March 12, 2007 -- Creating optimal low-power designs involves making tradeoffs such as timing-versus-power and area-versus-power at different stages of the design flow. Successful power-sensitive designs require engineers to have the ability to accurately and efficiently perform these tradeoffs. In order to achieve this, engineers require access to appropriate low-power analysis and optimization engines, which need to be integrated with – and applied throughout – the entire RTL-to-GDSII flow.
This article first describes the most significant power dissipation and distribution considerations. It then introduces the capabilities required of a true low-power design environment that addresses these power considerations throughout the entire RTL-to-GDSII design flow.
By Arvind Narayanan. (Narayanan is a Product Manager at Magma Design Automation, Inc.)
This brief introduction has been excerpted from the original copyrighted article.
