Importance

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Abstract

A floor planning technique is provided herein wherein an initial floor plan having a predefined area and a number of overlapping modules is used to produce a final floor plan having the same predefined area and no overlapping modules. In order to eliminate the overlaps, a two stage process is performed. The first stage includes minimizing the overlaps by performing a series of move and/or reshape operations on the overlapping modules. The amount an overlapping module is moved and/or reshaped is based upon a computed net repelling force. After the move and/or reshape operations no longer minimize overlaps, the second stage is performed. The second stage, referred to as fitting, fits each overlapping module into the predefined area by awarding the overlapping area to the module or protruding the overlapping module into available space surrounding the module. The space that a module extends into is determined by calculating attracting forces. Once the second stage is complete, the resulting floor plan is legal having no overlapping modules.

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First Claim