Timing-Constrained Voltage Island Assignment and Floorplanning for Power Optimization∗

Power consumption is a crucial concern in nanometer chip design. Researchers have shown that multiple supply voltage (MSV) is an effective method to reduce power consumption. The underlying idea behind MSV is the trade-off between power saving and performance. In this paper, we present an effective voltage assignment technique based on dynamic programming. Given a netlist without reconvergent fanouts, the dynamic programming can guarantee an optimal solution for the voltage assignment in linear time. We then generate a level shifter for the net that connects two blocks in different voltage domains, and perform power-network aware floorplanning for the MSV design. Experimental results show that our floorplanner is very effective in optimizing power consumption under timing constraints.