METHOD OF MEASURING ACTIVITY IN A DIGITAL CIRCUIT

To measure activity in a digital circuit, support sets for each node within the digital circuit are identified. The support set for a node includes primary input signals in a cone of influence of the node. The support sets are used to identify minimally infeasible nodes, those nodes having a greater number of inputs than the maximum number allowed. Partitions are established around minimally infeasible nodes, effectively converting the minimally infeasible nodes into feasible partitioned nodes. A transition density is determined for each feasible node and feasible partitioned node wherein the transition density is an average switching rate for each feasible node and feasible partitioned node. An average power dissipation can be determined for each node in response to the transition densities.