20120326-W06-A2-Maze.docx

2.Mazerouter(迷宫布线器) Nowadays,amulti-coreCPU(多核CPU)inourcomputerscanhavemorethan1billiontransistors(晶体管).Thesetransistorsareintegrated(集成)andinterconnected(互连)intheso-calledintegratedcircuits(集成电路)forthecorrectfunctionality.Howarethesetransistorsinterconnected?ThereisaresearchareacalledEDA(ElectronicDesignAutomation,电子设计自动化)orVLSICAD(VeryLargeScaleIntegratedcircuitsComputer-AidedDesign,集成电路辅助设计),wheretherearemanyinterestingand/orboring(也许有趣/也许无聊)optimizationproblemsandalgorithms.Fortheabove-mentionedproblem,routingalgorithms(布线算法)areresponsibleforthis.Togetalittlebitflavorofhowtheroutingisdone,wewilltrythebasicroutingalgorithmcalledLee’salgorithm(李氏算法)ormaze(maze-running)algorithm(迷宫算法).Mazealgorithmisaclassicalgorithmforfindingashortestpathbetweentwoterminals(orpoints)onagridwithobstacles(障碍).Thisalgorithmtypicallyconsistsoftwostages:searchingstage(搜索阶段)andbacktracestage(回溯阶段).Markoneterminalasthesourceterminalandtheotheroneastargetterminal.Duringthesearchingstage,weperformabreadth-firstsearch(BFS)(宽度优先搜索)fromthesourceterminaltoalltheadjacentgridpointsandlabelallvisitedgridpointsuntilreachingtargetterminal.ThelabelofapointindicatesitsManhattandistance(曼哈顿距离)fromthesource.Here,diagonallyadjacentpointsarenotconsideredtobeadjacentbecauseroutingpaths(布线路径)generallyruninrectilineardirectionsinVLSIdesigns(集成电路设计).Whenthetargetterminalisreached,weperformthebacktracestage,whichfindsonepathbackfromtargettosourceaccordingtothelabels. Figure1givesanexampleofmazealgorithmincludingthesearchingandbacktraceprocesses.Duringthesearchingprocess,gridsarelabeledwithincreasingvaluesonthewavefront(波前)oftheflood-fill(洪水填满法)atsourceterminalSuntilreachingtargetterminalT.ThenduringBacktraceprocesswecanfindapathbackfromthetargetterminaltothesourceterminal.QUESTION:InFigure1(b),wecanseethattherearemanypathsofManhattandistance6,butapathwith4turnsiscomputed.Canwefindapathofdistance6(i.e.,shortestdistance)andwiththesmallestnumberofturns?Youmayenumerateallthepathsofdistance6andfindonewithsmallestn