Synopsys ZeBu Empower

Fastest Power Emulation for Hardware-Software Power Verification

Synopsys ZeBu^® Empower delivers breakthrough performance for fast hardware-software power verification. Its performance enables multiple iterations per day with actionable power profiling in the context of the full design and its software workload. The power profiles can be used by software and hardware designers to identify substantial power improvement opportunities for dynamic and leakage power much earlier. Synopsys ZeBu Empower also feeds forward power critical blocks and time windows into Synopsys PrimePower to accelerate RTL power analysis and gate-level power signoff.

Highlights

• Industry’s first SoC power emulation for multi-billion gate designs enables hardware-software power verification with software workloads 
• Industry’s fastest emulation system with high performance power verification engines enables multiple iterations per day  
• Feeds power critical blocks and time windows into Synopsys PrimePower, the industry’s golden power signoff solution
• Unmatched reliability enabling profiling longest software workloads

As silicon technology innovation drives forward, next generation SoC architectures are evolving to massively parallel architectures executing increasingly complex software workloads. Emulation has for a long time being proven as essential for hardware verification, early software bring-up and performance validation. While all of that is essential for bringing new silicon successfully to market, it is no longer enough. 

Many high profile SoC projects have been unsuccessful because post silicon power measurement with real software workloads revealed deficiencies not found during the design phase. Verifying the power profile prior to tape out has been done by design teams, however a global view of the power profile across the entire software workload and the entire SoC design was impossible without emulation technology.

The Synopsys ZeBu Empower solution offers a unique, novel technology for power profiling with its breakthrough emulation technology developed for the scale complexity of large vector sizes and complex billion gate designs. Its emulation hardware and software is architected to achieve maximum throughput for design teams that need multiple iterations per day. The power profiles generated by Synopsys ZeBu Empower provide actionable information that can assist hardware design teams to find power bugs and improve hardware architecture. For the first time software teams can optimize their operating systems and drivers to minimize overall power consumption. 

Output from Synopsys ZeBu Empower enables signoff teams to concentrate on the actual critical blocks and time windows creating real power reduction benefit.