Description:
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>This paper analyzes the computational complexity of the external pin assignment problem to determine through which external pins the signals are drawn out from a packaging module such that the external pins are arranged on the periphery of the module. the problem is shown to be NP‐complete if there exist preassigned signals (which are to be drawn out through the specified external pins) and sequences of signals such that the signals of each sequence must be drawn out through a set of external pins located consecutively. the complexity of a branch‐and‐bound algorithm for the problem is also analyzed.</jats:p>