Probabilistic Power Analysis

Recap. of Simulation Based Analysis

Simulation
Based on circuit behaviour over time
Required charactrization
Event Driven
 Probabilistic Power Analysis
Logic Signal is random 0-1 process with certain
statistical characterristics
Exact event time not required
Derive statistical characteristics of the signal
Higher Computation Efficiency
Loss in Accuracy
Suitable for gate-level or higher abstraction
 Random Logic Signals
Characterization of Logic Signals
Exact : initial state, duration and time of transition
No. of transitions in given time: frequency, f. Initial
and Final state not important. Then use P =CV2f
Different signals with same f
 Characteristics
Signal probabilities
Correlations
Probability density functions etc.
 Random Signals
Continuous Random Signals: signal at any t
Discreet Random Signals: signal at tclock
-
 Probability and Frequency
Let N(T) be number of logic transitions in time T
 Static Prob. And Frequency
Let logic signal be in state 0(1) for time t0(1) then
define static Prob.as
 p and f are related
E.g. p =0 or 1 then f = 0

Consider Discreet Random Signal with static probability p

Assume memory-less signal i.e. next state independent of

current state

Frequency of the discreet random signal ?

Instead look at the expected frequency or the mean

frequency
Let probability that the state is logic 1 is p1 = p
Therefore probability that the state is logic 0 is p0 =
(1-p)
Conditional Prob:
Next state is logic 1 is p11= p
Next state is logic 0 is p10= 1-p
Similarly
 Transition at clock boundary T is

f = T/2
f = p(1-p)
 Static probability is the independent variable
that characterizes the signal
All other properties can be derived from the
static probability
E.g. Avg. length of consecutive 1 in 0-1 signal.
i consecutive 1s by a 0 is pi(1-p) thus
 Conditional Prob. and frequency
Current state depends on the preceding state
Consider tossing of 2 coins. If 0 then toss coin0. If
1 then toss coin1 for the current state.
Define p01 (p11) the conditional Prob. That the
current state is 1 given the previous state is 0(1)
Also define p00 (p10) the conditional Prob. That the
current state is 1 given the previous state is 0(1)
 Let p1 be the static Prob. Of Logic 1.
p0 = 1-p1
 For time homogeneous 0-1 sequence
 We have six variables p01, p00, p11, p10, p1, p0.
Not all are independent.
There are only 2 independent variables
Other variables can be derived from the 2
independent variables
Partition the variables into sets {p01, p00}, {p11,
p10}, {p1, p0}.
Chosing any two variabels from 2 different
sets the other variables can be found
 Transition Prob. T
 Word-Level and Bit-Level Statistics
In DSP systems the statistical behavoiur of the
data stream is known. E.g. data rate, data stream,
sample correlation
Word level data stream statistics can provide Arch.
Level power estimation

Investigate the relationship between the word-level

and bit-level statistic
 Integer value in binary bits

In general :
 The static proabability pi of bit i is the sum of
of the probabilities of all the words that has bi
= 1 in its binary representation. i.e.
 Probabilistic Power Analysis

Inputs are non-deterministic

Random Logic Signals at the input
Propagate the statistical quantities to the internl nodes
Obtain the output
 Propagation of static probability in logic
circuits
e.g. AND gate

General Formula for the propagation of static

probability..
Note that:
 Transition Density Signal Model
Logic signal is a 0-1 stochatic process
Static probability
Transition density
 Shannons Decomposition theorem

Boolean Difference:
 Output transition density:

Total o/p transtion density

 Example:
 Probabilities
 Gate Level Power Analysis using Transition
Density
Each internal node y of the circuit find the
Boolean function of the node
Find D(y) of each node, y = f(x1,,xn)using D(y) =

=1 ()

Compute total power using P =
0 52(), where 0.5D(y) is the
.
frequency
 Pros of transition density propagation model
Proven using statistical theory
No costly time domain logic simulation
more accurate than the pure static probability
model
Computation efficient compared to the event-
driven logic simulation
 Drawbacks of transition density propagation
model
Compared to event-driven logic simulation less
accurate power estimate
Non-zero gate delays, signal glitches and spurioud
transitions are not modeled
Input signal correlations are ignored
Works only for combinational and not sequential
circuits.
 Signal Entropy
Application of Entropy Analysis to VLSI Power
analysis is new !

1996 onwards
 Basics of Entropy
Suppose a system has m possible events {E1,Em}
Where each Ei occurs with pi
and p1+p2+...+pm = 1
Information content Ci of an event Ei is given by
= 2 {1 }
pi 0 , Ci
pi 1, Ci 0
Unit of Ci is referred to as bit
 Entropy H of the system is H =

=1 2 1/

Hmax = log2m , iff : pi = 1/m for all i

Logic signal analysis the events are the word-
levels values of the signals

n-bit logic signals there are m = 2n distinct word-

level signals in the range 0 2 1
Let pi be the probability that the value i occurs
1

H(X) = 2 1/
=0
For large n , computing H(X) is difficult
Assume each signal sj is independent of the
other and has static probabilty pj
Each bit is an independent discrete event system
with probabilities {pj, (1-pj)}
Therefore
 Max{H(X)} = log2m = n bits when each i is
equally likely and pj = 0.5
In general H(X) is low when pj 0.5
 Power Estimation with Entropy
Consider

Let N be the total number of nodes, therefore

 Assume fi = F is constant for all i, therefore

Where A is the sum of the node capacitances.

A is proportional to the area or size of the
circuit.
Let H(X) and H(Y) be the entropy of the i/p and
o/p signals respectively
 It is emperically observed that for small n (n
10),

And for large n,

 It is shown that average frequency F is

Therefore
 Proportionality constant depends on
Operation voltage
Average node capacitance
H(X), H(y) are obtained by monitoring the
signals during a high level simulation
In general H(Y) H(X), o/ps are fewer than
i/ps
For all combinational gates, H(Y) H(X)
 Drawbacks of Entropy Estimation method
Based on empirically observed average
phenomenon. Specific classes of circuits dont
obey the result
Absolute accuracy of power estimation is poor
due to lack of implementation details.
Only applicable to large combinational circuits
with high degree of randomess
Power estimation fails for circuits with high
regularity or signals with high correlation
 Extension to Sequential Circuits

From high level simulation obtain i/p and o/p entropies of the
combinational circuits.
Apply entropy power estimation for the combinational circuits
and add to the power dissipation of the sequential elements