Efficient RC low-power bus encoding methods for crosstalk reduction

In on-chip buses, the RC crosstalk effect leads to serious problems, such as wire propagation delay and dynamic power dissipation. This paper presents two efficient bus-coding methods. The proposed methods simultaneously reduce more dynamic power dissipation and wire propagation delay than existing bus encoding methods. Our methods also reduce more total power consumption than other encoding methods. Simulation results show that the proposed method I reduces coupling activity by 26.7-38.2% and switching activity by 3.7%-7% on 8-bit to 32-bit data buses, respectively. The proposed method II reduces coupling activity by 27.5-39.1% and switching activity by 5.3-9% on 8-bit to 32-bit data buses, respectively. Both the proposed methods reduce dynamic power by 23.9-35.3% on 8-bit to 32-bit data buses and total propagation delay by up to 30.7-44.6% on 32-bit data buses, and eliminate the Type-4 coupling. Our methods also reduce total power consumption by 23.6-33.9%, 23.9-34.3%, and 24.1-34.6% on 8-bit to 32-bit data buses with the 0.18, 0.13, and 0.09 mu m technologies, respectively. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.