A survey of path search algorithms for VLSI detailed routing

The path search problem is very common in computing. One of its applications is in the VLSI routing. Since most of the path search algorithms used today are old, their evaluation took place in out of date scenarios, such as small 2D grid graphs. Thus, this work presents some path search algorithms, as well as an experiment comparing them in a scenario similar to detailed routing of integrated circuits. The presented algorithms are Soukup's, A*, LCS* and Hetzel's. We used ISPD 2008 benchmarks and FastRoute4 in order to create the input for the detailed routing experiment. The results show that Hetzel's algorithm is faster than the compared algorithms, and since it is optimal, it is a better choice for a path search algorithm in detailed routing.