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Supplemental Material for Low Power Design Course

Welcome to the supplemental information for the EE Times Fundamentals Course of Low Power Design using Intel Atom Processor. In the course, we proposed a different way to look at low power design based on a spectrum of the possible end application spaces (see Figure). The different application spaces rely on a different set of emphasis for attaining low power design, but the underlying concepts are similar across each part of the application spectrum.

Basic - Low Power Spectrum

This model helps designers to focus on evaluating low power features of an embedded processor based on how it fits within the entire system rather than just the pure power and energy numbers for the part. Understanding the different hardware and software design decisions made by the processor architect enables embedded developers to choose the best mix of hardware and software hooks for their project.

The index of companies listed on this page is the inaugural set of processors for describing embedded processors in a low power context based on the content in the fundamentals course. This is an experimental set of information. Please let us know if this information is useful or otherwise and any ideas you have on what we should and should not include as well as how to present it. Our intent is to take what we learn here from your emailed comments and develop them into a common set of information that the Embedded Processing Directory will highlight in the comparison and detail pages for each processor. Thank you for your feedback and help in evolving the directory.

The following companies have provided information and links to additional material about their processor's hardware and software hooks for low power design. If you would like to see additional processors listed here, please email your suggestion so that we may approach them.

Freescale Semiconductor - P1022 / QorIQ processor
Intel - Atom processor
MIPS Technologies - MIPS32 1074K processor core
Texas Instruments - AM389x Sitara ARM processors
Texas Instruments - C6-Integra DSP + ARM processors
Via Technologies - Eden, C7, Nano, Nano X2, and multicore processors