Dietmar Scheiblhofer

Sensor-driven power management: enhancing performance and reliability of autonomously powered systems

The number of system-on-chips supplied by renewable energy such as solar power or electro-magnetic fields is steadily increasing. The amount of available energy changes spatio-temporally depending on the environmental conditions. This work focuses on the requirements of power management for SOCs operating in unstable inhomogeneous energetic environments. Sensors monitoring the environment and on-chip conditions are proposed to be used extensively in order to enhance power utilization and system stability. A classification of sensor-driven power management policies is given. Policies are proposed that avoid system breakdown caused by internal or environmental changes. Results show the impacts of response time and adaptivity of the sensor-driven power manager on power utilization and system stability.