The technical differences between the two formats are relatively minor, but the political considerations are harder to overcome. Dvt compiles upfcpf files and elaborates power domains. Unified power format upf semiconductor engineering. Our goal is to help you understand what a file with a. The attraction of tcl is that commandline commands can be used as statements in a script. It does not specify how these things are accomplished, only what needs to be. This training provides an introduction to the concepts, challenges, and techniques for simulating and verifying low power designs. The following common power format cpf and unified power format upf commands are supported by dvt. This upf file type entry was marked as obsolete and no longer supported file format. Cpf converter, free cpf converter software downloads. The accellera standards organization has approved a 1. What are the main difficulties when using unified power format upf flow with synopsys and mentor flow in digital environment and while going from. This marks the first deployment of cpf, the format thats at the heart of a controversial standards effort and that now forms the basis of low power solution, cadences complete design flow for lowpower ics rather than making cpf available as a feature in tools.
Upf to cpf conversion logic design cadence community. The engineer explorer courses explore advanced topics. Unified power format upf is the popular name of the institute of electrical and electronics engineers ieee standard for specifying power intent in power optimization of electronic design automation. The ieee 18012009 release of the standard was based on a donation from the accellera organizatio. Upf cpf power specification formats basically provides a way to describe the following specifications, unique to low power design techniques 3. The backbone of upf, as well as the similar common power format cpf. This tool is very useful for chip design engineers, who want to feed the power related info about the rtl in upf cpf. Introduction since both the implementation flow and the simulation flow read the same power format files and rtl, most engineers would assume that information integrity is sustained. Today, cpf is owned by the silicon integration initiative si2, which recently approved cpf as a specification. It puts a lot of stress on how you verify the design, how you guarantee coverage, and there is more emphasis on hardware software coverification or emulation. But unfortunately i have just library with powered gates.
The formats have been described as the same in every intent, but different in every detail. Low power format support in the dvt eclipse ide youtube. After conformal low power writes the cpf, the wrapper will do some checks. The si2 common power format, or cpf is a file format for specifying powersaving techniques early in the design process. Cpf common power format is a common file format to describe the power. Springsoft simplifies verification of lowpower chips with. Using upf commands, you can specify the supply network, switches, isolation, retention, and other aspects relevant to power management of a chip design. In recent years, this requirement has been extended to many more categories of end products. Power domains specific information is presented in design hierarchies, diagrams, breadcrumb navigation bars, tooltips and. The upf file stores digital photo created by integrated camera. Thats the heart of this lowpower verification announcement. The unified power format was developed within accellera and the first version published in 2007. Checking, cpf common power format, upf unified power format, ieee 1801 1. Cadence, however, believes that convergence should take place within si2, and the si2s low power coalition has decided against donating cpf to ieee p1801.
The cadence poweraware methodology verifies power intent without impacting. Cpf, upf and even company proprietary formats vying for world domination in the power format language arena. Generally, fpga device doesnt request upf file to develop design. Four steps for static verification of low power designs. Low power design solutions custom soc socionext us. While cpf was developed internally by cadence, mentor graphics, magma design automation and synopsys launched the rival accellera unified power format upf effort. I did a manual conversion of the commands to create the power domains but i feel that the way the switch cells and isloation cells are defined in the cpf and upf is very difficult to convert from it. The electronics industry has developed a wide range of techniques for power management and has defined the unified power format upf to describe design intent for some of the most common methods. The upf file extension is associated with some mobile phones developed by nokia. Upf and cpf powerformats are recognised throughout the industry with which you can specify powergating considerations for a design. The si2 common power format, or cpf is a file format for specifying powersaving techniques. In consequence, a coalition of companies launched the rival accellera unified power format upf effort. In the design of integrated circuits, saving power is a primary goal, and designers are forced to use sophisticated techniques such as clock gating, multivoltage logic, and turning off the power entirely to inactive blocks. Abstract specification and successive refinement of power intent is supported by both leading power format standards.
Do you mean is there any tool in fpga development that we can generate upf file using rtl. Because power management is so intrusive it affects every phase of the design, whether its rtl or sensors or dsps. Today, ieee 1801 upf makes it possible to design lowpower integrated. The ieee 18012009 release of the standard was based on a donation from the accellera organization. Low power logic implementation and verification using cpf still, no need to specify power or ground nets at this design stage minimal set of cpf commands for designers to use logic synthesis tools to synthesize isolation, level shifter and state retention logic to perform power domain aware logic synthesis to perform power mode aware dvfs. Unified power format upf ieee standard 18012009, based on accelleras unified power format describes low power intent of a design input to multiple tools simulation. The differences are widely characterized as cpf versus upf, but this is. If history repeats itself, as wasis the case for hardware description languages. Reallife low power verification pitfalls, and upf 1801. Synopsys mentor cadence tsmc globalfoundries snps ment. The ieees 18012009 specification, colloquially known as upf 2. For power intent to define power management to minimize power consumption.
