sureCore takes SRAM below 0.5V for the first time
SureCore in the UK has developed the first SRAM memory IP with a voltage under 0.5V for the first time for ultra low power designs.
One of the major challenges developers face is that existing embedded SRAM cannot operate at reduced voltages for low power designs such as wearables and edge AI.
These applications must provide significant inferencing power whilst still delivering acceptable battery life. SureCore has used its low power design capability to create a new range of ultra-low voltage SRAM IP called PowerMiser Plus, that can operate down to 0.45V.
- sureCore develops in-memory computing for edge AI
- SureCore memory supports ‘listen through’ in active noise cancellation
PowerMiser Plus has already been licensed to two customers for edge AI designs. For one customer, sureCore ported the PowerMiser Plus architecture to a 12nm low power process interfacing to logic operating at 0.45V whilst delivering 400MHz performance at the worst-case corner. The SoC had an on-chip LDO generating both the logic supply as well as a 0.65V supply for the SRAM storage arrays.
This ensured the two power supplies could track each other within a predefined margin, avoiding the use of power-hungry level shifters within the SRAM.
“The 12LP process has a 0.45V nominal voltage and the threshold is 390mV so you have a little bit of headroom and retention voltage of the cell is 650mV,” Paul Wells, CEO of SureCore tells eeNews Europe.
“So you have the periphery at 450mV but even so we were able to get 400MHz at the worst case corner,” he said. “The novel thing we did was we talked to the customer about the system level voltage distribution with fast mode and slow mode and that needs an on-chip DC-DC converter, with a supply to the core and one to the periphery. As long as there is always a 150mV difference between the two then you don’t need level shifters that take up space and are power hungry. If the customer can guarantee this you get the benefits,” he said.
For another edge-AI customer, the PowerMiser Plus architecture was optimised to provide an ultra-low voltage, single port solution that took advantage of the low voltage profile of the foundry high current bit cell. Whilst operating at 0.6V nominal and delivering 400MHz worst case, the memory was also characterised to operate at 0.5V providing dramatically extended battery life.
sureCore has a both custom memory development service called sureFIT that can provide memory sub-system designs optimised for Power, Performance and Area (PPA) and power-optimised standard products called Everon, PowerMiser and MiniMiser.
Power savings can be achieved both at nominal operating voltages and, increasingly importantly, at low to near threshold voltages allowing the application designers to tailor the power profile to the performance requirements. sureCore memories offer single rail, low voltage operation allowing direct logic connection.
If you enjoyed this article, you will like the following ones: don't miss them by subscribing to :
