Power Analysis of a 32-bit Embedded Microcontroller

A new approach for power analysis of microprocessors has recently been proposed [14].The idea is to look at the power consumption in a microprocessor from the point of viewof the actual software executing on the processor. The basic component of this approachis a measurement based, instruction-level power analysis technique. The techniqueallows for the development of an instruction-level power model for the given processor,which can be used to evaluate software in terms of the power consumption, and forexploring the optimization of software for lower power. This paper describes theapplication of this technique for a comprehensive instruction-level power analysis of acommercial 32-bit RISC-based embedded microcontroller. The salient results of theanalysis and the basic instruction-level power model are described. Interestingobservations and insights based on the results are also presented. Such aninstruction-level power analysis can provide cues as to what optimizations in themicro-architecture design of the processor would lead to the most effective powersavings in actual software applications. Wherever the results indicate such optimizations,they have been discussed. Furthermore, ideas for low power software design, assuggested by the results, are described in this paper as well