System level optimization and design space exploration for low power

We present a software tool for power dissipation analysis and optimization on the algorithmic abstraction level from C/C++ and VHDL descriptions. An analysis is most efficient on such a high level since the influence of design decisions on the power demand increases with increasing abstraction (A. Raghunathan et al., 1998). The ORINOCO/sup (R)/ tool enables us to compare different but functionally equivalent algorithms and bindings to RT-level architectures with respect to power consumption. The results of the optimized binding can be used to guide synthesis. In the experimental evaluation we compare the predicted optimization trend with synthesized implementations and prove the accuracy of our methodology and tool.