MIMO Interconnects Order Reductions by Using

the Global Arnoldi Algorithm

Ming-Hong Lai

Chia-Chi Chu

Wu-Shiung Feng

Graduate Institute of Electronic Engineering Department of Electrical Engineering Department of Electronic Engineering
Chang Gung University
Chang Gung University
Chang Gung University
TaoYuan, Taiwan, R.O.C.
TaoYuan, Taiwan, R.O.C.
TaoYuan, Taiwan, R.O.C.
Email: d9028110@stmail.cgu.edu.tw
Email: ccchu@mail.cgu.edu.tw
Email: fengws@mail.cgu.edu.tw

Abstract We propose the global Arnoldi algorithm for MIMO

RLCG interconnect model order reductions. This algorithm is
an extension of the standard Arnoldi algorithm for systems
with multi-inputs and multi-outputs (MIMO). By employing the
congruence transformation with the matrix Krylov subspace, the
one-sided projection method can be used to construct a reducedorder system. Two kinds of reduced systems using the global
Arnoldi algorithm will be proposed. The rst -th order of these
reduced systems moments will still be preserved. The transfer
matrix residual error of the reduced system will also be derived
analytically. Experimental results demonstrate the feasibility and
the effectiveness of the proposed method.

I. I NTRODUCTION

II. P RELIMINARY
A linear, time-invariance, RLCG interconnect circuit can be
represented in the following modied nodal analysis (MNA)
formula:

and (1)
satisfy the Kirchhoffs voltage and current
laws.

indicates the nodes that supplied voltage

sources, in which that is the number of voltage source.
indicates the nodes that we measure the impulse
response. Both matrices and are allowed to be singular,
and we only assume that the pencil is regular. Let
and
, where
is the selected expansion frequency and we assume that
is nonsingular. Eq. (1) can be rewritten as
and
(2)

Modern technological trends in interconnect modeling have

emphasized considerable attention in high-speed VLSI designs. Traditionally, several projection-based methods, including asymptotic waveform evaluation (AWE), Arnoldi algorithm, Pad via Lanczos (PVL) have been adopted to solve
e
such tasks [4], [5]. Most of them only can handle single-input
single-out (SISO) systems. Extensions to the multi-input multioutput (MIMO) system are still not completely solved. In literature, MPVL, PRIMA, and the block Arnoldi (BA) algorithm,
have been proposed for MIMO interconnect reductions [1], [2],
[6], [10]. However, numerical ill-conditional problems, such as
breakdowns and deations, will always arise in practical largescale interconnect examples when the order of the reduced
system is extremely high.
In this paper, we propose an alternative projection-based
method, called the global Arnoldi (GA) algorithm [8]. This
algorithm is an extension of the standard Arnoldi algorithm
for systems with multiple inputs and multiple outputs. It will
be shown that this new matrix Krylov subspace, generated
from the Frobenius orthonormalization process, indeed is the
union of system moments. By employing the congruence
transformation with this matrix Krylov subspace, the one-sided
projection method can be used to construct a reduced-order
system. Two reduced systems will be constructed and both of
them can achieve moment matching to the original system.
It can be proven that the transfer matrix of the rst reduced
system is identical to those of the reduced system generated
by the BA algorithm. However, the computation complexity of
the GA algorithm seems to be cheaper [8]. The transfer matrix
residual error of the reduced system is derived analytically.

0-7803-9390-2/06/$20.00 2006 IEEE

Error information in the reduced system will be a guideline

for the order selection scheme. In the second reduced-order
system, we can keep the simple formulation described in the
BA algorithm. In addition, the transfer matrix of the second
reduced system is identical to those of the original system with
additive perturbation matrix.

and the reduced-order system MNA of Eq. (2) is described by

and
(3)

and . The attributes of reduced-order

where
modeling of the linear dynamical system include replacing the
full-order system by a system of the same type but with a much
smaller state-space dimension. Furthermore, the reduced-order
model should also preserve essential properties of the fullorder system. Such a reduced-order model would let designers
efciently analyze and synthesize the dynamical behavior of
the original system within a tight design cycle.
III. M ODEL -O RDER R EDUCTIONS FOR MIMO S YSTEMS
A. The Block Arnoldi (BA) Algorithm
For a MIMO system, the BA algorithm is one of the wellknown methodologies to solve the MIMO system problem

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ISCAS 2006

TABLE I

As can be seen from the GA algorithm, linear dependence

between the vector-columns of the generated matrix

has no effect on the algorithm. In fact as we
are working with a matrix Krylov subspace, the GA algorithm
allows us to generate the Frobenius-orthonormal basis.This is
a major difference between the GA and the BA algorithms.
matrix, denotes the
Let denotes the
upper Hessenberg matrix from the GA algorithm, the
following relation is satised:

(8)

T HE GLOBAL A RNOLDI ALGORITHM

Algorithm : (input:
; output: )
: /* Initialize */

for

/* Iteration */

end for

for

end for

[2]. The reduced system can be constructed by the following

congruence transformation:

and

(4)

where the projection matrix generated from the Krylov

, and
subspace

is the initial matrix
extracted from the orthonormal matrix of . In the process of
iterations, we have the following recurrence relationship:

, and
where
constructed from the block Arnoldi algorithm.

