Frequency-Aware ESL Power Estimation for ARM Cortex-A9 Using a Black Box Processor Model

Abstract

Power estimation has become a strongly desired feature in Electronic System Level (ESL) simulations. Most existing power estimation approaches for this abstraction level require component models with observable internals. However, most ESL models of modern processors are delivered as black box components. This work presents a tool-based ESL power estimation methodology for black box models and its extension for multiple clock frequencies. The evaluation uses hardware measurements of the ARM Cortex-A9 subsystem of the OMAP4460 chip for reference. The achieved estimation error is 5% on average for fixed-frequency power models and 7% for multifrequency power models.