Towards AQFP-Capable Physical Design Automation
Hongjia Li1,a, Mengshu Sun1,b Tianyun Zhang2, Olivia Chen3,a, Nobuyuki Yoshikawa3,b, Bei Yu4, Yanzhi Wang1,c and Yibo Lin5
1Northeastern University
ali.hongjia@northeastern.edu
bsun.meng@northeastern.edu
cyanz.wang@northeastern.edu
2Syracuse University
tzhan120@syr.edu
3Yokohama National University
achen-olivia-pg@ynu.ac.jp
byoshikawa-nobuyuki-gt@ynu.ac.jp
4Chinese University of Hong Kong
byu@cse.cuhk.edu.hk
5Peking University
yibolin@pku.edu.cn
ABSTRACT
Adiabatic Quantum-Flux-Parametron (AQFP) superconducting technology exhibits a high energy efficiency among superconducting electronics, however lacks effective design automation tools. In this work, we develop the first, efficient placement and routing framework for AQFP circuits considering the unique features and constraints, using MIT-LL technology as an example. Our proposed placement framework iteratively executes a fixed-order, row-wise placement algorithm, where the row-wise algorithm derives optimal solution with polynomial-time complexity. To address the maximum wirelength constraint issue in AQFP circuits, a whole row of buffers (or even more rows) is inserted. A* routing algorithm is adopted as the backbone algorithm, incorporating dynamic step size and net negotiation process to reduce the computational complexity accounting for AQFP characteristics, improving overall routability. Extensive experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed framework.
