Switching characteristics of generalized array multiplier architectures and their applications to low power design
K. Muhammad, Dinesh Somasekhar, Kaushik Roy · 2003
This paper presents several new array multiplier architectures for reducing switching activity in general digital signal processing (DSP) applications. A cellular structure is described which can be used to obtain any array multiplier suitable for a given application. The switching activity at the output nodes of the cells in this structure is analyzed and compared with a tree multiplier based on 4:2 compressors. It is shown that the relative improvement in power is a function of statistical properties of the signal and most structures out-perform all others for specific signal conditions. It is also shown that selection of appropriate array architecture can give up to 49% reduction in switching activity compared to a tree multiplier, and more than 3 times less switching activity compared to the widely used least-significant-bit-first array multiplier for commonly occurring situations. We also outline applications of the proposed structures to the areas of low power quantization, reconfigurable computing and high-level synthesis for low power.