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Hardware-Assisted Signal Activity Analysis for Power Estimation in Rapid Prototyped Systems

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Abstract

In this paper, a technique is proposed to gather statistical data concerning the activity of the internal signals in a complex application. By using an architecture precise rapid prototyping system, the signals can be analyzed over a long period of time and therefore, a realistic estimation of the signal characteristics is obtained. This information can be used for estimating the power consumption in the final system as well as for a later refinement of the communication structures and processing blocks. In order to account for deep submicron effects, not only transition activity but also inter-wire correlations are considered. Because of the huge amount of data that would be generated by a real-time monitoring, a statistical hardware compression module was implemented for embedding it into prototyped designs. It allows the trade off between hardware efficiency and estimation accuracy, in order to offer a flexible usage of the prototyping resources. The proposed approach has been validated in a baseband implementation and prototype of a simplified OFDM transmitter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Darmstadt University of Technology, Institute of Microelectronic Systems, Germany

    R. Ludewig, A. García Ortiz, T. Murgan & M. Glesner

Authors
  1. R. Ludewig
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  2. A. García Ortiz
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  3. T. Murgan
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  4. M. Glesner
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Ludewig, R., García Ortiz, A., Murgan, T. et al. Hardware-Assisted Signal Activity Analysis for Power Estimation in Rapid Prototyped Systems. Design Automation for Embedded Systems 8, 297–308 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:DAEM.0000013064.89918.69

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:DAEM.0000013064.89918.69

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