Macro-models for high level area and power estimation on FPGAs

ABSTRACT

As more and more complex applications are implemented on FPGAs, high-level design tools are needed to reduce the design time. A good high-level synthesis tool usually has an automated design space exploration pass to determine the effects of various compiler optimizations on the area and power of the synthesized hardware. Such a pass needs early estimation of area and power. Towards this end, we have developed high-level equation based area and power macro-models for various RTL level operators such as adders, multipliers, and logical operators. The area model is parameterized with the bit width of the device and the power model takes into account input switching activity and input spatial correlation as well as input bit width. These models are derived by actual synthesis of these RTL operators using back-end logic synthesis and place-and-route tools. Compared with the other approaches, our method generated a uniform macro-model for each operator with fewer coefficients and sometimes lower degrees. It is also easier to analyze the power sensitivity to different parameters. Experimental results show that these area and power models are accurate and efficient.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.6 SIMULATION AND MODELING
      I.6.5 Model Development
          Subjects: Modeling methodologies

General Terms:
Algorithms, Design, Experimentation

Keywords:
FPGA, RTL, area estimation, high-level synthesis, model, power estimation