A Timing Dependent Power Estimation Framework Considering Coupling

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a timing dependent dynamic power estimation framework that considers the impact of coupling and glitches. We show that relative switching activities and times of coupled nets significantly affect dynamic power consumption, and neither should be ignored during power estimation. To capture the timing dependence, an approach to efficient representation and propagation of switching-window distributions through a circuit, considering coupling induced delay variations, is developed. Based on the propagated switching-window distributions, power consumption in charging or discharging coupling capacitances is calculated, and accounted for in the total power. Experimental results for the ISCAS'85 benchmarks demonstrate that ignoring the impact of timing dependent coupling on power can cause up to 59% error in coupling power estimation (up to 25% error in total power estimation)