5% increase on signal net wirelength compared with conventional approaches.