Reduction of the Number of Power States for High-level Power Models based on Clock Gating Enable Signals

In this paper, we propose to identify redundant power states of high-level power model based on clock gating enable signals(CGENs) using dependencies of Boolean functions and structural dependencies of clock gating cells. Three functional dependencies between two CGENs, namely equvalence, inversion, and inclusion, are used. Functions of CGENs in a circuit are represented by binary decision diagrams (BDDs) and the functional relations are used to reduce the number of power states. The structural dependency appears when a clock gating cell drives another clock gating cells in a circuit. Automatic dependency checking algorithm has been proposed. The experimental results show the average number of power state is reduced by 59%.