PROJECT TITLE :

Graceful Performance Modulation for Power-Neutral Transient Computing Systems

ABSTRACT:

Transient computing systems don't have energy storage, and operate directly from energy harvesting. These systems are typically faced with the inherent challenge of low-current or transient power provide. During this paper, we propose “power-neutral” operation, a replacement paradigm for such systems, whereby the instantaneous power consumption of the system should match the instantaneous harvested power. Power neutrality is achieved using a control algorithm for dynamic frequency scaling, modulating system performance gracefully in response to the incoming power. Detailed system model is used to determine design parameters for choosing the system voltage thresholds where the operating frequency can be raised or lowered, or the system will be hibernated. The proposed management algorithm for power-neutral operation is experimentally validated employing a microcontroller incorporating voltage threshold-primarily based interrupts for frequency scaling. The microcontroller is powered directly from real energy harvesters; results demonstrate that a power-neutral system sustains operation for 4%–eighty eight% longer with up to twenty one% speedup in application execution.