Adaptive Energy Regulation (AER)

AER is a combination of software and IP for embedded, intelligent and adaptive energy regulation for integrated circuits (ICs). The solution solves the main power problem in designs at 65nm and lower: variability (process, temperature, and aging) and leakage, which together dominate power consumption in ICs.

Chip-Level AER is a combination of tightly coupled IC design software and IP. The IC design software is used to analyze a design, determine the optimal voltage and frequency partitioning, calculate the lowest possible voltage for each voltage domain and provide sufficient design margin to ensure the IC will work under all operating conditions. The IP includes an on-chip hardware performance sensor network with power delivery circuitry that provides the lowest allowable voltage to each voltage domain on the IC -- dynamically and adaptively while the IC is operating in the system.

System-Level AER is a software layer used by the operating system or applications software to control the power profile of ICs that are enabled with chip-level AER. This fine grain control of IC power further improves overall energy consumption at the system level.

Unlike competing solutions, Envis' AER does not require an expensive, single-sourced energy management unit (switching regulator) with communications functions. Instead, AER works with most inexpensive, fixed-voltage switching regulator ICs, and this results in lower system BOM cost and lower SoC pin count. Additionally, Envis' AER is a complete solution which includes the IC design methodology and software to automate IP calibration and insertion. For more information on AER, please contact info@envis.com.

Supporting Products

Chill is a software tool that automatically implements next-generation clock gating for ICs. Chill manages the clock circuitry to reduce dynamic power, while static power is lowered by reducing chip area, all without sacrificing performance. This translates into lower chip and package costs and a shorter development time. Please contact Envis for more information.

Kelvin is a software tool that generates power vectors automatically. IC power analysis and estimation is a challenging problem. In particular, the lack of accurate power vectors often results in the overdesign of the chip, package and system. Kelvin solves this problem by taking the guesswork out of power estimation, which leads to the accurate estimation of power consumption, appropriate package selection and shorter development time. Please contact Envis for more information.