ACCORDO: second generation floor planning

The Layout Automation of modern VLSI "cell-based" chips relies on the availability of a powerful set of algorithms able to generate the layout of whole ICs, maximally exploiting the cell library and taking advice from the designer through a user-friendly interaction.This paper deals with a new Floor Planner, ACCORDO1, that brings some innovative concepts and facilities to the Floor Planning task and emphasizes the user-interaction in order to deliver a successful mix between the power of the algorithms and the versatility of "ad-hoc" solutions.Key features of ACCORDO are the Hierarchy Editor that allows for changes in the circuit partitioning, a tight integration with the Module Generators, a powerful Placement Editor and a Contour Channel Router.