Invited Paper: 2024 ICCAD CAD Contest Problem A: Reinforcement Logic Optimization for a General Cost Function

Traditionally, logic synthesis/optimization metric would be majorly determined by PPA (power, performance, area). However, as the technology node shrinks and the design process becomes extremely complicated, iterative optimization flow and local re-synthesis might be invoked to optimize for more variant purposes. It is necessary to have a methodology which is not just a simple cost-function-based algorithm but also can optimize and legalize a design according to a more complex cost estimator. In this contest, we propose a reinforcement logic optimization problem. The cost is decided by a cost function estimator (black-box executable file), and contestants are expected to develop an intelligent methodology to explore the solution space, optimize, and legalize the design.