The Design of an Efficient Data Base to Support an Interactive LSI Layout System

The increasing size and complexity of integrated circuits has made an efficient data base essential to the operation of an interactive layout system. This paper describes the design of a data base for IC mask data which features rough bit-maps of entities for sorting by location, a routine for the automatic selection of the bit-map regions' boundaries, and a page-filling algorithm which facilitates the separation of dissimilar data between pages. The routine for automatic selection of region boundaries is described in detail.