Communications of the ACM
Saving Power, Saving Money
Case Western Reserve professor Swarup Bhunia
Credit: jetc.acm.org
Case Western Reserve University researchers have developed a technique they say saves power and money in computer processors by using less energy and producing less heat.
The technique, dubbed fine-grained power gating, shuts off only those parts of a processor's components that are not being used at the time.
The researchers calculated that the total power savings for a typical processor in a high-performance system using the fine-grained gating technique would be about 40 percent. Fine-grained power gating cannot be applied to current processors, but it could be used by companies to build next-generation processors, says Case Western Reserve professor Swarup Bhunia. In addition, he says a smartphone that normally lasts eight hours could last more than 11 hours with fine-grained power gating.
"Using less power produces less heat," Bhunia says. "Less heat means less cooling is needed. That can avoid the need for a big fan to cool off the processor, which saves a lot of money."
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