TU DELFT | TU EINDHOVEN | TU KAISERSLAUTERN

Open Source DRAM Power & Energy Estimation Tool

DRAMPower is an open source tool for fast and accurate DRAM power and energy estimation for DDR2/DDR3, LPDDR/LPDDR2 and Wide IO DRAM memories based on JEDEC standards. The tool is based on the DRAM power model developed jointly by the Computer Engineering Research Group at TU Delft and the Electronic Systems Group at TU Eindhoven and verified by the Microelectronic System Design Research Group at TU Kaiserslautern with equivalent circuit-level simulations. The tool is targeted at users and designers of different generations of DRAM memories and DRAM memory controllers and can be easily integrated into existing system design flows. The tool performs command trace analysis based on memory state transitions and hence, avoids cycle-by-cycle evaluation, which speeds up simulations. The power equations have also been updated for better accuracy in consultation with TU Kaiserslautern. As a result, DRAMPower is faster and more accurate than similar tools performing cycle-accurate analysis. The tool supports all basic DRAM memory operations including read, write, refresh, activate, precharge and auto-precharge, besides active and precharged power-down and self-refresh modes. Finally, the tool has been updated to support variation-aware power estimation, for a selection of DDR3 memories manufactured using 50nm process technology, based on the Monte-Carlo analysis presented in our DAC'13 article [4]. Towards this, 15 sample datasheets reflecting the impact of process-variations on DRAM currents have been provided.

If you decide to use DRAMPower in your research, please cite one of the following references:

References:

To cite the DRAMPower Tool

[1] DRAMPower: Open-source DRAM power & energy estimation tool

Karthik Chandrasekar, Christian Weis, Benny Akesson, Norbert Wehn, and Kees Goossens

URL: http://www.drampower.info

To cite the DRAM power model

[2] Improved Power Modeling of DDR SDRAMs

Karthik Chandrasekar, Benny Akesson, and Kees Goossens

In Proc. 14th Euromicro Conference on Digital System Design (DSD), 2011

To cite the 3D-DRAM power model

[3] System and Circuit Level Power Modeling of Energy-Efficient 3D-Stacked Wide I/O DRAMs

Karthik Chandrasekar, Christian Weis, Benny Akesson, Norbert Wehn, and Kees Goossens
In Proc. Design, Automation and Test in Europe (DATE), 2013

To cite variation-aware DRAM power estimation

[4] Towards Variation-Aware System-Level Power Estimation of DRAMs: An Empirical Approach

Karthik Chandrasekar, Christian Weis, Benny Akesson, Norbert Wehn, and Kees Goossens
In Proc. Design Automation Conference (DAC), 2013

Licensing:

This tool is released now under the BSD 3-Clause License. This gives the users and developers the flexibility to employ, develop and re-distribute the source code with minimal obligations. We only ask users to cite one of the references listed above.

You may use the software subject to the license terms below provided that you ensure that this notice is replicated unmodified and in its entirety in all distributions of the software, modified or unmodified, in source code or in binary form.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

· Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.

· Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

· Neither the name of the copyright holders nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

Download:

By clicking the 'Download' button, you acknowledge that you have read, understood and accepted to use the DRAMPower tool under the terms of license detailed above. The current version of the tool is v2.1 and was released on 31^st May 2013. Feel free to forward your questions to Karthik Chandrasekar at k.chandrasekar@tudelft.nl.

Documentation:

These files are also included in the package and have been linked here for quick and direct reference.

· README

· Manual