A Generalized Framework for System-Wide Energy Savings in Hard Real-Time Embedded Systems

Abstract

A generalized dynamic energy performance scaling (DEPS) framework is proposed for exploring application-specific energy-saving potential in hard real-time embedded systems. This software-centric framework focuses on system-wide energy reduction and takes advantage of possible power control mechanisms to trade off performance for energy savings. Three existing technologies, i.e., dynamic hardware resource configuration (DHRC), dynamic voltage frequency scaling (DVFS), and dynamic power management (DPM) have been employed in this framework to achieve the maximal energy savings. Static and dynamic schemes of DEPS are proposed to deal with stable or variable workload in the embedded systems. Through a case study, its effectiveness has been validated.