The algorithm has been tested on real-world circuits with 10 to 49 modules and up to 500 nets. Figure 8 presents a layout for a circuit with 33 fixed modules and 123 nets. For a direct comparison to commercial placement and routing tools, an efficient channel routing algorithm has to be implemented. In the current version, a very simple routing strategy is applied when combining two blocks: for each net in the channel, one special track is added which results in an excessive routing space. Apart from the quantitative comparison it can be said that this is the only known approach to the layout generation process, which concurrently optimizes the placement together with the detailed routing.
Figure 8: A layout with 33 macro-cells