Enhancing performance of iterative heuristics for VLSI netlist partitioning

In this paper we, present a new heuristic called PowerFM which is a modification of the well-known Fidducia Mattheyeses algorithm for VLSI netlist partitioning. PowerFM considers the minimization of power consumption due to the nets cut. The advantages of using PowerFM as an initial solution generator for other iterative algorithms, in particular Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Tabu Search (TS), for multiobjective optimization is investigated. A series of experiments are conducted on ISCAS-85/89 benchmark circuits to evaluate the efficiency of the PowerFM algorithm. Results suggest that this heuristic would provide a good starting solution for multiobjective optimization using iterative algorithms.