US Patent 7900172 Method and apparatus for analyzing power consumption

Disclosed is a power consumption analysis method capable of reducing an analysis time of power consumption. The method is performed on a design circuit having a characteristic signal for specifying an operating mode of a circuit block and the method comprises the steps of: measuring an operating rate of the characteristic signal in each unit analysis interval for analyzing the power consumption; determining, based on measurement results of the operating rate of the characteristic signal, whether to measure the operating rate of the circuit block whose operating mode is specified by the characteristic signal; and measuring the operating rate of the circuit block only when determined to measure the operating rate of the circuit block.