Title :
A 2.60pJ/Inst Subthreshold Sensor Processor for Optimal Energy Efficiency
Author :
Zhai, Bo ; Nazhandali, Leyla ; Olson, Javin ; Reeves, Anna ; Minuth, Michael ; Helfand, Ryan ; Pant, Sanjay ; Blaauw, David ; Austin, Todd
Author_Institution :
Michigan Univ., Ann Arbor, MI
Abstract :
A 2.6pJ/Inst subthreshold sensor processor designed for energy efficiency has been fabricated. A two-stage micro-architecture was implemented to mitigate the impact of process variation in subthreshold operation. Careful library cell selection and robust SRAM design enabled fully functional operation from 1.2V to 200mV. We analyze the variation in frequency and optimal voltage and evaluate the need for adaptive control. The processor reaches maximum energy efficiency at 360mV, consuming 2.6pJ/Inst at 833kHz. The minimum energy consumption of the core marks a 10times improvement over previous sensor processors at the same MIPS
Keywords :
CMOS digital integrated circuits; instruction sets; integrated circuit design; microprocessor chips; sensors; 0.2 to 1.2 V; 833 kHz; SRAM design; adaptive control; library cell selection; optimal energy efficiency; process variation; subthreshold operation; subthreshold sensor processor; Circuits; Delay; Dynamic voltage scaling; Energy consumption; Energy efficiency; Frequency; Libraries; Pipelines; Random access memory; Resource description framework;
Conference_Titel :
VLSI Circuits, 2006. Digest of Technical Papers. 2006 Symposium on
Conference_Location :
Honolulu, HI
Print_ISBN :
1-4244-0006-6
DOI :
10.1109/VLSIC.2006.1705356
