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Power Issues in Embedded Systems

Power Issues in Embedded Systems. Wong Weng Fai. Outline. The Big Picture Who’s got the Power? What’s in the bag of tricks?. The Big Picture. Phenomenal increase in processor speed 3GHz Pentium 4 by the end of the year Shrinkage in size Mobility highly desired

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Power Issues in Embedded Systems

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  1. Power Issues in Embedded Systems Wong Weng Fai

  2. Outline • The Big Picture • Who’s got the Power? • What’s in the bag of tricks? Embedded Seminar

  3. The Big Picture • Phenomenal increase in processor speed • 3GHz Pentium 4 by the end of the year • Shrinkage in size • Mobility highly desired • BUT battery technology not improving at the same rate Embedded Seminar

  4. Batteries Not Included • Nickel-based batteries • Nickel-Iron • The first rechargeable, old technology • Nickel-cadmium and Nickel-Metal-Hydride • High energy density – good for motors • Lithium-based batteries • Promising because lithium releases electrons easily • Problem with battery life, dangerous to handle • Others • Zinc-air batteries – can work a laptop for 10 hours Embedded Seminar

  5. Some Terminologies • Power is the rate of energy consumption • Power ≠ energy • Energy depends on how long you run the thing! • Optimizing for speed = optimizing for energy? • Some researchers look at average power Embedded Seminar

  6. Back to Basics Gate oxide insulator Gate   N+ source  N+ drain        P- substrate  N-Channel Metallic Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor

  7. Back to Basics – ACTION!       Gate oxide insulator - + Gate           +                 N+ source N+ drain   -           P- substrate  N-Channel Metallic Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor

  8. CMOS VDD P-channel MOSFET Input: 0 = 0V 1 = +5V Output CMOS Inverter N-channel MOSFET GND Embedded Seminar

  9. CMOS VDD P-channel MOSFET Input: 0 = 0V Output = 0 CMOS Inverter N-channel MOSFET GND Embedded Seminar

  10. CMOS VDD P-channel MOSFET Input: 1 = +5V Output = 1 CMOS Inverter N-channel MOSFET GND Embedded Seminar

  11. Power in CMOS P = total power VDD = supply voltage f= clock frequency N = switching (gate transition per clock cycle) Ileak = leakage power Istatic = static power QSC = quantity of charge carried by short-circuit current per transistion Embedded Seminar

  12. Switching power Short-circuit power Leakage power Static power Static power Dynamic power Power in CMOS Embedded Seminar

  13. Switching Power • Accounts for most (90%) of power • Two major factor is supply voltage and frequency • Voltage scaling • Frequency scaling Embedded Seminar

  14. Short Circuit Power • During switching, there is a short period of time when both gates are ON  a path from VDD to ground  power dissipation Embedded Seminar

  15. Leakage Power • Diode leakage • Source (and drain) together with substrate forms a diode • At times, this diode can be reverse-biased during which current can leak • Sub-threshold leakage • Even when gate is not completely on, enough of a channel can form for some movement of charges from source to drain Embedded Seminar

  16. Static Power • Reduced voltage feeding • Both gates can be “weakly on” • Weak current flow from VDD to ground • Other parasitic current flows • Due to imperfect manufacturing or operating conditions Embedded Seminar

  17. A Digression – The Problems Of Scaling down • Latch-up effect • Short-channel effect • Punch-through effect • Hot electron effect • Gate erosion Embedded Seminar

  18. Latch-up Effect Embedded Seminar

  19. Tricks in the bag • Voltage Scaling • Frequency Scaling • Power Gating Embedded Seminar

  20. Voltage Scaling • Lower VDD • For the same circuit and technology, this leads to higher gate delay • Total delay, , is made up of two components,  = 1 + 2 • 1 is a constant • 2 VDD Embedded Seminar

  21. Frequency Scaling • Widely used in many processors • Intel SpeedStep on mobile processors • Leads to lower performance • Obvious! Embedded Seminar

  22. Power Gating • Turn off power to parts of the circuit • Can be problematic for circuits with memory Embedded Seminar

  23. What About Memory? • SRAM • Implemented using CMOS • DRAM • Entirely different technology • Implemented using capacitors Embedded Seminar

  24. SRAM CMOS SRAM Cell Embedded Seminar

  25. DRAM Single Transistor DRAM cell

  26. Model or Measure? • Hardware measurement • Measures the amount of current consumed • Depends on how the circuit is designed • Cannot get core CPU power breakdowns Embedded Seminar

  27. Software Estimation • SPICE simulation • Very slow • PowerMill from Synopsys • CAD Tools • Part of a lot of CAD tool chains, eg. Synopsys • Architectural based simulation • Eg: SimplePower, WATTCH etc. Embedded Seminar

  28. Putting it Together – System Power Reference: Marc A. Viredaz and Deborah A. Wallach, “Power Evaluation of a Handheld Computer: A Case Study”. Compaq Western Research Lab Technical Report 2001/1. May 2001. http://research.compaq.com/wrl/techreports/abstracts/2001.1.html Embedded Seminar

  29. Dealing with it • System / OS • Algorithms • Architecture • Circuit/Logic • Technology Embedded Seminar

  30. Technology • Low threshold, low voltage • Various technological issues as discussed Embedded Seminar

  31. Circuit/Logic • Even within CMOS, there are different types of logic families that consumes different amount of energy • Transistor size • Layout • Asynchronous circuits • Clocking consumes a lot of power • Pipeline retiming Embedded Seminar

  32. Architecture / Compiler • Trade off area for power Embedded Seminar

  33. Architecture / Compiler • Trade off area for power • Shorter wires less power • Parallelism and concurrency • Directives to allow compiler to do • Voltage scaling • Frequency scaling • Power gating • One more degree of freedom: activity Embedded Seminar

  34. Algorithms • Low power algorithms • Parallelism and concurrency • A under-research area Embedded Seminar

  35. System / OS • System level power management • Heuristics for transiting between various power modes • Operating environment sensitive power management • Battery or plugged-in? • Power-domain specific management schemes Embedded Seminar

  36. Reducing Processor Power • Energy conscious code generation • Reduce switching • Instruction scheduling • Use of Gray code instead of binary • Low power modes • Instruction compression • Parallelism and concurrency Embedded Seminar

  37. Reducing Memory Power • Reduce memory accesses • All compiler techniques for reducing cache misses • Use registers • Memory reference compaction • Power aware page allocation • Group active pages together Embedded Seminar

  38. Reducing Peripheral Power • Communication • Different power modes for communicating devices • Data compression • Adaptation in view of traffic and power • Disk • Spin-down and different power modes (when?) • Display Embedded Seminar

  39. Summary • Some research opportunities still exist • Especially in algorithms and operating systems • An integrated approach is needed • All levels of the system cooperating with one another Embedded Seminar

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