Voltage scheduling under unpredictabilities: a risk management paradigm [logic design]

Abstract

This paper addresses the problem of voltage scheduling in unpredictable situations. The voltage scheduling problem assigns voltages to operations such that the power is minimized under a clock cycle constraint. In the presence of unpredictabilities, meeting the clock constraint cannot be guaranteed. This paper proposes a novel risk management based technique to solve this problem. The risk management paradigm assigns a quantified value to the amount of risk the designer is willing to take on the clock cycle constraint. The algorithm then assigns voltages in order to meet the expected value of clock cycle constraint while keeping the maximum delay within the specified 'risk' and minimizing the power.