Low power system design techniques for mobile computers

Portable products such as pagers, cordless and digital cellular telephones, personal audio equipment, and laptop computers are being used increasingly. Because these applications are battery powered, reducing power consumption is vital. In this report we first give the properties of low power design and techniques to exploit them on the hardware level such as: minimize capacitance, avoid wasteful activity, and reduce voltage and frequency. We will then elaborate on low power system-design techniques in which the main themes are to avoid wasteful activity at system level and to exploit locality of reference. Finally we review energy reduction techniques in the design of a wireless communication system, including system decomposition, communication and MAC protocols, and low power short range networks.