ITR: Designing "Real-Power" Systems: Static and Dynamic Techniques for Managing Power/Performance Tradeoffs

Princeton University, Princeton NJ

Investigators

Abstract

Power consumption, thermal issues, and battery lifetimes are primary design issues in many computer systems. To address the needs for effective and efficient power management in current computer systems, this project studies unified methodologies for creating power-aware hardware and software. A key underlying philosophy in this work is the notion of "real-power" systems. Drawing an analogy to real-time computer systems, real-power systems seek to maintain predictable and manageable levels of power consumption with the best possible performance, rather than simply reducing power consumption regardless of performance. A multi-level approach spanning operating systems, compilers, and hardware brings leverage to a problem that is difficult to address at the hardware level alone.