A method for register transfer level power estimation in chip design
includes the steps of: (A) parsing all possible condition branches of
conditional statements in a register transfer level code, and
establishing power modes inducible by each of the possible condition
branches; (B) selecting a plurality of representative input vector sets
from input vector sets recorded in the chip specification, and
constructing linear characterization formulas corresponding to the power
modes based on the selected input vector sets; and (C) calculating power
values from the linear characterization formulas that correspond to the
power modes, and obtaining an average power consumed by the chip from the
calculated power values.