Cell placement on graphics processing units

Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) can be viewed as stream processors and, therefore, can be applied to improve the performance of data-parallel algorithms. GPUs can beat CPUs in most stream-like algorithms and have been successfully applied to solve problem in areas such as biology, audio and image processing, database queries and others. This paper presents a VLSI cell placement tool running on a GPU in order to show the viability of applying graphics hardware to improve the performance of CAD tools. Our results show that GPU versions of linear algebra algorithms run 3x or more faster than CPU versions.

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