ESL Design Tools Slice IC Power Requirements

Promising to cut energy needs in critical semiconductor blocks by as much as 75% and achieve results three-times faster than lower-level methods, the PowerOpt and P-SAM ESL power-optimization design tools target those developing mobile communications, networking, consumer, or automotive applications requiring longer battery life or lower cooling requirements. PowerOpt relies on the company's ORINOCO power analysis technology, which allows users to work interactively with system-level descriptions written in ANSI-C, SystemC and C++ to explore and visualize tradeoffs in timing, area, and power. It then implements their choices to generate power-optimized RTL code with up to three times lower power consumption than RTL flows and at triple the speed. The P-SAM framework, short for power simulation, analysis, and modeling, allows system architects to investigate design alternatives at the system level, quickly devise effective power-management strategies, and verify whether power targets are met. It also lets software developers analyze the impact of source-code changes on expected power consumption in their choice of virtual platform simulation environment without relying on lower-level architectural analysis techniques or emulator runs. Available now, price for PowerOpt is $450,000 for a three-year license. P-SAM pricing varies depending on the structure of the SoC. CHIPVISION DESIGN SYSTEMS INC., San Jose, CA. (408) 449-4550.