( ESNUG 388 Item 17 ) -------------------------------------------- [02/27/02]
Subject: ( ESNUG 386 #8 ) Using Power Estimation Tools Vs. Actual Silicon
> I have been reviewing reader comments on your http://DeepChip.com looking
> for information on the correlation between calculations of total power by
> cell level power analysis tools and actual silicon. Not a word to be
> found... hmmm... So then how good are these 4 significant digit power
> model library characterizations that many are using? Are they useful only
> for relative power comparison or can they be used more reliably?
>
> - Ken Wagner
> PMC-Sierra, Inc.
From: Yoshi Iwase <yiwase@amis.com>
Hi, John,
I've been using a dynamic power calculation tool for almost two years.
The tool is called PrimePower from Synopsys. It uses the 4 digits power
library characterized by PowerArc tool. After some experience, we have
been seeing very consistent result between the PrimePower results and
our final silicon. The key issues are the accuracy of library/LPE (since
all power such as internal power, gate cap and wire cap comes from there)
and the measurement technique. After calibrating these, we easily saw
correlation within 10% between PrimePower and silicon.
I am presenting more details on PrimePower at San Jose SNUG, Mar.13-15.
- Yoshi Iwase
AMI Semiconductor Inc.
|
|
