Report Number: CSL-TR-96-691
Institution: Stanford University, Computer Systems Laboratory
Title: PPP: A Gate-Level Power Simulator - A World Wide Web Application
Author: Bogliolo, Alessandro
Author: Benini, Luca
Author: DeMicheli, Giovanni
Author: Ricco, Bruno
Date: March 1996
Abstract: Power consumption is an increasingly important constraint for complex ICs. Accurate and efficient power estimations are required at any level of abstraction to steer the design process. PPP is a Web-based integrated environment for synthesis and simulation of low-power CMOS circuits. We describe the simulation engine of PPP and we propose a new paradigm for tool integration. The simulation engine of PPP is a gate-level simulator that achieves accuracy comparable with electrical simulation, while keeping performance competitive with traditional gate-level techniques. This is done by using advanced symbolic models of the basic library cells, that exploit the understanding of the main phenomena involved in power consumption. In order to maintain full compatibility with gate-level design tools, we use VERILOG-XL as simulation platform. The accuracy obtained on benchmark circuits is always within 6% from SPICE also for single-gate/single-pattern power analysis, thus providing the local information needed to optimize the design. Interface and tool integration issues have been addressed using a Web-based approach. The graphical interface of PPP is a dynamically generated tree of interactive HTML pages that allow the user to access and execute the tool through the Internet by using his/her own Web-browser. No software installation is required and all the details of data transfer and tool communication are hidden to the user.
http://i.stanford.edu/pub/cstr/reports/csl/tr/96/691/CSL-TR-96-691.pdf