ProPower® reduces leakage power in chips designed for mobile devices and other low-power applications by an average of 20 percent over results previously optimized by place-and-route tools. ProPower is an optional add-on to Prolific's ProTiming™ optimization tool.

How It Works

ProPower achieves power savings by intelligently analyzing designs to determine where power is lost, then strategically replaces power leaking cells with functionally equivalent cells which have lower passive power losses. If multiple threshold voltage (Vt) cells are used, ProPower can swap low-Vt cells with higher-Vt cells. In designs that have not yet been optimized, ProPower typically uses 0.5% to 5% low-Vt cells. If the place-and-route tool supports multiple Vt cells and has already optimized the Vt usage, ProPower will further optimize Vt usage, typically replacing from 50% to 80% of the remaining low-Vt cells.

Because ProPower has access to the detailed parasitic, timing, and signal integrity (SI) information, it is able to achieve better, lower-power results than other tools. Used in multiple-Vt mode, ProPower does not require a place-and-route ECO pass.

ProPower can also be used to reduce both active and leakage power, even if a single Vt is used. In this mode, ProPower reduces the drive strength of non-critical cells to reduce power without worsening critical paths. This mode requires re-running ProTiming and then an ECO pass to correct for movement of terminals.

By design, ProPower does not introduce correlation errors, and through PrimeTime® SI, does not introduce signal-integrity violations. In addition, it uses the proven ProTiming engine, ensuring that reductions in power consumption do not reduce the design's performance.

Features

• Fully compatible with Synopsys PrimeTime® and Prolific ProTiming
• Reduces leakage power using multiple or single threshold voltage cells, even in pre-optimized designs
• Optionally reduces active power leakage, reducing drive-strength of non-critical cells without adversely effecting critical paths
• Monitors design timing, maximum transition, maximum capacitance, SI effects, and critical range criteria

Benefits

• Reduces leakage power of any design
• Average improvement of 20% on pre-optimized designs
• Maintains original design speed
• No logic restructuring, safe to use at tape-out

How To Use It

ProPower is fully compatible with Synopsys PrimeTime®.

The ProPower add-on is installed alongside ProTiming on a system running HP-UX, Linux, or Solaris. When the design team is satisfied with the PrimeTime setup, ProTiming is launched. From within the ProTiming interface, ProPower prompts the designer to:

• Identify the library files, netlists, and naming conventions.
• Specify limitations of the optimization, such as allowable slack and maximum changes permitted.
• Select the optimization objectives among various strategies to focus on area, power, or Vt changes only.