Embodiments of the invention relate generally to the field of silicon design and more specifically to a Near/Sub-threshold implementation that optimizing energy per operation for a given design and target speed.
Many new emerging applications require the use of ultra-low power consumption solutions inside a chip. This will allow them to be incorporated into devices that operate from a small non-chargeable battery for very long periods without the need to frequently charge the battery. For example, wearable, mobile and Medical devices which are battery operated may require an ultra-low power solution.
Reducing the operating voltage is the most effective method for power reduction and working at the Near/Sub-threshold voltage domain can save 70-80% from the dynamic power consumption and 80-90% from the leakage power. Near/Sub-threshold technology is a way of operating the CMOS transistors in their weak inversion state where the transistors are never fully turned on. When operating in the Near/Sub-threshold region, the transistor state varies between being fully turned off and partially turned on.
When operating in the Near/Sub-threshold region, transistors operate at a near or lower voltage than their threshold voltage (known as VT) and by such operation the transistor use less power. During Near/Sub-threshold voltage operation, both dynamic power and static power are reduced. Dynamic power is a ratio of the operating voltage by a power of two and the static power at this Sub-threshold voltage domain is also at exponential ratio of the operating voltage, therefore reducing the operating voltage of the device to a Near/Sub-threshold voltage level will reduce the energy per operation dramatically.
One of the major limiting factors for using Near/Sub-threshold technology is the low speed performance of the transistors that goes down in an exponential ratio compared to the voltage drop and due to this limitation the usage of Near/Sub-threshold technology in commercial chips is very limited.
The second limiting factor is the deep sub-micron process variation and the requirement during the design phase to ensure that the device performance is met in the worst case condition of the process. This causes a large overhead during the design and increases area and power dramatically. In today's solutions which try to maximize the maximum achievable speed at worst case conditions, which represent less than 1% of the material in production, a huge overhead is paid in area and power for all the material.
Various methods and implementations for the Near/Sub-threshold technology exist today that focus only on power reduction and not on the optimal way to use this technology for a given power per performance required by a specific application or how to improve the target performance per a given target operating voltage.
In order for this technology to have practical application, a method is required that optimizes power consumption while still meeting the performance requirements for a specific product or application.
For one embodiment of the invention, a Near/Sub-threshold technology flow implementation is provided that optimizes energy per operation for a given performance requirement by optimizing dynamically and adaptively the operating voltage level per a given process corner and temperature. These parameters are sampled on the fly from the silicon.
Additionally, embodiments of the invention also include implementation and characterization of a library that is optimized for use at Near/Sub-threshold voltage levels, and that can support dynamic change of the voltage from the Sub-threshold levels up to the high voltage levels.
Embodiments of the invention allow a Near/Sub-threshold implementation of ultra-low power design flow. Embodiments of the invention may be used by any system which requires ultra-low power consumption.
Additionally, embodiments also include implementation of a programmable DC2DC convertor which connects directly to the external battery and supplies the needed operating voltage of the device core. This DC2DC output voltage is programmable and can be changed via a CPU command. The DC2DC output voltage range is programmable from Sub-threshold voltage levels up to high voltage levels with a small increment of a few mV.
Additionally, embodiments of the invention may also include one or more special sensors inside the chip for checking performance and temperature monitoring which help to determine the required operating voltage for the device.
Additionally, embodiments of the invention may also include one or more special first fail circuits which can be used to represent the worst case path of the logic or memory design and are capable of operating from a different power source than the device power source.
Additionally, embodiments also include a SOFTWARE programmable algorithm to verify adaptively and dynamically the needed operating voltage for the target speed on the first fail circuits and then implement this voltage for the rest of the device.
The invention may be understood by referring to the following description and accompanying drawings that are used to illustrate embodiments of the invention. In the drawings:
A flow to design a Near/Sub-Threshold solution ASIC using SOFTWARE programmable Adaptive Dynamic Voltage Control (ADVC) to improve the device power performance and to ensure optimal energy per operation for a given required speed or target operation.
In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth. However, it is understood that embodiments of the invention may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known circuits, structures and techniques have not been shown in detail in order not to obscure the understanding of this description.
Reference throughout the specification to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present invention. Thus, the appearance of the phrases “in one embodiment” or “in an embodiment” in various places throughout the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments.
Moreover, inventive aspects lie in less than all features of a single disclosed embodiment. Thus, the claims following the Detailed Description are hereby expressly incorporated into this Detailed Description, with each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment of this invention.
For one embodiment of the invention, the implementation may be effected using SOFTWARE control on the operating voltage to improve the device power per given performance. By increasing the operating voltage, the performance increases exponentially while the dynamic power increase only by the power of two. However, the Adaptive Dynamic Voltage Control (ADVC) algorithm defines the operating voltage to be the lowest possible voltage at which the device operates correctly.
For another embodiment of the invention, the decision on the correct operating voltage for the device is done using different sensors which exist inside the silicon such as temperature sensors or process monitor sensors or other unique sensors as shown at
For another embodiment of the invention, the implementation uses an exemplary circuit of a Power Management Unit (PMU) block. This block includes a programmable DC2DC block (item 100 in
For another embodiment of the invention, the implementation includes a SOFTWARE algorithm for Adaptive Dynamic Voltage Control (ADVC) that calculates the optimal voltage to be used for the design per a given required frequency as shown in
For another embodiment of the invention, the implementation includes a First Fail circuit which is illustrated in
The different DLL blocks (items 301-302 in
For another embodiment of the invention, the first fail circuit path length is programmable and can be controlled by the SOFTWARE after the device is manufactured and characterized. With this method after performing the chip characterization the length of this first fail path can be determined to exactly represent the worst case path in the design of the digital logic of the device.
For another embodiment of the invention, the first fail circuit comprises of a few identical DLL circuits that are designed with the same circuitry, but with different wire lengths in each DLL. By using all different DLL paths, it is possible to represent worst case paths in the design of the digital logic of the device both for paths with short wires between circuitry and for paths with long wires between circuitry.
Embodiments of the invention have been described as including various operations. Many of the processes are described in their most basic form, but operations can be added to or deleted from any of the processes without departing from the scope of the invention.
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
6522182 | Tomita | Feb 2003 | B2 |
6967522 | Chandrakasan | Nov 2005 | B2 |
7973594 | Amrutur | Jul 2011 | B2 |
8502590 | Friddell | Aug 2013 | B2 |
9244515 | Kawasaki | Jan 2016 | B2 |
20120159276 | Zandian | Jun 2012 | A1 |
20130222018 | Park | Aug 2013 | A1 |
20140070879 | Kawasaki | Mar 2014 | A1 |
20140176189 | Wang | Jun 2014 | A1 |
20140247088 | Prager | Sep 2014 | A1 |
20140250313 | Marr | Sep 2014 | A1 |
20160013792 | Ashouei | Jan 2016 | A1 |
20160105162 | Zangi | Apr 2016 | A1 |
20160283630 | Zangi | Sep 2016 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
20160267208 A1 | Sep 2016 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
62133382 | Mar 2015 | US |