LOCAL PREFERRED DIRECTION ARCHITECTURE, TOOLS AND APPARATUS

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an apparatus for routing a net using a "local preferred direction (LPD)" wiring model.SOLUTION: An LPD wiring model for use with one or more EDA tools (such as placing, routing, etc.,) is provided. The LPD wiring model allows at least one wiring layer to have a set of regions that each have a different preferred direction than the particular wiring layer. In addition, each region has a local preferred direction that differs from the local preferred direction of at least one other region in the set. Furthermore, at least two regions have two different polygonal shapes and no region in the set encompasses another region in the set.