This pioneering study of two-dimensional wiring patterns develops powerful algorithms for the physical design of VLSI circuits. Its homotopic approach to circuit layout advances the state of the art in wire routing and layout compaction, and will inspire future research. By viewing wires as flexible connections with fixed topology, the author obtains simple and efficient algorithms for CAD problems whose previous solutions employed, unreliable or inefficient heuristics.Single-Layer Wire Routing and Compaction is the first rigorous treatment of homotopic layouts and the techniques for optimizing them. In a novel application of classical mathematics to computer science, Maley characterizes the ideal routing of a layout in terms of simple topological invariants. He derives practical algorithms from this theoretical insight. The algorithms and their underlying ideas are intuitive, widely applicable, and presented in a highly readable style.
Single-Layer Wire Routing and Compaction is included in the series Foundations of Computing, edited by Michael Garey and Albert Meyer.