Power deregulation: eliminating off-chip voltage regulation circuitry from embedded systems

In battery-powered embedded systems, dedicated circuitry is used to convert stored energy into a form that can be directly used by processors. These power regulation devices seek to mask non-ideal aspects of the battery and present an ideal, fixed-voltage power source to the processor. However, this comes at a high price in terms of form factor, component cost, and energy efficiency. We describe and evaluate a new method for eliminating voltage regulation circuitry from battery-powered embedded systems. This method makes use of power gating, frequency scaling, and thread migration in chip-level multiprocessors to dynamically adjust to varying battery voltage. The key advantages of this approach are reduction in printed circuit board area (by 1/3 in many embedded applications) and the elimination of bulky unreliable discrete components such as electrolytic capacitors while maintaining similar battery lifespan. We have evaluated the power consumption, performance, and reliability impl...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2007
• Where: CODES
• Authors: Seunghoon Kim, Robert P. Dick, Russ Joseph
• Keywords: Battery-powered Embedded Systems, CODES 2007, Hardware-Software Codesign, Power Regulation, Regulation Circuitry