EVENT-DRIVEN POWER ESTIMATION OF CMOS CIRCUITS

Fast and accurate power estimation has become an important topic with the increasing need for low power electronics. In this paper we addres s the problem of using event-driven simulation tools for power estimat ion. We identify and compare two approaches: input-driven and output-d riven, and propose several ways of improvement. The estimation accurac y is degraded in event-driven power estimators due to superfluous and partial glitches. We described glitch filtering and estimation techniq ues pertaining to input-driven and output-driven power estimators. An output-driven power estimator, Peony, was developed which used the pro posed path pouter idea to improve the estimation accuracy. It achieved significant power estimation accuracy improvement at a speed of two o rders of magnitude faster than Spice.