SHF:SMALL:Enabling and Supporting the Development of Energy-Efficient Software

University Of Delaware, Newark DE

Investigators

Abstract

Inherent in today?s computing environments are concerns about battery life, heat creation, fan noise, and overall potentially high energy costs. This project addresses how software engineers can design and implement software with consideration for its energy usage. Empirical studies have shown that software engineers currently do not have the knowledge they need to produce energy-efficient software. They lack the information they need to make decisions affecting energy consumption of their applications, and they make incorrect assumptions about the underlying causes of those impacts. This project will address these needs at the software engineer?s level, enabling practitioners to further improve the energy usage of their applications beyond what can be achieved at the lower system levels. This project will contribute to the state of the art by developing novel, automatic analyses to support decision-making with regard to energy usage and will also increase understanding of the energy usage impacts of decisions made at the software engineering level. The project will develop tools for software engineers to discover and apply modifications that reduce the energy usage of their applications. The research is driven by empirical studies that related engineering decisions to energy consumption. The tools and experimental infrastructure developed within the project will be publicly released, which will let researchers and practitioners build on the project?s results.