This is a good paper. It shows that theoretical results of computer science are key to our better understanding of practical problems--in this case, the well-known placement and routing problems of VLSI design. The authors show their findings with utmost clarity and by paying attention to the work of other researchers. It should also be mentioned that they have used the theory of this paper in a CAD system for integrated circuit design at their university. This, in my view, makes the paper all the more admirable.

After this highly praising introduction, let me quickly summarize the theme of the paper. The authors consider the minimization of the length of the longest edge in a layout. At the same time, they try to balance the length of the remaining edges. Thus, not only the longest edge but also the remaining edges will have lengths as short as possible. Let me immediately remark that the authors are working in the continuous plane (as opposed to a rectangular grid) and that their layouts are made of wires running in any direction of the plane. (Is this becoming feasible with the upcoming technologies?)

I recommend this nice paper to VLSI designers in addition to the natural intended audience: computer scientists with a graph-theoretic and/or computational-geometric bent.