A layout capable of placing a circuit constituted by a plurality of
transistors in a small-with region is automatically formed. A search
section inputs data on a circuit and makes a search for a set of routes
formed so that passage through any one of the transistors occurs only one
time and so that the combination of routes in one set can cover the
entire circuit network. An extraction section extracts a set of routes
having the smallest number of routes in sets of route found by searching.
A width determination section determines the layout width from the widths
of source and drain electrodes of each transistor, the width of the
region between the source and drain electrodes, the width of the region
between some of the adjacent pairs of the transistors not combined into a
common electrode, the number of transistors, and the smallest number of
routes. A layout determination section forms information on a layout in
which all the source, drain and gate electrodes of the transistor
included in the circuit are placed in a small-width region having the
determined width.