http://www.embeddedinsights.com/channels/2011/03/04/green-with-envy-why-power-debugging-is-changing-the-way-we-develop-code/ Shedding Light on the Hidden World of Embedded Systems Mon, 28 Jul 2014 16:18:37 -0400 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 http://www.embeddedinsights.com/channels/2011/03/04/green-with-envy-why-power-debugging-is-changing-the-way-we-develop-code/#comment-5746 Jon Titus Sat, 05 Mar 2011 16:27:16 +0000 http://www.embeddedinsights.com/channels/?p=471#comment-5746 I would bet power consumed by a microcontroller amounts to a small fraction of system power. So engineers also must consider how to save power in other portions of their system while they decrease power use by the MCU. That means choosing external devices, from digital buffers to analog front ends. Unfortunately--at least for now--it proves more difficult to control power use in those off-MCU devices than in an MCU on its own. Take a careful look at ALL the ways you can reduce power, not just the MCU. You might use a low-power proximity detector--capacitive or IR--for example, to determine whether a system needs to backlight and drive an LCD. If you use wireless communications, find a low-power transceiver with a simple protocol. I would bet power consumed by a microcontroller amounts to a small fraction of system power. So engineers also must consider how to save power in other portions of their system while they decrease power use by the MCU. That means choosing external devices, from digital buffers to analog front ends. Unfortunately–at least for now–it proves more difficult to control power use in those off-MCU devices than in an MCU on its own. Take a careful look at ALL the ways you can reduce power, not just the MCU. You might use a low-power proximity detector–capacitive or IR–for example, to determine whether a system needs to backlight and drive an LCD. If you use wireless communications, find a low-power transceiver with a simple protocol.

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