
feng shui 5.0 Frequently Asked Questions
- Why did the tool crash on design X?
We are attempting to push forward as quickly as possible with new
algorithmic techniques; thus, the tools are less stable than those
based on incremental improvements to established techniques. If you
require stability, we would recommend using commercial software.
Note: we are aware of a difficulty with some mixed size
designs. The ICCAD04 Faraday benchmarks in particular
have been problematic, but
we expect to have this issue resolved for version 5.1.
- When is the next version coming out?
We anticipate version 5.1 will be released in April 2005.
- Version 5.0? What happened to 3.0 and 4.0?
Version 3.0 of feng shui is the beacon placement technique; it has
been integrated into the binary of version 5.0, along with version
2.0, which is the recursive bisection based method. By adding 2.0 to
3.0, we arrive at 5.0.
- Is a version available for my computer?
The research group does development under Linux on x86 based hardware.
We are considering porting to other platforms, but this is not
currently a priority.
- When will X be supported?
Tool additions and improvements to our software have largely been
driven by research group funding. If you are interested in something
specific, please contact the research group, and will consider adding
it to our development schedule.