System and method to determine peak power demand in an integrated circuit

A method of generating a set of vectors for simulation of a circuit, comprising:

• receiving a logical description of the circuit;
• determining at least one logic path in the circuit;
• traversing the at least one logic path in reverse and determining at least one input vector of the at least one logic path, the input vector describing the nodes in the logic path and a logic transition at an output node occurring in response to a combination of logic transitions at at least one input node;
• assigning a weighting value to each transition of each node in the at least one input vector, the weighting value being assigned in consideration of, at least in part, dynamic load, transition timing, and impedance of the power distribution network at the node;
• and
• identifying at least one input vector with maximum contribution to drawing power from the power distribution network as indicated by the assigned weighting.

A computer-readable medium having encoded thereon a method comprising:

• receiving a description of a power distribution network of a circuit;
• defining at least one DC supernode in the power distribution network;
• receiving a logical description of the circuit;
• determining at least one logic path in the circuit;
• traversing the at least one logic path in reverse and determining a plurality of input vectors of the at least one logic path, the input vectors each describing a plurality of nodes in the logic path and a logic transition at an output node occurring in response to a combination of logic transitions at at least one input node in the at least one logic path;
• assigning a weighting value to each logic transition of each node in each input vector, the weighting value being assigned in consideration of, at least in part, dynamic load, transition timing, and impedance of the power distribution network at the node;
• identifying a plurality of input vectors with maximum contribution to drawing power from the power distribution network;
• combining the identified plurality of input vectors for simulation;
• and
• simulating an AC response of the identified plurality of input vectors with maximum contribution and identifying at least one logic path generating a peak load to the power distribution network.

A system comprising:

• means for receiving a description of a power distribution network and a logical description of a circuit;
• means for defining at least one DC supernode in the power distribution network;
• means for determining at least one logic path in the circuit;
• means for traversing the at least one logic path in reverse and determining at least one input vector of the at least one logic path, the input vector describing a plurality of nodes in the logic path and a logic transition at an output node occurring in response to a combination of logic transitions at at least one input node in the at least one logic path;
• means for assigning a weighting value to each logic transition of each node in the at least one input vector and identifying at least one input vector with maximum contribution to drawing power from the power distribution network as indicated by the assigned weighting;
• and
• means for simulating an AC response of the identified at least one input vector with maximum contribution and identifying at least one logic path generating a peak load to the power distribution network.