Minimizing power with flexible voltage islands

Power dissipation is becoming the most challenging design constraint in nanometer technologies. Among various design implementation schemes, standard cell ASIC offer the best power efficiency for high-performance applications. The flexibility of ASIC allow for the use of multiple voltages and multiple thresholds to match the performance of critical regions to their timing constraints, and minimize the power everywhere else. The use of multiple supply voltages presents some unique physical and electrical challenges. Level shifters need to be introduced between the various voltage regions. The physical layout needs to be designed to ensure the efficient delivery of the correct voltage to various voltage regions. More flexibility can be gained by using appropriate level shifters.