Background: The overall cost of an embedded system can be reduced significantly by minimizing its power requirements and maximizing its performance. Typically peripheral power control is static which does not cater to fine –grained intra-operation performance details. Dynamic Voltage Frequency Scaling (DVFS) is implemented in systems where performance is of paramount concern. However this approach often does not cater to the optimum power management of peripheral devices. DVFS also presents issues in operating voltage frequency scaling latencies and reliability during voltage or frequency transitions. Technology Description: Researchers at NC State University address this issue by proposing a novel method for maximizing performance and minimizing the power consumption in embedded peripherals. Their invention focuses on reducing the power consumption of peripheral devices by dynamically modulating supply voltage as they perform specified operations. This method is designed to have minimal impact on CPU utilization through the use of Peripheral Power Profiles (PPP) which assign an ideal voltage on a per- state basis. Low cost systems would benefit from this technology as the average load on the system would decrease allowing power-failure circuits to use decreased charge-storage devices in order to recover from power failures.
A Method for Maximizing Performance and Minimizing Power Consumption in Embedded Peripherals
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