Power-gated 32 bit microprocessor with a power controller circuit activated by deep-sleep-mode instruction achieving ultra-low power operation

Abstract

A spintronic-based power-gated micro-processing unit (MPU) is proposed. It includes a power control circuit activated by the newly supported power-off instruction for the deep-sleep mode. These means enable the power-off procedure for the MPU to be executed appropriately. A test chip was designed and fabricated using 90 nm CMOS and an additional 100 nm MTJ process; it was successfully operated. The guideline of the energy reduction effects for this MPU was presented, using the estimation based on the measurement results of the test chip. The result shows that a large operation energy reduction of 1/28 can be achieved when the operation duty is 10%, under the condition of a sufficient number of idle clock cycles.