METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR OPTIMIZING ELEMENT PLACEMENT AND METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DECIDING THE OPTIMAL ELEMENT PLACEMENT

Element placement optimizing method and apparatus for determining an optimum placement of constituent elements for an LSI or the like. A parallel processing type computer system including a plurality of CPUs is used. An initial element placement is established and a number of paired element candidates for position exchange are selected from the initial placement, the number being equal to that of CPUS. A cost improvement value resulting from the exchange is determined for each of the paired candidates by the associated CPU. The exchange of the elements is performed for the paired element candidates for which the cost improvement value is maximum of those determined by the CPUs. By repeating the exchange, an optimum element placement is determined.