Question

How voltage scaling is used for high level transformation of low power?

Answer 1

Adaptive Voltage Scaling (AVS) is a closed-loop dynamic power minimization technique that reduces power based on the actual operating conditions of the chip, i.e., the power consumption is continuously adjusted during the run time of the chip. Typically the design of any chip is done in such a way that it meets most demanding application throughput requirements under worst case operating conditions. This leads to an excess margin or wastage of power because the chip usually operates under typical operating conditions. AVS is beneficial compared to the conventional Dynamic voltage scaling (DVS) approach, a commonly encountered open loop dynamic power minimization technique, because AVS eliminates the excess power margins that are present in the open loop DVS systems due to the fixed voltage-frequency relations employed in those systems.[1] In AVS technique the chip's exact process corner is determined either during the manufacturing test or during runtime and the appropriate Voltage-Frequency relationship is determined, which will be used during the dynamic voltage and frequency scaling operations. This eliminates the extra margin that will be present if the worst case operating conditions are taken into account while the chip is actually operating under typical conditions.