I can hardly believe it. I’ve been in the EDA business since 1980 when I joined TI’s Design Automation Department after graduating from Cal Poly with my BSEE. Since 1995, much of my attention has been focused on EDA standards. I reached a moment of truth this year when I admitted, albeit reluctantly, that I could be called a standards-lifer. So, I decided it’s time to share my perspectives on what’s going on in the standards arena. Welcome to my blog - I can’t wait to hear from you! It's official! IEEE Standard 1801 is approved!
Posted by Karen B on March 18th, 2009
Today, the IEEE-SA Standards Board approved the standard known as 1801: Standard for Design and Verification of Low Power Integrated Circuits. Everyone in the field of low-power chip design has known it as UPF, the Unified Power Format. Approval by the IEEE-SA is a significant milestone in the life of a standard, and everyone who dedicated time, brainpower, and expertise to 1801 deserves a hearty congratulations and a long weekend.
The 1801 standard describes the design intent for implementing, analyzing, and verifying today’s advanced, low-power chips. With the growing awareness of energy consumption as it impacts our environment, 1801 joins a family of IEEE standards that can be called “green”. Chips that consume less power are at the beginning of a food chain of less-hungry electronic products.
From supporting the formation of and participating in the Accellera technical subcommittee for UPF, to organizing workshops, to writing articles, to working with my competitors and customers, and finally as a member of the IEEE-SA Standards Board, I’ve been involved in 1801 from start to finish. Along with many of my respected colleagues, I experienced the excitement and struggles that occurred throughout the process of producing 1801. While my role was largely in the “business” aspects of developing this standard, I relished the opportunity to stay current with low-power chip design techniques. I even found myself enthusiastically giving a technical demo to a group of engineers at DAC. Wow, did that take me back in time!
Development of the Unified Power Format began in Accellera before I started this blog. I wrote several posts about it after it was transferred from Accellera, where it was first created, to the IEEE-SA under sponsorship by the IEEE DASC (Design Automation Standards Committee):
Is there any hope for a single standard?
UPF at the Interoperability Forum
UPF is a real standard with real adoption
Less visible than the U.S. Presidential ballot, but still important
 You can google “Unified Power Format” for an extensive list of 1801-related materials.
The 1801 standards game was most impressive in how quickly 3 of the 4 leading EDA companies rose to occasion to work together, including their customers and all interested EDA companies, when the industry demanded an open standard for low-power IC design and verification.
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Karen,
I would also like to recognize Rich Goldman at Synopsys and Kam Kittrell at Magma who at the end of the DAC meeting to discuss an open power format standard took a collaborative and inclusive posture with me that helped launched the work that has become an IEEE standard.
These 10 minutes of discussion pale to the days and hours of meetings and toil by the technical team. But those 10 minutes have proven to be invaluable.
May the future hold more repeats of this success.
-Dennis
Thanks, Dennis.
I want to recognize Stephen Bailey of Mentor Graphics, the P1801 Working Group Chair, who led the effort to standardize UPF in both Accellera and IEEE. Clearly, his leadership was instrumental in 1801′s success, and the support from his management and company was notable. (I think this means you, too.)