Minimizing Energy Under Performance Constraints on Embedded Platforms Resource Allocation Heuristics for Homogeneous and Single-ISA Heterogeneous Multi-Cores

This paper explores the problem of energy optimization in embedded platforms. Specifically, it studies resource allo-cation strategies for meeting performance constraints with minimal energy consumption. We present a comparison of solutions for both homogeneous and single-ISA heteroge-neous multi-core embedded systems. We demonstrate that different hardware platforms have fundamentally different performance/energy tradeoff spaces. As a result, minimiz-ing energy on these platforms requires substantially differ-ent resource allocation strategies. Our investigations reveal that one class of systems requires a race-to-idle heuristic to achieve optimal energy consumption, while another requires a never-idle heuristic to achieve the same. The differences are dramatic: choosing the wrong strategy can increase en-ergy consumption by over 2 × compared to optimal