Title: INTEGRA: Fast Multibit Flip-Flop Clustering for Clock Power Saving
Authors: Jiang, Iris Hui-Ru
Chang, Chih-Long
Yang, Yu-Ming
電子工程學系及電子研究所
Department of Electronics Engineering and Institute of Electronics
Keywords: Clock power;coordinate transformation;interval graph;multibit flip-flops;postplacement optimization
Issue Date: 1-Feb-2012
Abstract: Clock power is the major contributor to dynamic power for modern integrated circuit design. A conventional single-bit flip-flop cell uses an inverter chain with a high drive strength to drive the clock signal. Clustering several such cells and forming a multibit flip-flop can share the drive strength, dynamic power, and area of the inverter chain, and can even save the clock network power and facilitate the skew control. Hence, in this paper, we focus on postplacement multibit flip-flop clustering to gain these benefits. Utilizing the properties of Manhattan distance and coordinate transformation, we model the problem instance by two interval graphs and use a pair of linear-sized sequences as our representation. Without enumerating all possible combinations, we identify only partial sequences that are necessary to cluster flip-flops, thus leading to an efficient clustering scheme. Moreover, our fast coordinate transformation also makes the execution of our algorithm very efficient. The experiments are conducted on industrial circuits. Our results show that concise representation delivers superior efficiency and effectiveness. Even under timing and placement density constraints, clock power saving via multibit flip-flop clustering can still be substantial at postplacement.
URI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TCAD.2011.2177459
http://hdl.handle.net/11536/15241
ISSN: 0278-0070
DOI: 10.1109/TCAD.2011.2177459
Journal: IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMPUTER-AIDED DESIGN OF INTEGRATED CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS
Volume: 31
Issue: 2
Begin Page: 192
End Page: 204
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