Code transformations and SIMD impact on embedded software energy/power consumption

Abstract

The increasing demand for portable computing has elevated power consumption to be one of the most critical embedded systems design parameters. In this paper, we present a qualitative study wherein we examine the impact of code transformations on the energy and power consumption. Three main categories of code transformations are investigated, namely data, loop and procedural oriented transformations. Moreover, we evaluate the influence of employing Single Instruction Multiple Data (SIMD) on energy and power dissipation via the utilization of compiler intrinsic C-functions. Results show that a trade-off between power and performance can be achieved by employing the intrinsic C-functions in conjunction with some transformations such as loop unrolling and procedure integration. ©2009 IEEE.