(5)

is

We will introduce an alternative technique, called the Global

Arnoldi algorithm, to solve the reduced-order system for
MIMO systems.The Kronecker product is used to replace the
multiplication in the Arnoldi process. We dene a vectorvalued function associated with a matrix and closely related to the Kronecker product. The system moment matrix

can also be associated with a vector-function,

we have

. Under this framework,

the input matrix is treated as a stacked vector form

and the GA algorithm is the standard Arnoldi algorithm
applied to a new matrix pair
. Since the
matrix is treated as a stacked vector, the inner product will also


,
be modied by the equation
accordingly. The GA algorithm will recursively generate the
Frobenius orthonormal basis from the matrix
Krylov subspace

span

with the following properties [9]

where

for
for

(6)

(7)

represents the trace of inner product

trace

The associated
norm, called the Frobenius norm, is dened as
trace . The pseudo code of the GA algorithm is
outlined in Table I [8].

It is worthy of mentioning that the GA algorithm breaks down

if and only if
and in this case an
at step
invariant subspace is obtained. This corresponds to a lucky
breakdown. On the other hand, for the BA algorithm, a
serious breakdown may occur and deation techniques are
required. Various techniques have been proposed to solve this
task [3].
Lemma 1: [8] Let be the matrix dened by

, where the matrices

are constructed by the GA algorithm, Then, we have

(9)

Having developed the relationships between system moments and Krylov subspace, now we are in the position to
construct the reduced-order system.
C. The Proposed Reduced-Order System - Type I
In this paper, the reduced system is chosen as

B. The Global Arnoldi (GA) Algorithm

and

(10)

where is the pseudo inverse of .

,
For the special case
. This
and
is the standard Arnoldi algorithm for SISO system and

The notation of the reduced-order system can be further

simplied

where is dened as
. The can
be simplied as

By similar techniques developed in the BA algorithm,

moment matching can be achieved. Here we omit the details.

,
Theorem 1: (Moment Matching) For

the output moments of the reduced system (10)
generated from the global Arnoldi algorithm will be the same

with those of the original MNA in Eq. (2).

Lemma 2: [7] The reduced transfer matrix is dened as

, where

. The projected transfer matrix will be unchanged if the

projectors and are replaced by other matrices

and
which span the same respective spaces, where
and are invertible.

Since the and span the same respective space, by

Lemma 2, both reduced systems (4) and (10) can achieve the

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moment matching up to orders. In fact, transfer matrices

of both reduced systems are identical. The next theorem will
illustrate this result.
Theorem 2: Both transfer matrices of the reduced systems
generated by the BA algorithm and that of the GA algorithm

are identical.
Proof: In the block Arnoldi algorithm, we can rewrite

as , then the projection matrix can be rep

resented as

, where is an

upper triangular matrix. On the other hand, according to the
aid of Lemma 1, the corresponding projection matrix generated
from the global Arnoldi algorithm can also be represented

as

, where is an upper

triangular matrix, too.

, and
Since
is an upper triangular matrix and is nonsingular.
By Lemma 2, it can be shown that the transfer functions are

identical. This completes the proof.

Rs
V s1

CL

D. Residual Error
Since the exact transfer matrix error between the original
MNA and the reduced system is not easily derived analytically.
Here, we also use the notion residual error to describe their
difference [4]. Let the residual error be dened as
(11)

where
is an approximate solution of . It can be eas
, then . When either the
ily seen that if
BA algorithm or the GA algorithm is applied, the approximate
state variable
must belong to the Krylov subspace. That
or . The following theorem
is,
describes analytical expressions of this residual error.
Theorem 3: Suppose that steps of the GA algorithm have

been performed, Frobenius orthonormal matrix and the

corresponding upper Hessenberg matrix are obtained.
Let be any approximate solution of and be
an approximate solution after performing steps of the GA
algorithm, i.e.,
and be the residual
error. The residual error can be expressed as

(12)

The error bound estimation can be proceeded as follows.

Suppose that all eigenvalues of are simple and

be the eigenvalue
decomposition of . Eq. (12) can be simplied as

where

min

Since

matrix,

. By taking the

both sides of Eq. (13), we have

(13)

CL

CL

CL

CL

CL

CL

CL

CL

CL

CL

CL

CL

CL

CL

CL

CL

CL

Scope
1

Scope
2

Fig. 1.

The mesh40line circuit structure.

cost will be involved in the proposed formulation. Since the

computational cost of is very time-consuming, we can
only consider in our order selection scheme. Instead
of using the absolute value directly, we will use the relative

as a stopping criterion to terminate the
value

iteration process. If is sufciently small, the original system
and the reduced system in nearly identical.

