Near-threshold voltage (NTV) design — Opportunities and challenges

Moore's Law will continue providing abundance of transistors for integration, only to be limited by the energy consumption. Near threshold voltage (NTV) operation has potential to improve energy efficiency by an order of magnitude. We discuss design techniques necessary for reliable operation over a wide range of supply voltage - from nominal down to subthreshold region. The system designed for NTV can dynamically select modes of operation, from high performance, to high energy efficiency, to the lowest power.