Demo: Automatic Floorplan Synthesis in Encounter

As an Applications Engineer, the first demonstrations you deliver of a new technology are always the most interesting.  The questions you receieve are all over the map and your skills in thinking on your feet are put to the test.  Personally, I really enjoy this learning phase and as I was putting together this screencast, I was reminded of the first demo I ever gave of First Encounter back in 2001.  The primary question in the meeting that I didn't have a good answer for was this: "Does First Encounter have a good hard macro placer?"

Keep in mind that this was 8 years ago, and that I'd been with the company only about 2 weeks at this point.  I remembered from my time talking with other AEs while I was out in San Jose that First Encounter's strength as a silicon virtual prototyping tool was to estimate the feasability (ie, the routability, timing, area, and power) of any floorplan it was supplied. At the time, First Encounter wasn't necessarily a strong floorplanning tool. I remember the answer I gave alluding to this strength, and de-emphasizing the core question but the customer was steadfast: He wanted a good hard macro placer!

Fast forward to today. I'm pleased to report that the Encounter Digitial Implementation System has a very good hard macro placer.  We call it Automatic Floorplan Synthesis, and it's part of a collection of functionality that makes creating and exploring floorplans faster and easier than ever.  Have a look at Automatic Floorplan Synthesis in action in this 7 minute video:

If the video fails to embed please try: here

Commands mentioned in this video:

• planDesign
• setPlanDesignMode -boundaryPlace true -groupHardMacro true
• multiPlanDesign -autoTrials 3 -boundaryPlace on
• finishFloorplan -autoHalo -autoBlockage

Further reading:

• For more information on Automatic Floorplan Synthesis check out "Creating an Initial Floorplan Using Masterplan" in the Encounter User's Guide on Sourcelink.
• You might also be interested in an *excellent* paper by Jack Benzel of Avago Technologies on Using Automated Floorplan Synthesis to Greatly Improve the Macro Placement Experience (Cadence.com Community login required).
• If you like screencasts like this, you might also find this demo I did on The Encounter Foundation Flow useful.

Question of the Day: What do you think about MasterPlan? Have you tried it on your designs lately?