2011 TAU power grid simulation contest: Benchmark suite and results

Benchmark suite is an immensely useful tool in performing research since it allows for rapid and clear comparison between different approaches to solving CAD problems. Technology scaling with decrease in supply voltage, increase in power density and frequency will continue to impose strong challenges in designing of robust power delivery networks. An accurate analysis of power delivery networks has become an absolute necessity. A critical issue in power grid analysis is the large size of the power grid network. At the 45-nm technology node, the typical size of the power grid network is in the range of hundreds of million nodes. In this paper, we review the TAU 2011 Power Grid Simulation Contest. This contest was held to seek new efficient methods for solving very large power grid networks. Accuracy, run-time and memory were used as metrics to evaluate the solutions and consequently, prizes were awarded to the top three teams. The benchmarks in [1] are expanded to include larger networks that were created from real industry designs. These are made public along with the score from various teams that participated in the contest. These new benchmarks would aid in furthering academic research to address the increasing demands in the analysis of very large power grid networks.