RTL power analysis using gate-level cell power models

A system for analyzing the power consumption of an electrical design, said system comprising:

• a structural element library including a set of technology-independent structural macro elements;
• a macro power model module providing macro power models for one or more of said structural macro elements in said structural element library, each of said macro power models being associated with a power model in a user-specified gate-level power model library;
• and
• a power estimation module providing a power consumption value of said electrical design using a netlist of interconnected components representative of said electrical design and said macro power models of said structural macro elements, said netlist including at least one component corresponding to an instance of one of said structural macro elements in said structural element library, and said power consumption value being based on activity and duty cycle data associated with instances of said structural macro elements in said netlist.