An Energy-Complexity Model for VLSI
- Creators
- Tierno, José Andrés
Abstract
An energy complexity model for CSP programs to be implemented in CMOS VLSI is developed. This model predicts with some accuracy the energy dissipation of the "standard" asynchronous VLSI implementation of a CSP program, associated to a given trace of that program. This energy complexity is used in the analysis of CSP programs, in order to optimize this high level representation of asynchronous circuits for energy efficiency. A lower bound to the energy complexity of a CSP program is derived, based on the information theoretical entropy per symbol of the input/output behavior of the CSP program. This lower bound abstracts the specification of the circuit (that is, its input/output behavior), from the implementation of the specification (that is, the text of the program), and therefore applies to any program that meets the specification. A number of techniques are presented to write programs of low energy complexity, and are applied to several examples. To link the high level representation of circuits to the CMOS representation, several circuits are analyzed to provide standard translations for basic CSP operators into CMOS. In particular, a method for pipelining bus transfers using the sense-amplifier of the bus as a register is proposed.
Additional Information
© 1995 José Andrés Tierno All Rights Reserved California Institute of Technology. After six years of toil the journey is over. Caltech was for me an incredible experience, for its people, its traditions, and its enormous accumulated wealth of scientific knowledge. I must thank all of the Caltech community, for all that I learned from them either directly or indirectly. From none did I learn more, however, than from Alain Martin. For six years he patiently guided my research, and taught me most of what I know about concurrency and asynchronous design. A lot of other people has to be especially mentioned, because things would have been different without them. I want to thank Chuck Seitz, for having introduced me to the black magic of VLSI. I want to thank Drazen Borkovic, for having patiently listened to my ramblings for so many years. I want to thank Marcel van der Goot, for his programs, his LATEXmacros, and many very stimulating conversations around a dictionary. I want to thank Tony Lee, for his wonderful CAD tools, and his incredible energy to fix what didn't work right or do enough. I want to thank Peter Hofstee, for all the lunch time discussions. I want to thank Jessie Xu, for teaching me some Chinese characters and a little patience. I want to thank Wen-King Su for the Friday night movies. I want to thank all of the CS185 students, for all of what they taught me. Finally, a very special thanks to Mr. Oshima, for teaching me that of a one thousand mile journey nine hundred and ninety nine is only half.Attached Files
Submitted - 95-02.pdf
Submitted - 95-02.ps
Files
Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 26877
- Resolver ID
- CaltechCSTR:1995.cs-tr-95-02
- Created
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2001-05-14Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2019-10-03Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Computer Science Technical Reports
- Series Name
- Computer Science Technical Reports