Power estimation software system
AssigneeSente, Inc.
InventorsDavid L. Allen, Lorne J. Cooper, Gerald L. Frenkil, Thomas J. Miller
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method and apparatus is described which enables a user to analyze an electrical design utilizing a computer. The elements of the electrical design are described at a register transfer level. Embodiments of the invention are described which allow the user to enter the elements described at the register transfer level and estimate the power consumption of portions or all of the electrical design.
Claims65
An electrical design tool that analyzes at least a portion of an electrical design, the electrical design includes RTL elements that are described at a register transfer level, the electrical design tool comprising:
- a plurality of technology dependent power modules;
- an analysis module including a micro-synthesis module adapted to generate an interconnected set of technology independent components at a micro-architectural level of abstraction representative of the RTL elements and selectively associate at least one of the plurality of power modules with at least one of the technology independent components, the analysis module adapted to generate a sum of power consumed respectively by the components;
- an output device adapted to communicate the sum of the power consumed by at least a portion of the components representative of the at least a portion of the electrical design.
A method for analyzing at least a portion of an electrical circuit design, the method comprising:
- providing a portion of the electrical circuit design described by RTL elements;
- generating an interconnected set of technology independent components at a micro-architectural level of abstraction from the RTL elements;
- associating at least one of a plurality of power modules with each of the technology independent components;
- and
- generating a sum of power consumed respectively by the components.
The method according to 37, wherein the components include pins.
A computer program product for use on a computer system for analyzing at least a portion of an electrical circuit design, the computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having computer readable program code thereon, the computer readable program code including:
- computer code for providing a portion of the electrical circuit design described by RTL elements;
- computer code for generating an interconnected set of technology independent components at a micro-architectural level of abstraction from the RTL elements;
- computer code for associating at least one of a plurality of power modules with each of the technology independent components;
- and
- computer code for generating a sum of power consumed respectively by the components.
An electrical design tool that analyzes an electrical circuit design, the electrical circuit design includes RTL elements that are described at a register transfer level, the electrical design tool comprising:
- power modules containing technology dependent data;
- a power equation module containing technology independent power equations for electrical components at a micro-architectural level of design;
- a power calculation module identifying micro-architectural RTL elements and power equations that correspond to the micro-architectural RTL elements, associating the required technology dependent data with the power equations and calculating the power for the electrical circuit design.
A method of representing an electric circuit component for power calculation, the method comprising:
- maintaining a data storage location for holding a power module;
- associating data representative of power for each state of the electric circuit component with the power module;
- associating data representative of power for each event of the electric circuit component with the power modules
- associating input stimuli with the electric circuit component;
- providing the power module and the input stimuli to an analysis module;
- determining in the analysis module the number of times each event occurs for the electric circuit component based at least in part on the input stimuli;
- determining in the analysis module the amount of time associated with each state for the electric circuit component based at least in part on the input stimuli:
- and
- calculating the power in the analysis module for the electric circuit component based at least on the number of times each event occurs, the time associated with each state, the power for each state and the power for each event.
A method for determining a change in mode of an electric circuit component for calculating power of the electric circuit component where the electric circuit component has more than one mode of operation, the method comprising:
- providing the electric circuit design to an analysis module;
- providing input stimuli for the electric circuit design to the analysis module;
- providing data indicative of each of the more than one mode to the analysis module;
- simulating the electric circuit design based on the input stimuli;
- and
- determining if the electric circuit design has changed modes based in part on the data.
A computer program product for operation on a computer system in conjunction with a power calculation tool, the computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having computer readable data thereon, the computer readable data including:
- computer readable data representative of power for each state of the electric circuit component;
- and
- computer readable data representative of power for each event of the electric circuit component;
- wherein based on input stimuli for the electric circuit component the power calculation tool can calculate power consumed based on the state data and the event data for the electric circuit component.
A computer program product for operation on a computer system in conjunction with a power calculation tool, the computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having computer readable data thereon, the computer readable data including:
- computer code for providing an electric circuit design to an analysis module;
- computer code for providing input stimuli for the electric circuit design to the analysis module;
- computer code for providing data indicative of each of the more than one mode to the analysis module;
- computer code for simulating the electric circuit design based on the input stimuli;
- and
- computer code for determining if the electric circuit design has changed modes based in part on the data.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.