This document discusses Monte Carlo simulation techniques for power analysis of circuits. It explains that Monte Carlo simulation requires a large number of input vectors to accurately estimate power dissipation. The key points are:
- Monte Carlo simulation collects switching activity from many input vectors to apply to a power model.
- More input vectors lead to higher accuracy but diminishing returns. There is a point where additional vectors do not meaningfully improve accuracy.
- Statistical techniques can determine the optimal number of vectors needed to estimate power within a given error tolerance with a specific confidence level, such as 90%. This avoids wasting computation on unnecessary vectors.