Transition density: a new measure of activity in digital circuits

Noting that a common element in most causes of runtime failure is the extent of circuit activity, i.e. the rate at which its nodes are switching, the author proposes a measure of activity, called the transition density, which may be defined as the average switching rate at a circuit node. An algorit...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on computer-aided design of integrated circuits and systems 1993-02, Vol.12 (2), p.310-323
Main Author: Najm, F.N.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applied sciences
Circuit analysis
Circuit simulation
Degradation
Density measurement
Design. Technologies. Operation analysis. Testing
Digital circuits
Electromigration
Electronics
Exact sciences and technology
Integrated circuits
Power dissipation
Runtime
Semiconductor electronics. Microelectronics. Optoelectronics. Solid state devices
Switching circuits
Virtual prototyping
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Noting that a common element in most causes of runtime failure is the extent of circuit activity, i.e. the rate at which its nodes are switching, the author proposes a measure of activity, called the transition density, which may be defined as the average switching rate at a circuit node. An algorithm is also presented to propagate density values from the primary inputs to internal and output nodes. To illustrate the practical significance of this work, it is shown how the density values at internal nodes can be used to study circuit reliability by estimating the average power and ground currents; the average power dissipation; the susceptibility to electromigration failures; and the extent of hot-electron degradation. The density propagation algorithm has been implemented in a prototype density simulator which is used to assess the validity and feasibility of the approach experimentally. The results show that the approach is very efficient, and makes possible the analysis of VLSI circuits.< >
ISSN:0278-0070
1937-4151
DOI:10.1109/43.205010