Exploiting sleep mode for memory partitioning and other applications

Sleep mode operation and exploiting it to minimize the average power consumption are of great importance in modern VLSI circuits. In general, sleep mode refers to the mode in which part(s) of the system are idle. In this paper, we study the problem of partitioning a circuit according to the activity patterns of its elements such that circuit elements with similar activity patterns are packed into the same partition. Then a partition can be placed in sleep mode during the time intervals all elements contained in that partition are idle. We formulate the partitioning problem to exploit sleep mode operation and show that the problem is NP-complete. We present polynomial time algorithms for practical classes of the problem. Applications of the problem to memory and module partitioning and clock gating are discussed. The experimental data confirm that a careful partitioning allows upto 40% more sleep time which could be exploited to minimize the average power consumption.