PolitecnicodiTorinoUniv.ofSouthernCaliforniaUniv.ofColorado
Abstract:
been,sofar,themajordesignconstraintstobemetdur-ingthedevelopmentofdigitalVLSIsystems.Inrecent years,however,thingshavechanged;increasingly,power hasbeengivenweightcomparabletotheotherdesignpa-rameters.Thisisprimarilyduetotheremarkablesuccess ofpersonalcomputingdevicesandwirelesscommunication systems,whichdemandhigh-speedcomputationswithlow powerconsumption.Inaddition,thereexistsastrongpres-sureformanufacturersofhigh-endproductstokeeppower undercontrol,duetotheincreasedcostsofpackagingand coolingthistypeofdevices.Finally,theneedofensuring highcircuitreliabilityhasturnedouttobemorestringent. Theavailabilityoftoolsfortheautomaticdesignoflow-powerVLSIsystemshasthusbecomenecessary.More specically,followinganaturaltrend,theinterestsofthe researchershavelatelyshiftedtotheinvestigationofpower modeling,estimation,synthesis,andoptimizationtech-niquesthataccountforpowerdissipationduringtheearly stagesofthedesignow.
