A layout of a programmable interconnect structure, comprising: an active region; and an even plurality of gate regions dividing the active region into a plurality of active stripes, said active stripes arranged into disjoint first, second and third sets; and a plurality of interconnect wires, each interconnect wire coupled to a contact in an active stripe of the first set; and an input wire coupled to a contact in each of the active stripes of said second set; and an output wire coupled to a contact in each of the active stripes of said third set; and a buffer layout comprising one or more buffer gate regions and one or more buffer active regions, wherein the input wire is further coupled to a buffer gate region and the output wire is further coupled to a buffer active region.