Main Memory Power Management

Duke University, Durham NC

Investigators

Abstract

Energy is becoming the limiting resource for many applications, as processor performance and network bandwidth continue to rapidly advance. Devices such as wireless sensor networks, cell phones with integrated personal organizers (PDAs), laptops, and even Internet hosting centers are all concerned about power consumption either due to limited battery capacity or the high cost of operating and cooling large server farms. In many of these systems main memory can become a significant portion of the overall power budget, particularly with the advent of low-power, high-performance processors. This project investigates main memory power management research issues that span several levels of computer system design: from the operating system managing memory power states, to the design characteristics of platform architectures, and finally down to the details of internal DRAM organization. This project will investigate power management design decisions within each system level and explore interactions across levels.