Cycle-Accurate SDRAM Power Modeling

Abstract

SDRAM memories contribute significantly to the overall system power and energy consumption of a system and require effective power management for their energy efficient use. The key prerequisite to their efficient power/energy management is to use accurate SDRAM power and energy consumption estimates. This chapter addresses this issue by proposing a high-level cycle-accurate SDRAM power model called DRAMPower, which employs JEDEC-specified current measures and performs high-precision modeling of SDRAM operations to obtain accurate power and energy estimates. We compare and contrast the state of the art in high-level SDRAM power models against ours, and show how we improve the precision of the modeling of the different SDRAM operations, state transitions and power-saving modes.