News Release from: Mosaid
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial Team on 12 July 2004

IP platform gets to grips with power management

Mobilize is billed as the industry's first complete power management intellectual property (IP) platform to reduce dynamic and static (leakage) power of SoCs.

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Mobilize is billed as the industry's first complete powermanagement intellectual property (IP) platform to reduce dynamicand static (leakage) power of SoCs. Mobilize is targeted to helpSoC designers working in the battery-powered, mobile applicationspace manage power, extending Moore's law beyond the powerbarriers at 130nm process technology and below. The Mobilizepower management IP platform provides an adaptive, dynamicallyconfigurable solution for reducing both static and dynamic powerin 130nm SoCs.

Virtual Silicon's patented Gate Biastechnology is the key element within Mobilize.

In gate biasing,the leakage of the cell is reduced by over 250x on a standard130nm process (generic) with no sacrifice to the performance ofthe SoC.

Gate Bias can be used independently on power islands andincludes data retention flip-flops so there is no loss of state.Gate Bias can be turned on and off in as little as 20ns, allowingdesigners greater opportunity for leakage reduction.'Virtual Silicon's Mobilize is the first and onlycommercially available solution to resolve the power crisis at130 and 90nm without compromising performance or cost', saidBarry Hoberman, President and CEO of Virtual Silicon.

'Thecombination of Mobilize-enabled foundation IP with higher level,power management IP offers processor-based designers significantarchitectural opportunities for reducing leakage'.

Customeranalysis has shown that Gate Bias technology can reduce theleakage of a 1-million-gate power island from 2.21mA to just8.3uA.

In addition to cutting leakage, Mobilize is shown toreduce the dynamic power of an SoC by over 80% through the use ofdynamic voltage and frequency scaling.

Virtual Silicon'sMobilize IP continues the collaboration between Virtual Siliconand National Semiconductor Corp on PowerWise technology.'Our PowerWise technology is enabling SoC designers togreatly extend the battery life of portable devices'.'The unique capabilities of Mobilize power management IP, byVirtual Silicon a PowerWise Interface (PWI) adopter, places apowerful tool in the hands of SoC designers', said PeterHenry, Vice President of Portable Power Systems.

Mobilize isendorsed by leading foundries, EDA companies, power managementintegrated circuits suppliers and IP companies.

Virtual Siliconfurther disclosed that initial customers are actively designingSoC with Mobilize IP and expect end-of-year design tape-outs.

Thecomplete 130nm process technology Mobilize IP platform iscurrently available for licence download on the Virtual Siliconwebsite.

All IP elements are tape-out ready, so designers canstart using Mobilize immediately to save power on their currentSoC designs.

A full test chip report for 130nm will be availablein September 2004.

The 90nm Mobilize power management IP platformwill be tape-out ready by Q1 2005.

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