Performance Comparison of 16-Bit ALU and 32-Bit ALU Using Verilog
Suganthi Santhanam, Rajendra Prasad.S · 2025
The increasing demand for efficient and high-performance embedded systems drives the need for optimized Arithmetic and Logic Units (ALUs), which are fundamental to their operation. This study aims to address the trade-offs in area, propagation delay, and power consumption, ensuring balanced performance for diverse applications. The study compares the performance of 16-bit and 32-bit ALUs, focusing on key metrics such as area, propagation delay, and power consumption. A trade-off between area and power dissipation is observed, with the 32-bit ALU consuming more power and occupying more area than the 16-bit ALU. To ensure low power consumption, the design activates only one operation and circuit set at a time. The Spartan 6 SP605 FPGA board is utilized to evaluate and compare the performance, with simulations conducted using Verilog and the Xilinx 14.2 software tool. This study presents the design and analysis of a 16-bit Register-Transfer Level (RTL) ALU, showcasing its architectural efficiency with reduced complexity through functional blocks such as adders, subtractors, and logic gates. Synthesis results demonstrate optimized technology schematics using Xilinx-specific components, LUTs and carry logic, ensuring enhanced performance and early issue detection.