Automation of Switch Insertion and Power Network Generation in 28 nm Power-Switched Designs

Market competition drives design complexity higher and design cycle shorter resulting in rapid RTL and physical design changes through tape-out. Conventional switched power grid creation requires costly manual intervention to build and verify a complex switched power network. This manual effort often must be repeated for each iteration of the design and, consequently, becomes a bottleneck in complex power-managed design execution. We have developed an automated flow to accomplish the power switch insertion and power network generation leveraging Cadence Encounter (EDI) low-power capabilities. Our correct-by-construction flow cuts the switch and power network creation and validation cycle from days to minutes. It is developed for high-performance, multi-core production designs in 28 nm technology. This paper describes the design flow methodology as well as the challenges faced and our solutions.