SystemC is well tailored to model the behavior and timing of Hardware/Software (HW/SW) systems. But can you also model the power consumption at system level? This is the DVCon Europe SystemC modeling challenge! To limit the effort for participants to “creative” modeling effort, the organization provides some templates for evaluation and also a large data set of (real, physical) measurements.
Motivation
The power consumption of processors and embedded systems is one of its most relevant features: Power consumption of HW/SW systems limits computing performance, imposes constraints on packaging and cooling, and limits the life-time in or harvester-powered devices. Even worse, power and signal integrity can be affected. Hence, the development process must consider power and energy consumption as early as possible, in the best case by extending an executable specification and with limited efforts.
The challenge of the 2025 DVCon SystemC Modeling Challenge is to estimate energy and power consumption of a SystemC model. The power consumption of a system depends on two things:
The use case scenario in which the HW/SW system is used.
The HW/SW system itself, and
As a starting point, we give
- A model of the system, but without the power/energy estimation.
- A data set of measurements of the hardware component’s power consumption.
A solution might use conventional approaches or machine learning. We are curious to see what is better in the end.
Get Started
- Download the SystemC Template: The template provided contains the basic structure for the model. Download and review the template to understand the initial setup and placeholders.
- Understand the Circuit and States: Familiarize yourself with the circuit components, statedefinitions, and the required inputs and outputs.
Implement the Model
- Complete the template: Using the provided SystemC template, implement the necessary code to handle state transitions and estimate power consumption.
- Estimate Power Consumption: Develop algorithms to predict power consumption based on state changes. Your model should output the estimated energy consumption over time and, optionally, the instantaneous power consumption.
- Testing it: Use the provided test bench to validate your model. Ensure that your predictions are accurate and that the model responds correctly to state changes.
Submit your solution – and win the Competition!
- Code Submission: Submit your completed SystemC model code.
- Documentation: Provide documentation detailing your approach, algorithms used, and any assumptions made.
- Evaluation Criteria: Models will be evaluated based on accuracy of power consumption prediction, efficiency of the implementation, and completeness of the documentation.