We chose to bring ieee 1801 to simulation first because users like you sometimes need to mix vendors for regression flows. They introduce many different power states, usually under software. By normal synthesis i got design with floating power nets. Unified power format upf is the popular name of the institute of electrical and electronics engineers ieee standard for specifying power intent in power. The upf format seems to be obsolete and not used in current nokia phones. Whenever you change a design file verilog or vhdl which was compiled during the full build phase, dvt triggers a power domain elaboration analysis of power format files is not performed. Socionext offers a total solution that supports power gating, multi power supply, and multivoltage design through consistent power supply specification management with upf 1 and cpf 2, rtl simulation for complicated power supply design due to an increased number of integrated ips, multi power supply. This was followed shortly by an alternative effort, the unified power format or upf, proposed as an ieee standard as opposed to an si2 standard. All file types, file format descriptions, and software programs listed on this page have been individually researched and verified by the fileinfo team. Download a upf script 2 cpf script converter for free. This training provides an introduction to the concepts, challenges, and techniques for simulating and verifying lowpower designs. You need to be cognizant of how software affects power. The a upf script 2 cpf script converter open source. This tool is very useful for chip design engineers, who want to feed the power related info about the rtl in upfcpf.
The idea of a consistent, unified across eda tool platforms format for expressing low power intent is fantastic. An ieee lowpower study group, designated ieee p1801, grew out of the upf effort and is seeking to converge cpf and upf. Manage everything in one easy to use software icon. It instructs how to communicate your designs low power features to the simulator and downstream tools with the common power format cpf. Si2 and accellera representatives say they will try to converge the cpf and upf formats. Cadence and synopsys have been at loggerheads in the creation of the power aware design methodologies. One is cpf for common power format and the other is upf for unified power format.
Unified power format wikimili, the best wikipedia reader. The ieee 1801 unified power format upf standard establishes a set of commands used to specify the lowpower design intent for electronic systems. Cadence design systems designed the early versions of cpf, then contributed it to si2. It instructs how to communicate your designs lowpower features to the simulator and downstream tools with the common power format cpf. Logic simulation is an abstraction of the design in which. It specifies the power intent of an electronic design and includes elements such as power supply definitions, power control requirements, level shifters, isolation and memory retention. In addition, it supports common power format cpf 1. Cpf viewer software free download cpf viewer page 3. Upf was released as an accellera standard in late february. Cadence and synopsys have been at loggerheads in the creation of the poweraware design methodologies. Cpf common power format is a design specification language that addresses the limitation in tradi. The ams designer support for the common power format cpf and ieee 1801 unified power format upf is also discussed. Verifying a low power design verification consulting. The backbone of upf, as well as the similar common power format cpf, is the tool control language tcl, a scripting language originally created to provide a way to automate the control of design software.
New incisive low power verification for cpf and ieee 1801 upf on may 7, 20 cadence announced a 30% productivity gain in the june 20 incisive enterprise simulator. I have a testcase which has been implemented using upf and now i am planning to implement the same using cpf. The appendix attached to this course addresses software licensing, and a section on how you can send test cases for evaluation. We strive for 100% accuracy and only publish information about file formats that we. Hierarchical methods for power intent specification ee times. Advanced debug visualization, faster turnaround time, and the extension of eight years of low power verification innovation to ieee 1801 upf are the key. New incisive lowpower verification for cpf and ieee 1801. Another point you may have noticed is the extension of the common power format cpf based poweraware support in the incisive enterprise simulator to ieee 1801. Upf and cpf corresponding to any lowpower design being developed in rtl stage and referred till end i. Cpf converter software free download cpf converter. Read here what the cpf file is, and what application you need to open or convert it. We continue to define design parameters for our design, this means telling the tools, through the cpf file, which part of the design is to be lowpower implemented, which instances belong to which power domain, and the different power modes that exist. Power management keeps being a very valuable asset for mobile applications.
780 1287 1251 712 776 426 1403 896 388 84 1094 1424 239 1507 710 701 136 496 473 90 973 1401 580 643 930 1396 417 1029 1243 476