Panel: SoC power management implications on validation and testing

We are at the crossroads of some fundamental changes that are taking place in the semiconductor industry. Power consumption has become one of the most important differentiating factors for semiconductor products due to a major shift in the market towards handheld consumer devices. Power is a primary design criterion for bulk of the semiconductor designs now. Power is a key reason behind the shift towards multi-core designs as increase in power consumption limits increases in clock speed at the rate we have seen in the past.