(2.5.1) Power : First class design constraint

T. Mudge. Power: A first class design constraint. Computer, vol. 34, no. 4, April 2001, pp. 52-57. IEEE Xplore link

Power equations for CMOS
     P = A C V^2 f + A V Ishort + V Ileak
     fmax = (V - Vt)^2 / V
     Ileak = exp (-Vt/35mV)

     
     reducing voltage has significant effect on power consumption P prop V^2
     reducing activiity does as well : clock gating
     parallel processing is good if it can be done efficiently > if computation can be split in two and run as two parallel independent tasks => power cut in half, no perf loss!

worry about
     peak power
     dynamic power
     total energy
     
     >> Measure MIPS/W
     >> or energy*delay

Tech for reducing
     Logic
          Clock gating
          Half frequency and half swing clocks
          async logic
     Architecture
          Memory systems
          buses
               gray code
          parallel processing and pipelining
     OS
          Voltage scaling
          scheduling
with High MIPS/W
     do scheduling such that applications dont complete well before deadline.