System-level power management for system-on-a-chip -based mobile devices

Since power management policies tend to have limits when based on individual components of a system, such as the processor, memory or LCD, it is necessary to have a system-wide approach that considers power components in an integrated way. The system-on-a-chip (SoC) that has been commonly adopted in handheld devices is one system in particular that requires the close interactions among the components; hence, power management policy should be developed appropriately. In this study, the authors propose a system-level power management approach that considers dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS) of the processor core in relation to other power consumers. The authors show that the proposed policy reduces the power consumption of a mobile device by 25-42%, depending on the application.