Sequence PowerArtist slashes power

SANTA CLARA, USA: Ubicom Inc., a leading provider of 32-bit embedded, multithreaded processors, announced that it is using Sequence Design’s award-winning PowerArtist for reducing power in its most advanced designs, while increasing the RTL designer’s productivity an order of magnitude.

“Ubicom’s solutions are power efficient while delivering high performance, and we were looking to further enhance our power reduction methodology. After evaluating available RTL power reduction tools we decided to license PowerArtist, and believe it will greatly increase our productivity by identifying the highest power saving opportunities at RTL in minutes, on blocks several hundred instances in size,” said Jon Gibbons, Ubicom Vice President of VLSI Engineering.

“Since PowerArtist utilizes proven RTL power analysis technology to predict power savings, we have validated results through synthesis, it enables us to make power decisions upfront at RTL. A further benefit is Sequence’s PowerCanvas GUI, which we find is unparalleled in versatility and ease of use, giving designers an intuitive method for understanding and reducing power.”

Built upon the foundation of proven Sequence RTL DFP (Design For Power) accurate power analysis technology and Open Access Database, PowerArtist reduces power by 10-50 percent or more at RTL where designers have maximum opportunities for power reduction. With comprehensive techniques focusing on trimming power in three key areas: clock, memory, and datapath, the power savings are over and above those achieved during synthesis.

Enhancing the RTL designer’s productivity by 10X, the next-generation engines examine the RTL code, prioritize highest power saving opportunities, and generate power-optimized RTL automatically or guide the user through manual edits within a powerful graphical environment, called PowerCanvas.

“Companies like Ubicom are prime examples of why PowerArtist is succeeding in the low-power design market worldwide, showing repeatable, quantifiable, and easily achievable power reductions,” said Sequence President and CEO Vic Kulkarni. “Sequence RTL power solutions provide our customers with the lead in competing for power.”