A survey of dynamic power optimization techniques

One of the most important considerations for the current VLSI/SOC design is power, which can be classified into power analysis and optimization. In this survey, the main concepts of power optimization including the sources and policies are introduced. Among the various approaches, dynamic power management (DPM), which implies to change devices states when they are not working at the highest speed or at their full capacity, is the most efficient one. Our explanations accompanying the figures specify the abstract concepts of DPM. This paper briefly surveys both heuristic and stochastic policies and discusses their advantages and disadvantages

Automist - A Tool for Automated Instruction Set Characterization of Embedded Processors

The steadily increasing performance of mobile devices also implies a rise in power consumption. To counteract this trend it is mandatory to accomplish software power optimizations based on accurate power consumption models characterized for the processor. This paper presents an environment for automated instruction set characterization based on physical power measurements. Based on a detailed instruction set description a testbench generator creates all needed test programs for a complete characterization. Afterwards those programs are executed by the processor and the energy consumption is measured. For an accurate energy measurement a high performance sampling technique has been established, which can be either clock or energy driven

Switching Activity Minimization for XOR Gate Decomposition

In this paper we focus on reduction of switching activity in combinational logic circuits. We are analyzing energy consumption of multi-input XOR gate where changes of inputs occur principally at different times at logic level. We obtain upper and lower bounds for switching activity in various combinations with decomposition of muli-phase input gate. This work presents the algorithm of synthesis for multi-input XOR gate with minimum switching activity. The results presented in this paper are useful for power estimation and low power design. More than 10 to 70 % reduction of in switching activity has been observed using this method.Статья рассматривает вопросы минимизации переключательной активности комбинационных схем. Представлен анализ энергопотребления многовходовых элементов «Исключающее ИЛИ» для случая, когда сигналы на входах меняют свое состояние прин­ципиально в различные моменты времени. Получены формулы, определяющие верх­нюю и нижнюю границы переключательной активности для различных вариантов де­композиции многовходовых элементов. В работе представлен алгоритм синтеза многовходового элемента «Исключающее ИЛИ» с минимальной переключательной активностью. Полученные результаты могут быть использованы для оценки энергопотребления и проектирования с пониженным энергопотреблением. Показано, что применение предложенного подхода позволяет на 10–70 % снизить переключательную активность

Evaluating Total Environmental Impact for a Computing Infrastructure

In this paper we outline the results of a project to evaluate the total climate/carbon impact of a digital research infrastructure for a defined snapshot period. We outline the carbon model used to calculate the impact and the data collected to quantify that impact for a defined set of resources. We discuss the variation in potential impact across both the active and embodied carbon for computing hardware and produce a range of estimates on the amount of carbon equivalent climate impact for the snapshot period

PowerBit - Power aware arithmetic bit-width optimization

Published versio

Circuit Design for Green Communications – Methods, Tools and Examples

The paper makes an overview of the existing methods applied for circuit design with low power consumption objective. It considers Computer-Aided Design (CAD) tools and modules for power consumption estimation at the design stage. For analog and mixed analog-digital circuit design, the power estimation options in ORCAD Design Suit with PSpice and Analog Filter Wizard are studied. For digital communication systems the study covers the power estimation, analysis and optimization in ISE and Vivado systems, Xilinx Power Estimator (XPE) tool and spreadsheet, the XPower Analyzer, as well as similar tools proposed by ALTERA - PowerPlay Early Power Estimator and QUARTUS II Power Play Power Analyzer. Two examples are developed: Power consumption estimation of a Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP)-based communication system design, based on datasheets and software energy monitoring tools, and power consumption estimation of a Kasami pseudo-random sequence generator circuit design on FPGA using Vivado

Circuit Design for Green Communications – Methods, Tools and Examples

The paper makes an overview of the existing methods applied for circuit design with low power consumption objective. It considers Computer-Aided Design (CAD) tools and modules for power consumption estimation at the design stage. For analog and mixed analog-digital circuit design, the power estimation options in ORCAD Design Suit with PSpice and Analog Filter Wizard are studied. For digital communication systems the study covers the power estimation, analysis and optimization in ISE and Vivado systems, Xilinx Power Estimator (XPE) tool and spreadsheet, the XPower Analyzer, as well as similar tools proposed by ALTERA - PowerPlay Early Power Estimator and QUARTUS II Power Play Power Analyzer. Two examples are developed: Power consumption estimation of a Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP)-based communication system design, based on datasheets and software energy monitoring tools, and power consumption estimation of a Kasami pseudo-random sequence generator circuit design on FPGA using Vivado

Fast and Accurate Embedded Systems Energy Characterization Using Non-intrusive Measurements

International audienceIn this paper we propose a complete system energy model based on non-intrusive measurements. This model aims at being integrated in fast cycle accurate simulation tools to give energy consumption feedback for embedded systems software design. Estimations takes into account the whole system consumption including peripherals. Experiments on a complex ARM9 platform show that our model estimates are in error by less than 10% from real system consumption, which is precise enough for source code application design, while simulation speed remains fast