CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive

22 February 2008

Company News

Si2’s Low Power Coalition Announces CPF Roadmap

Silicon Integration Initiative (Si2) published the Low Power Coalition’s (LPC) approved Roadmap for Common Power Format (CPF) extensions planned out through mid-2009, along with a Request for Technology (RTF) to support the CPF extensions as well as power/design flow-related requirements. This announcement underscores the vitality and relevance of the LPC work as it continues to evolve based on designer and end-user needs (see member list below).

The announced CPF extensions cover the following items - a detailed presentation of each item can be found at this link: http://www.si2.org/?page=928

Immediate - Requirements for CPF Version 1.1 (target release – mid 2008)

•  Hierarchical flow support.

•  Memory modeling styles and support.

•  Gate-level verification flow CPF support.

•  Power estimation support

•  Clocking and related updates required to drive power optimization.

Medium Term – Requirements for CPF 1.2 (target release – early 2009)

•  Pre-Si and post_Si power modeling and budgeting.

•  Test power definitions not represented in CPF.

•  Investigate Load_foreign.

•  IO modeling and representation.

Long Term - Requirements for CPF 2.0 (target release – mid 2009)

•  CPF to drive debug related to power.

•  CPF based system level definition.

While the above items are an excellent start, they are recognized as only a start and will benefit from additional evolution and extension. It is also recognized that useful technologies exist in various companies in the industry. Those companies may be interested in being recognized for their technologies in various parts of the design flow from very high level all the way to the physical level. Sharing technologies and structures through the LPC can lead to faster industry progress and convergence. To that end, the LPC, with the assistance of Si2, has issued the Request for Technology, which is located at: http://www.si2.org/?page=784

Background

The CPF standard was approved and made publicly available in March of 2007, and since then has achieved wide acceptance in EDA tool adoption, use in end-user tool flows, numerous completed chip tape-outs and subsequent testimonials, and adoption into major foundry reference flows. In addition to the CPF 1.0 standard document (868 downloads) and CPF tutorial (625 downloads), adoption aids include CPF Parser software (53 downloads) and a CPF Pocket Guide (1310 downloads), all freely available from Si2. CPF is also supported by members of the Power Forward Initiative, http://www.powerforward.org.

Within the next couple of weeks, a new CPF Relational Analyzer will be announced - another valuable (and free) adoption aid.

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