Spring 2024 course will be about Energy Efficiency in Embedded Systems (5op)
Goals:
The student is able to use various energy efficiency design techniques, understands fundamental sources of energy consumption in nanoscale circuits and processor systems, is able to identify essential energy dissipation sources in a given system, understand algorithm and SW effect on energy and architectural transformations for low energy and is able to use these techniques in electronic system design. To learn how energy consumption can be optimized in different levels of abstraction. To understand the difference between energy and power.
Content:
The course covers the energy consumption of an embedded SoC (processor, memory, analog, power management, SW, but excluding sensors and radio), both the individual components and their cross-effects. The focus is on system-level energy reduction and optimization, but also circuit level issues, such as leakage currents, dynamic power consumption, signalling, and power delivery. Dynamic voltage and frequency scaling is covered holistically.
Organization:
The course will be organized as a large system-level project work where the student has to optimize the energy consumption of an embedded System-on-Chip (SoC). The project can be implemented on any abstraction level, from high (e.g. Excel, SystemC) to low (transistor, gate). The student is encouraged to reuse project work from other courses, but this is not mandatory. The course will have several lectures supporting the project work with quizzes and team work embedded within the lectures.
Lecturer:
University of Oulu System-on-Chip professor Lauri Koskinen is one of the top experts in energy efficiency, especially of near-threshold technology. He has researched energy-frugal systems in his academic career and in positions in Minima Processor and Bosch Sensortec.
- Opettaja: Lauri Koskinen