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Value Change Dump (VCD) : Switching Activity Interchange Format Saif

The document discusses different file formats used for power analysis: VCD (Value Change Dump) files contain the times when signal values change; SAIF (Switching Activity Interchange Format) files contain toggle counts and timing information but not individual value changes; and FSDB (Fast Signal DB) and PHY (Palladium database format) are other power analysis file formats. It notes that VCD files are a superset of SAIF files since they contain the exact signal value change times, allowing for time-based power estimation, while SAIF files only contain cumulative toggle counts.

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Shobhit Garg
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117 views

Value Change Dump (VCD) : Switching Activity Interchange Format Saif

The document discusses different file formats used for power analysis: VCD (Value Change Dump) files contain the times when signal values change; SAIF (Switching Activity Interchange Format) files contain toggle counts and timing information but not individual value changes; and FSDB (Fast Signal DB) and PHY (Palladium database format) are other power analysis file formats. It notes that VCD files are a superset of SAIF files since they contain the exact signal value change times, allowing for time-based power estimation, while SAIF files only contain cumulative toggle counts.

Uploaded by

Shobhit Garg
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Value change dump (VCD)

Switching Activity Interchange Format (SAIF)


FSDB (Fast Signal DB)

PHY (Palladium database format generated in the Palladium environment)

VCD format :: http://www.vlsiip.com/power/

Saif format :: http://www.vlsiip.com/power/T0001.saif

saif file - contains toggle counts and time information like how much time a signal was in 1 state(T1), 0
state(T0) , x state (TX). Also in backward saif file you can have timing information, arc information just
like .lib (read saif manual).

vcd file - contains value changes of a signal. i.e. at what times signals changes their values. saif does not
contains this information. it contains cumulative information of vcd.
you can convert a vcd file into saif file using Synopsys vcd2saif binary and see the effect.

Effectively vcd file is a superset of saif file. Any application which needs time stamps of individual value
changes must have to use vcd e.g. time based power estimation or if you have a vcd file which is
simulated between 0 to 10ns then you can do power analysis for any time range between 0 to 10ns e.g.
power for 2-5, 3-7...
but for saif you can not do you have to regenerate saif for these time intervals.

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