std 1801 UPF

(page 4)
Abstract: The power supplied to elements in an electronic design affects the way circuits operate.

This standard provides an HDL-independent way of
annotating a design with power intent

Introduction
The purpose of this standard is to provide portable low power design specifications that can be used with a variety of commercial products throughout an electronic system design, analysis, verification, and implementation flow.

(page 6)
When the electronic design automation (EDA) industry began creating standards for use in specifying, simulating and implementing functional specifications of digital electronic circuits in the 1980s, the primary design constraint was the transistor area necessary to implement the required functionality in the prevailing process technology at that time.

As the process technology for manufacturing electronic circuits continued to advance, power (as a design constraint) continually increased in importance.

With process technologies below 100 nm, static power consumption has become a prominent and, in many cases, dominant design constraint.

The EDA industry responded with multiple vendors developing proprietary low power specification capabilities for different tools in the design and implementation flow.

(page 7)

Automation Conference (DAC) in June 2006, several semiconductor/electronics companies challenged the EDA industry to define an open, portable power specification standard.

(page 17)
1. Overview
1.1 Scope
This standard establishes a format used to define the low power design intent for electronic systems and electronic intellectual property.

1.2 Purpose
1.3 Key characteristics of the Unified Power Format (UPF)
p18