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Use of multiple voltages in the design is one of the widely adopted low power
technique.
it is almost a necessity that from very beginning power intent is mostly clear.
This is the main reason that power intent description has become integral
part of RTL development.
Power intent needs to be captured for various power domains, switches to
turn on/off supplies, voltage levels of supplies, protection devices like level
shifter, isolation
Providing two or more supply voltages on a single chip introduces some
complexities and costs.
Additional device pins must be available to supply the chip voltages, and the
power grid must distribute each of the voltage supplies separately to the
appropriate blocks.
Where a logic signal leaves one power domain and enters another, if the
voltages are significantly different, a level-shifter cell is necessary to
generate a signal with the proper voltage swing. A level shifter cell itself
requires two power supplies that match the input and output supply
voltages.
Power intent guides physical power grid
implementation
Using the power intent description, abstract power supply networks are
defined, also called as supply sets.
The most important step which needs careful planning is to define valid
power states combinations
Once supplies are defined explicitly using create_supply_port OR implicitly
using create_supply_set, then valid supply states are defined next using
add_port_state and add_power_state.
the Power State Table (PST) describes all the possible power states of a
design and is used as a golden reference by implementation tools and
static verification checkers.
Why Static Verification?
Static verification Checks to ensure that implementation is following the power intent
What were assumptions made in our methodology and how we took care of gotchas
PST is reference What if there is a bug in PST?
Once design is simulated with all legal states, power aware simulation can capture
such issues
How can I ensure my dynamic verification team covers all legal states and power shutdown
during simulation?
It is extremely important to plan low power specific coverage from start and track it till
closure
Challenges : Use of PST in Hierarchical design
verification
BUG
ISO
VDD1/ Cell VDD2/
PD1 PD2
X Null PST
Low Power Assertions
Automatic assertions
Common assertions based on design + power intent
User defined assertions
Any dedicated assertion using LP data
Depending on design/project need
For example sequence of sleep signal with reset
Future Work:
PST verification is a very critical step and we need to fine tune the
methodology to make it of signoff quality.