Power Aware Computing (Series in Computer Science) - Tapa dura

Reseña del editor

With the advent of portable and autonomous computing systems, power con­ sumption has emerged as a focal point in many research projects, commercial systems and DoD platforms. One current research initiative, which drew much attention to this area, is the Power Aware Computing and Communications (PAC/C) program sponsored by DARPA. Many of the chapters in this book include results from work that have been supported by the PACIC program. The performance of computer systems has been tremendously improving while the size and weight of such systems has been constantly shrinking. The capacities of batteries relative to their sizes and weights has been also improv­ ing but at a rate which is much slower than the rate of improvement in computer performance and the rate of shrinking in computer sizes. The relation between the power consumption of a computer system and it performance and size is a complex one which is very much dependent on the specific system and the technology used to build that system. We do not need a complex argument, however, to be convinced that energy and power, which is the rate of energy consumption, are becoming critical components in computer systems in gen­ eral, and portable and autonomous systems, in particular. Most of the early research on power consumption in computer systems ad­ dressed the issue of minimizing power in a given platform, which usually translates into minimizing energy consumption, and thus, longer battery life.

Reseña del editor

With the advent of portable and small-sized computing systems, and with the new trends towards embedded and systems-on-a-chip computing, power management has emerged as a focal point in many research projects and commercial systems. In these systems, better management of power translates into longer battery life or into smaller batteries, which in turns implies smaller and lighter devices. Power management is also crucial in autonomous systems such as satellites and unmanned vehicles and planes. In such systems, better power management translates to longer missions or to smaller and lighter power generation systems, which makes room for other instrumentations to be added to the system.

This book covers a wide spectrum of power optimization and management techniques that spreads from circuit level optimization to application level power management. The spectrum includes power optimization and management at the microarchitecture level, the compiler level and the operating system level. The book also describes a number of methods for modeling and measuring power consumption in computer systems and for evaluating the effectiveness of power management techniques.