PMS2UPF: An automated transition from ESL to RTL power-intent specification

High power density is the most crucial problem in deeply integrated hardware systems. Therefore, the power has to be reduced in such systems, what is most commonly achieved by the utilization of power management. Unfortunately, the standardized application of power management is quite complex and does not very well support the system level of design abstraction, which is increasingly used by the industry. An immediately applicable solution to this problem is to use increased automation in the design process, regarding the power management. This paper proposes a tool, called PMS2UPF, which can automatically generate the standard UPF (Unified Power Format) power intent based on the abstract power-management specification in SystemC/PMS. The automated transition between the two abstraction levels not only accelerates the design process, but also prevents possible introduction of human errors into the refined design.