Flow Implements Intelligent Energy Management

March 31, 2005

To address the need for low leakage and reduced dynamic power drain in portables, ARM and Synopsys have partnered on a reference design flow for the ARM11 family of processors, which implements ARM's Intelligent Energy Manager (IEM) technology. When used with ARM's Artisan low-power library, IEM technology can reduce an ARM11 processor's power consumption by up to 60%.

IEM technology performs dynamic voltage scaling based on software-based analysis of the system's processor utilization. That analysis is used to predict the system's future performance requirements. The IEM's hardware component then translates that performance prediction into an appropriately scaled voltage.

Built on Synopsys' Galaxy design platform, the ARM-Synopsys Galaxy reference methodology for IEM includes an enhanced methodology guide and scripts that express best design practices.

The IEM reference methodology for the ARM1176JZ-S and JZF-S cores will be available at the end of the first quarter from ARM. It also will be applied to other IEM-enabled ARM cores, including the ARM11 MPCore multiprocessor.

ARM www.arm.comSynopsyswww.synopsys.com

About the Author

David Maliniak

MWRF Executive Editor

In his long career in the B2B electronics-industry media, David Maliniak has held editorial roles as both generalist and specialist. As Components Editor and, later, as Editor in Chief of EE Product News, David gained breadth of experience in covering the industry at large. In serving as EDA/Test and Measurement Technology Editor at Electronic Design, he developed deep insight into those complex areas of technology. Most recently, David worked in technical marketing communications at Teledyne LeCroy. David earned a B.A. in journalism at New York University.