Low Power Microprocessor Design for Embedded Systems

摘要

Continuing advances in VLSI technology render a billion-transistor SOC device inevitable in the near future. However, along with this opportunity the excessive amount of power that billions of transistors will consume will be the most important challenge to the design of the future chips. Many techniques have been developed in order to reduce the power consumption of microprocessors. Unfortunately, this often comes at the expense of performance. In this paper, we describe a number of techniques which are currently used when designing low power, high performance microprocessors. These include fabrication process, circuit technology, and microprocessor architecture. Since most techniques result in complex tradeoffs, we will show how decisions regarding the selection of a low power design approach require careful consideration.