Invited Paper - Circuit Partitioning with Reinforcement Learning and Edge-Based Initialization

The Fiduccia-Mattheyses-Sanchis (FMS) algorithm is a widely used local search method for K-way circuit partitioning, but it's prone to getting stuck in local minima. Traditionally, this has been addressed by running FMS multiple times with different random initial solutions, hoping for a better result. Building on our previous work with an RL-based local search method that helps FMS avoid these traps, this research explores a new approach: using constructive methods to generate superior initial solutions. We explored two such methods: NDE (node growing algorithm), a commonly used node-based method that maximizes node absorption, and NET (net growing algorithm), an edge-based approach that maximizes net absorption. By integrating NDE and NET with our RL-based local search, we've achieved significant improvements. Experiments on ISPD98/IBM benchmarks demonstrate that an edge-based approach provides higher-quality solutions for larger circuits and larger numbers of partitions. Combining these initial solutions with our RL-based approach further reduces the cutsize generate by the RL-based approach by up to 79.5%.