[q3k]

This is just floorplanning, which is a problem with fairly well defined quality metrics (max speed and chip area used).

[Drunk_Engineer]

Oh man, if only it were that simple. A floorplanner has to guestimate what the P&R tools are going to do with the initial layout. That can be very hard to predict -- even if the floorplanner and P&R tool are from the same vendor.