Budgeting Power Like A Pro: Don't Let Your Chip Max Out Its Power Credit Limit

18 Jul 2025 • 6 minute read

Power planning in chip design is a lot like managing your monthly budget. If you don't keep an eye on where the watts are going, you might end up with a chip that's all flash and no efficiency—kind of like spending your entire salary on gadgets and forgetting about rent. You'll end up with a chip that's overdrawn on power and deep in thermal debt.

Believe it or not—chips hate overdraft fees, too!

Just like you wouldn't wait until the end of the month to realize you've overspent, you shouldn't wait until signoff to think about power. A good power plan—like a good budget—starts early, tracks usage, and cuts out the waste. Clock gating? That's your "turn off the lights when you leave the room" moment. Voltage islands? Think of them as setting spending limits for different departments.

You start with good intentions: a clean RTL, a solid floorplan, maybe even coffee-fueled optimism. But without a power strategy, your design starts splurging on unnecessary toggles, hoarding leakage, and before you know it—boom! Thermal meltdown and a blown tapeout budget.

And just like your bank account, once the power budget's busted, it's hard to recover without serious design regret.

That's why low-power synthesis is your chip's financial advisor. It helps you set limits (hello, voltage islands), cut unnecessary spending (thanks, clock gating), and keep everything running efficiently without surprise "overheating fees."

With Genus Low-Power Synthesis, you're not just saving power but making smart, forward-thinking design investments. You plan for it, optimize it, and ensure your design stays cool, calm, and under control.

Whether you're running a simple low-power synthesis or complex flow with IEEE 1801 power intent, we've got the training to help your design live within its means and still perform like a rockstar.

Because in the world of silicon, just like in life, it's not about how much power you have—it's how wisely you spend it.

Why Low-Power Synthesis?

Low-power synthesis is not just a checkbox in the IC design flow—it's a strategic necessity.

As power budgets shrink and performance demands grow, optimizing power at the synthesis stage becomes critical to achieving design closure without compromising functionality or timing.

Low-power synthesis is a foundational step in the IC design flow, where behavioural RTL is transformed into a gate-level netlist with a strong emphasis on minimizing power consumption. As modern SoCs become more power-sensitive—especially in mobile, automotive, and edge AI applications—early power optimization is no longer optional; it's essential.

The Genus Synthesis Solution enables designers to implement a range of power-saving strategies directly during synthesis, including:

Clock Gating: Automatically inserts gating logic to turn off clocks in idle regions, significantly reducing dynamic power.
Multi-Vt Cell Selection: Balances performance and leakage by selecting appropriate threshold voltage cells during mapping.
Multiple Supply Voltage (MSV): Allows different blocks to operate at different voltage levels, reducing overall power while maintaining performance where needed.
Power Shutoff (PSO): Enables complete shutdown of unused logic blocks to eliminate leakage power.
Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling (DVFS): Supports runtime voltage and frequency adjustment based on workload, optimizing power dynamically.

Powerful Learning Path

The Genus Low-Power Synthesis Flow with IEEE 1801 Training Course provides a comprehensive and hands-on approach to low-power digital design using the Genus Synthesis Solution in Stylus Common UI mode. It focuses on advanced techniques to reduce dynamic and leakage power during synthesis, including Power Shutoff (PSO), Multiple Supply Voltage (MSV), and Dynamic Voltage Frequency Scaling (DVFS). Through a blend of theoretical instruction and practical labs, you will learn to implement low-power design flows, synthesize for MSV and PSO, troubleshoot power-related issues, and generate detailed power reports that support high-quality silicon outcomes.

The courses also cover specifying and validating power intent using industry standards. The training also covers formal verification techniques to ensure power constraints are correctly implemented and functionally sound. You will learn to use IEEE 1801 (Unified Power Format) to define power intent throughout the synthesis flow, and using IEEE 1801-compliant power intent files, you can explore debugging real-world scenarios.

Hands-On Learning with Labs and Training Bytes

To reinforce theoretical knowledge, the training includes:

Labs: To facilitate a seamless learning experience, we provide hands-on labs encompassing various design scenarios. The training and lab exercises are specifically designed to help you reach your objectives. Step-by-step lab instructions are conveniently available in the interactive lab book.

Lab Videos: Here's where it gets exciting! We provide dynamic video content for each training lab to support your learning journey. Every lab module includes a demo-style walkthrough of the instructions, making it easier to ramp up the tools and troubleshoot any steps. Whether you're just a beginner in low-power synthesis or already have some experience, we're here to help you navigate it confidently.

Kickstart your journey to becoming a low-power synthesis expert with our captivating series of short lab videos, now available on the ASK site, including Lab Demo: Running the Low-Power Synthesis Flow with IEEE 1801 in Genus Synthesis Solution.

By investing in Genus Low-Power Synthesis training, design teams can become experts in power-aware design techniques early in the flow, enabling smarter power budgeting, reducing leakage and dynamic power, and accelerating their path to energy-efficient, high-performance silicon.

Online Class: Get ready for the most thrilling experience with Accelerated Learning!

The more you know, the faster you go! It's based on your existing knowledge, so grab the cycle or take a hike. Take the quiz and increase your learning pace!

What's Next?

Grab your Digital Badge after finishing the training and flaunt the expertise you have built up.

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As a next step, you can further leverage the vast database of videos and detailed training on the Cadence ASK Portal (Cadence login required).

Short Training Bytes Videos

Enhance the Genus Synthesis Solution experience with short videos: Genus Synthesis Solution: Video Library

Did you already know? The Cadence YouTube channel hosts a Customer Education Training Bytes channel. Here, you can view a variety of training bytes for which you do not need a Cadence ASK account.

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