Energy-aware compilation and hardware design for VLIW embedded systems. (3rd December 2007)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ayala, Jose L.; Lopez-Vallejo, Marisa; Atienza, David; Raghavan, Praveen; Catthoor, Francky; Verkest, Diederik
• Is Part Of: International journal of embedded systems. Volume 3:Number 1/2(2007)
• Page Start: 73
• Page End: 82
• Publication Date: 2007-12-03
• Subjects: shared register files -- low-power optimisations -- compiler -- VLIW processors -- embedded systems -- hardware design -- multimedia applications -- power consumption -- energy-aware register assignment -- energy-aware computing; Embedded computer systems -- Periodicals; 004.16
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1741-1068

Abstract

Tomorrow's embedded devices need to run multimedia applications demanding high computational power with low energy consumption constraints. In this context, the register file is a key source of power consumption and its inappropriate design and management severely affects system power. In this paper, we present a new approach to reduce the energy of shared register files in forthcoming embedded VLIW processors running real-life applications up to 60% without performance penalty. This approach relies on limited hardware extensions and a compiler-based energy-aware register assignment algorithm to deactivate at run-time parts of the register file (i.e., sub-banks) in an independent way.