ESTIMATION OF ENERGY-CONSUMPTION IN SPEED-INDEPENDENT CONTROL-CIRCUITS

We describe a technique to estimate the energy consumed by speed-indep endent asynchronous (clock-less) control circuits. Because speed-indep endent circuits are hazard-free under all possible combinations of gal e delays+ we prove that an accurate estimate of their energy consumpti on is independent of relative component gate delays and can be determi ned by simulating only a small number of input patterns proportional t o the size of the circuit's Signal Transition Graph specification. Spe cifically, we calculate the average energy per external signal transit ion consumed by a circuit. This can he used to compare the energy cons umption between two different circuit implementations of the same spec ification, to calculate average energy for a given high-level operatio n, and and to provide average circuit power when combined with delay i nformation.