Circuit power optimization using pipelining and dual-supply voltage assignment

Power is one of the most important metrics in the modern integrated circuit design. We optimize the circuit power using two major approaches, pipelining and dual-supply voltage (dual-Vdd) assignment. To improve power efficiency, we have designed a new pipelining to reduce the number of gates need to be assigned to the high supply voltage when combined with the dual-Vdd assignment. Our overall design is tested on a set of standard ISCAS-85 benchmark circuits using an industrial cell library. An average power saving of more than 10% under a specified target delay is observed.