E. The Proposed Reduced-Order System - Type II

Another possible reduced system can be dened as

where
as

and

(14)

can be further simplied

The above reduced system can still achieve the moment

matching property.

,
Theorem 4: (Moment Matching) For

the output moments of the reduced system (14)
generated from the global Arnoldi algorithm will be the same
with output moments of the original MNA in Eq.

(2).
If we dene a perturbed system with the following description:

(15)
.
Let the transfer matrix of perturbed system (15) is

and

The following theorem illustrates that the transfer matrix of

the reduced system dened by Eq. (14) is indeed equal to that
of the original MNA with additive perturbation matrix (15).
That is,

. This is an extension of
the SISO system developed in [4].
Theorem 5: The transfer matrix of the perturbed system (15) is indeed equal to the transfer matrix
of the reduced system (14).

is a high-pass

norm from

CL

CL

where is the condition number of a matrix. The above
error estimation only involves , and . Comparing with previous error expressions [11], less computational

CL

CL

1109

CL

CL

V s2

CL

Rs

2
1
0

Iteration Number q

Fig. 2.

10

Comparison of for different .

IV. N UMERICAL E XAMPLES

60
Flops

Flops Difference (%)

50

40

30

20

10

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Reduced System Order (q)

Fig. 3. Flops comparison between the block Arnoldi and global Arnoldi
algorithm.

15

5
21

Order (j)
(j)
Y (s0)
22

10

Relative Error (%)

10

10

10

10

15

10

10

10

Order (j)
Y(j) (s0)

10

Global Arnoldi I
Global Arnoldi II
Block Arnoldi

10

10

10

15

10

Order (j)

10

Order (j)

10

Fig. 4. The relative error of the system moments of the mesh40line original
system and those of the two kinds of the reduced systems.
H11(s)

Relative Error (%)

15

10

10

H12(s)
1

Mag.

2.5

0.8

1.5

0.6

Mag.

10

1
0.5
0
0

0.4
0.2

10

0
0

15

10

Freq. (GHz)

H22(s)

1.5

Mag.

Original
Block Arnoldi

3
2

Global ArnoldiI
Global ArnoldiII

0.5

1
0
0

15

Freq. (GHz)

H21(s)

Mag.

(j)
(s )
12 0

10

10

10

Relative Error (%)

Relative Error (%)

In order to verify the proposed reduction techniques, an

RLC interconnect circuit is investigated. As shown in Fig.
1, an RLC mesh circuit with forty lines is investigated.
; capacitance:
The line parameters are resistance:

; inductance:
; driver resistance: , and
long and is
load capacitance: . Each line is
divided into sections, the MNA matrices have dimension
. In our experiment, there are two input voltage
and
. The
sources and two output sinks, i.e.,
experiment tries within the frequency range
and
the expand frequency point of reduced system at .
As the GA algorithm proceeds, the value of and
are recorded. From the simulation results shown in Fig. 2,
it is recommended that the order of the reduced system is
. Fig. 3 shows the op comparisons between
set to
two algorithms, it can be observed that the cost of the global
Arnoldi algorithm has great improvement to the block Arnoldi
algorithm. The FLOPS number in the global Arnoldi algorithm
are almost half of those in the block Arnoldi. Fig. 4 shows the
relative errors between the original system and three reduced
systems. Additionally, the CPU time to construct a -order
reduced system by using the global Arnoldi algorithm and the
seconds,
block Arnoldi algorithm is seconds and
respectively. The global Arnoldi algorithm saves about
in CPU time. Fig. 5 shows the transfer matrix of the original
system and two reduced systems
. It can
,
be observed that the transfer matrix of the reduced system is
well matched the original system nearby the expansion point,
and
and the frequency response of reduced systems
are identical. Meanwhile, Fig. 5 also shows that the

transfer matrices
and that of the original system with
additive perturbation system are identical.
V. C ONCLUSIONS
In this paper, we proposed a novel model-order reduction
technique for general multi-input multi-output large scale
interconnect systems by using the GA algorithm. Extending
from the classical Arnoldi algorithm of the single-input singleoutput system, this technique is more suitable for the highspeed VLSI interconnect analysis. Moment matching of the
original system and the reduced system of the rst -order
has also been proven. According to the residual error analysis,
it will provide a guideline in order selection scheme. The
perturbation system of the original system is also derived.
Numerical experiment also shows the high coherency nearby
the expansion point in the frequency response.

(j)
(s )
11 0

10

10

Freq. (GHz)

15

0
0

10

15

Freq. (GHz)

Fig. 5. The transfer matrices , ,

mesh40line circuit of all source / sink pairs.

and of

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would also like to thank the National Science Council, R.O.C.,
for nancially supporting this research under Contract No. NSC92-2213-E182-001 and NSC93-2213-E-182-001 .
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