Method and apparatus for power measurement in electronic circuit design and analysis

A method of measuring power usage of a primary circuit, the method comprising:

• storing, in a power meter circuit, a set of weight values for a plurality of proxy signals in the primary circuit, where selection of the proxy signals and determination of the weight values are performed together in a plurality of iterations of an automated design process for the primary circuit, where an iteration of the automated design process includes:
• modeling power usage as a weighted sum of toggle data from prior power proxy signals for a set of weight values;
• determining values of the weight values to minimize a loss function that includes a difference between the power usage and the modeled power usage, and penalty function of the weight values;
• and
• selecting, as new power proxy signals, a subset of signals of the prior power proxy signals corresponding to weight values with positive values, the subset of new power proxy signals and the corresponding subset of weight values determined simultaneously;
• receiving, by the power meter circuit, toggle data from the plurality of power proxy signals in the primary circuit for a plurality of clock cycles of the primary circuit in a first time window;
• for each power proxy signals, averaging the toggle data over one or more clock cycles in a plurality of second time windows, within the first time window, to provide averaged toggle data for the plurality of second time windows;
• for each power proxy signal, outputting the averaged toggle data for the plurality of second time windows;
• and
• combining the averaged toggle data from the plurality of second time windows from the plurality of power proxy signals based on a set of weight values to provide the power usage;
• and outputting the power usage.

A power meter for measuring power usage in a circuit, the power meter comprising:

• a pre-processor configured to:
• receive toggle data for a plurality of power proxy signals in the circuit for a plurality of clock cycles of the circuit in a first time window, where the power proxy signals and an associated set of weight values are determined together in a plurality of iterations of an automated design process for the power meter based on the circuit, where during an iteration of the automated design process the pre-processor is configured to:
• model power usage as a weighted sum of toggle data from prior power proxy signals for a set of weight values;
• determine values of the weight values to minimize a loss function that includes a difference between the power usage and the modeled power usage, and penalty function of the weight values;
• and
• select, as new power proxy signals, a subset of signals of the prior power proxy signals corresponding to weight values with positive values, the subset of new power proxy signals and the corresponding subset of weight values determined simultaneously;
• for each power proxy signal, average the toggle data over one or more clock cycles in a plurality of second time windows, within the first time window, to provide averaged toggle data for the plurality of second time windows and
• for each power proxy signal, output the averaged toggle data for the plurality of second time windows;
• and
• a weighting network configured to:
• combine the averaged toggle data from the plurality of second time windows based on the set of weight values to provide the measured power usage.