From my B.E.E degree at the University of Minnesota and right through my S.M. degree at M.I.T., I had specialized in solid state devices and microelectronics. I made the decision to switch to computer-aided design (CAD) in 1981, only a year or so prior to the introduction of the simulated annealing algorithm by Scott Kirkpatrick, Dan Gelatt, and Mario Vecchi of the IBM Thomas 1. Watson Research Center. Because Prof. Alberto Sangiovanni-Vincentelli, my UC Berkeley advisor, had been a consultant at IBM, I re ceived a copy of the original IBM internal report on simulated annealing approximately the day of its release. Given my background in statistical mechanics and solid state physics, I was immediately impressed by this new combinatorial optimization technique. As Prof. Sangiovanni-Vincentelli had suggested I work in the areas of placement and routing, it was in these realms that I sought to explore this new algorithm. My flJ'St implementation of simulated annealing was for an island-style gate array placement problem. This work is presented in the Appendix of this book. I was quite struck by the effect of a nonzero temperature on what otherwise appears to be a random in terchange algorithm.

Modern Placement Techniques explains physical design and VLSI/CAD placement to the professional engineer and engineering student. Along with explaining the problems that are associated with placement, the book gives an overview of existing placement algorithms, techniques and methodologies. Modern Placement Techniques emphasizes recent advances in addressing the placement problem, including congestion-driven, timing driven, mixed macro-cell and standard cell placement. The book presents the Dragon placement tool, with detailed algorithm descriptions for wire length, congestion and timing optimization. Placement benchmarks and results produced by Dragon are explained in detail.

The physical design flow of any project depends upon the size of the design, the technology, the number of designers, the clock frequency, and the time to do the design. As technology advances and design-styles change, physical design flows are constantly reinvented as traditional phases are removed and new ones are added to accommodate changes in

1. Introduction -- 2. Computational complexity -- 3. Local improvement on discrete structures -- 4. Simulated annealing -- 5. Tabu search -- 6. Genetic algorithms -- 7. Artificial neural networks -- 8. The traveling salesman problem: A case study -- 9. Vehicle routing: Modern heuristics -- 10. Vehicle routing: Handling edge exchanges -- 11. Machine scheduling -- 12. VLSI layout synthesis -- 13. Code design.

Handbook of Approximation Algorithms and Metaheuristics, Second Edition reflects the tremendous growth in the field, over the past two decades. Through contributions from leading experts, this handbook provides a comprehensive introduction to the underlying theory and methodologies, as well as the various applications of approximation algorithms and metaheuristics. Volume 1 of this two-volume set deals primarily with methodologies and traditional applications. It includes restriction, relaxation, local ratio, approximation schemes, randomization, tabu search, evolutionary computation, local search, neural networks, and other metaheuristics. It also explores multi-objective optimization, reoptimization, sensitivity analysis, and stability. Traditional applications covered include: bin packing, multi-dimensional packing, Steiner trees, traveling salesperson, scheduling, and related problems. Volume 2 focuses on the contemporary and emerging applications of methodologies to problems in combinatorial optimization, computational geometry and graphs problems, as well as in large-scale and emerging application areas. It includes approximation algorithms and heuristics for clustering, networks (sensor and wireless), communication, bioinformatics search, streams, virtual communities, and more. About the Editor Teofilo F. Gonzalez is a professor emeritus of computer science at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He completed his Ph.D. in 1975 from the University of Minnesota. He taught at the University of Oklahoma, the Pennsylvania State University, and the University of Texas at Dallas, before joining the UCSB computer science faculty in 1984. He spent sabbatical leaves at the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education and Utrecht University. He is known for his highly cited pioneering research in the hardness of approximation; for his sublinear and best possible approximation algorithm for k-tMM clustering; for introducing the open-shop scheduling problem as well as algorithms for its solution that have found applications in numerous research areas; as well as for his research on problems in the areas of job scheduling, graph algorithms, computational geometry, message communication, wire routing, etc.

Digital Microfluidic Biochips focuses on the automated design and production of microfluidic-based biochips for large-scale bioassays and safety-critical applications. Bridging areas of electronic design automation with microfluidic biochip research, the authors present a system-level design automation framework that addresses key issues in the design, analysis, and testing of digital microfluidic biochips. The book describes a new generation of microfluidic biochips with more complex designs that offer dynamic reconfigurability, system scalability, system integration, and defect tolerance. Part I describes a unified design methodology that targets design optimization under resource constraints. Part II investigates cost-effective testing techniques for digital microfluidic biochips that include test resource optimization and fault detection while running normal bioassays. Part III focuses on different reconfiguration-based defect tolerance techniques designed to increase the yield and dependability of digital microfluidic biochips. Expanding upon results from ongoing research on CAD for biochips at Duke University, this book presents new design methodologies that address some of the limitations in current full-custom design techniques. Digital Microfluidic Biochips is an essential resource for achieving the integration of microfluidic components in the next generation of system-on-chip and system-in-package designs.

The goal of the research out of which this monograph grew, was to make annealing as much as possible a general purpose optimization routine. At first glance this may seem a straight-forward task, for the formulation of its concept suggests applicability to any combinatorial optimization problem. All that is needed to run annealing on such a problem is a unique representation for each configuration, a procedure for measuring its quality, and a neighbor relation. Much more is needed however for obtaining acceptable results consistently in a reasonably short time. It is even doubtful whether the problem can be formulated such that annealing becomes an adequate approach for all instances of an optimization problem. Questions such as what is the best formulation for a given instance, and how should the process be controlled, have to be answered. Although much progress has been made in the years after the introduction of the concept into the field of combinatorial optimization in 1981, some important questions still do not have a definitive answer. In this book the reader will find the foundations of annealing in a self-contained and consistent presentation. Although the physical analogue from which the con cept emanated is mentioned in the first chapter, all theory is developed within the framework of markov chains. To achieve a high degree of instance independence adaptive strategies are introduced.

Metaheuristics exhibit desirable properties like simplicity, easy parallelizability, and ready applicability to different types of optimization problems. After a comprehensive introduction to the field, the contributed chapters in this book include explanations of the main metaheuristics techniques, including simulated annealing, tabu search, evolutionary algorithms, artificial ants, and particle swarms, followed by chapters that demonstrate their applications to problems such as multiobjective optimization, logistics, vehicle routing, and air traffic management. The authors are leading researchers in this domain, with considerable teaching and applications experience, and the book will be of value to industrial practitioners, graduate students, and research academics.