EDA Tech Forum

EDA vendors are driving a new standard through Accellera, explains Yatin Trivedi.

Long before the first portable computer batteries exploded, and even before anyone had the first visions of building massive data centers in the cold northwestern states of Oregon,Washington and Alaska, power consumption by electronic devices was a tough problem for chip designers. The difference now is that we are trying to manage power in ever-smaller devices that demand more performance. And it is not just an issue of how long the battery will last in your mobile phone, music player or video game. The problem and its solutions have far-reaching implications affecting everything from heat dissipation and cooling to package design and power-aware software control. This multi-faceted problem requires a multifaceted, well-integrated solution.

As solution providers to the chip and system design industry, EDA vendors have long been researching many innovative approaches to power management, resulting in a host of design verification, implementation and analysis tools. Of late, finding those solutions has required a three-way collaboration between the chip design, semiconductor process and manufacturing, and EDA communities. The designers have come up with many clever approaches for ‘gating’ the design’s clock and power so it operates only when necessary.