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CMOS Design

Chapter 4 : Probability Power

Analysis
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4. Probability power analysis

C. Chen

Probabilistic Based Analysis

Signals can be characterized by some quantities (e.g,
frequency) instead of full waveform.
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Same frequency (f )
--> Same power
dissipation (P=CV2f )

Such signal quantities allow us to characterize a large

number of different signals into a single class.
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4. Probability power analysis

C. Chen

Static Probability and Frequency

The static probability, p, of a digital signal is the ratio of
the time it spends in logic 1 to the total observation time.
Under temporal independence assumption, the probability
T that a transition occurs is:
T = 2 p(1 - p)

--- transition probability

and the expected frequency is f = T/2 = p(1 - p).

We need a propagation model for static probability in
order to derive the frequency of each node in a circuit for
power analysis.
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C. Chen

4. Probability power analysis

Propagation of Static Probability

Find out static probability propagation of a two-input
OR gate.
The general formula for the propagation of static
probability through an arbitrary Boolean function y = f (x1 ,
x2 , , xn) is given by

P ( y ) P ( x i f xi ) P ( x i f x )
i

P ( x i ) P ( f xi ) P ( x i ) P ( f x )
i

where P ( x i ) 1 P ( x i )
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4. Probability power analysis

C. Chen

Transition Density Model

In addition to static probability (p), we add another
parameter to characterize a logic signal -- transition density
(D) which denotes the number of transitions per unit time.
p = 0.4 , D = 4 per sec.

p = 0.4 , D = 6 per sec.

1.0 sec

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4. Probability power analysis

C. Chen

Propagation of Transition Density

The Boolean difference of y with respect to xi is
defined as
dy
f xi f x
i
dx i
Under zero-delay model and the uncorrelated
inputs assumption, the transition density of y is
given by
D( y)

i 1

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dy

P ( dx

) D ( xi )

4. Probability power analysis

C. Chen

Signal Entropy
For a discrete variable x which takes n different
values, its entropy is defined as
H ( x)

p
i 1

log 2

1
pi

( pi is the probability that x takes the ith value xi )

If x is a random Boolean variable with probability
p of being logic 1, we have
H ( x) p log 2
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1
1
(1 p) log 2
p
1 p
C. Chen

4. Probability power analysis

Entropy-Based Power Estimation

Recall the dynamic power
Power

CV
i 1

2
dd

i f

F C i FA
i 1

where F is the average switching activity on N

nodes, and A is proportional to the circuit area.
The following relation has been observed:
A 2 n H (Y )
F
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for small n (n 10) , or A

2n
H (Y )
n

for l arg e n.

2
[ H ( X ) 2 H (Y )]
3(m n)
4. Probability power analysis

C. Chen