Minimizing power dissipation during write operation to register files

This paper presents a power reduction mechanism for the write operation in register files (RegFiles), which adds a conditional charge-sharing structure to the pair of complementary bit-lines in each column of the RegFile. Because the read and write ports for the RegFile are separately implemented, it is possible to avoid pre-charging the bit-line pair for consecutive writes. More precisely, when writing same values to some cells in the same column of the RegFile, it is possible to eliminate energy consumption due to precharging of the bit-line pair. At the same time, when writing opposite values to some cells in the same column of the RegFile, it is possible to reduce energy consumed in charging the bit-line pair thanks to charge-sharing. Motivated by these observations, we modify the bit-line structure of the write ports in the RegFile such that i) we remove per-cycle bit-line precharging and ii) we employ conditional data dependent chargesharing. Experimental results on a set of SPE...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2007
• Where: ISLPED
• Authors: Kimish Patel, Wonbok Lee, Massoud Pedram
• Keywords: Bit-line Pair, Conditional Charge-sharing Structure, Hardware, ISLPED 2007, Write Ports