Most Commonly Used/Required UPF 1801 Constructs
Posted by Godwin Maben on March 2nd, 2012
Often times many designers keep asking one question ; Does all EDA tools support UPF2.0 Commands. In theory all the commands in UPF are referred to as IEEE 1801 commands and all the supported commands by the tool can be accessed through solvnet article (https://solvnet.synopsys.com/retrieve/021264.html)
In my opinion in addition to the standard UPF commands used so far, there are around 4-5 new UPF constructs that are really useful to describe Power Intent more Precisely
1. Supply Sets and its related Commands : Supply set is a collection of supply nets each of which serves a specific function (power, ground, nwell, pwell, deepnewell, and deeppwell) for the set.
2. Set_isolation with source/sink/diff_supply : This option to set_isolation command eliminates the need to come up with the list of elements/ports/pins for isolation.
3. Set_port_attributes : Specifies information relevant to ports on the interface of the power domains. This information is used to determine isolation and guard requirements for the port.
4. Add_power_state : Adds state information to a supply set. It defines a state for a supply set and specifies the state of a specific supply net in the supply set for the defined state
5. Create_logic_port/create_logic_net/connect_logic_net : Some ports if referred only in UPF, can also be created in UPF , instead of manually creating these ports/nets/pins in RTL.
6. Query_* commands:
More details about these commands are available in the above mentioned solv-net article. Will discuss about these commands with some example in my next post.










I have worked in the VLSI industry for 14 years as a digital IC designer. My recent work has been focused on low-power challenges associated with multi-voltage/
Good list! However I think you might have meant add_power_state not add_port_state…
John,
Thanks, Yes I meant add_power_state and fixed the same in the post.
Thanks again.
Godwin