Power is a chief concern for chip
designers, and those who implement
their circuitry on FPGAs are
no exception. Pressure is mounting to
follow the crowd toward low power, but
FPGA designers need comprehensive
design flows geared toward achieving
their power-budget goals.
Actel has stepped up with version 8.1
of its Libero Integrated Development
Environment (IDE), which combines a
pushbutton design flow and GUI wizards
with power-driven layout capabilities (see
the figure). One of the neatest features
of this edition is its ability to create power
profiles based on possible functional
modes of the design.
Knowing that a cell phone is in sleep
mode most of the time, users can plug in
a sleep-mode value, say 90%. The tool
reports on power consumption and provides
battery-life calculations based on
that value. A change in the sleep-mode
estimate results in a corresponding realtime
change in the power estimates.
The layout flow in Libero IDE automatically
reduces power consumption by
reducing the capacitance of nets within
the design based on estimated activity.
Unlike a timing-driven place-and-route
flow, which will stop when timing is met
with slack to spare, this IDE’s back-end
flow continues to seek opportunities to
reduce power even after timing is met.
Libero’s SmartPower analysis capability
provides deep insight into how
power is being consumed. Power-consumption
reports can be broken down
by logic, power rails, clock domains,
and even hierarchy.
Libero IDE v8.1 is available now. The
platinum edition for Windows or Linux
platforms costs $2495. The gold edition
for Windows is free. Both editions come
with one-year renewable licenses.
Actel Corp.
www.actel.com