Portable Electronics: World Class Designs

Chapter 1. System Resource Partitioning and Code Optimization

In portable designs the two biggest concerns are performance and power; cell phone users want to watch streaming high-definition video while still having their tiny batteries last all day. High performance and low power are diametrically opposed, of course, and the battle is ultimately won or lost at the architectural level.The architectural model determines the hardware/software partitioning of the design. Partitioning involves deciding which functions to implement in software, what to implement in hardware, even which loops of an algorithm could most benefit from hardware acceleration. Decisions made at this stage have huge impacts on both performance and power that can only be ...