Every joule is precious: The case for revisiting operating system design for energy efficiency

This paper advocates revisiting all aspects of Operating System design and implementation with energy-efficiency as the primary objective rather than the traditional OS metrics of maximizing performance and fairness. Energy is an increasingly important resource for post-PC battery powered devices. Our initial investigations have indicated that this change in viewpoint has significant implications for the services, policies, mechanisms, and structure of the OS. We illustrate with examples of power-aware memory management, power-aware ad hoc routing protocols, and energy exploitation of remote resources in the context of a cooperative wide-area distribution system that encompasses mobile and wireless devices.

Duke Scholars

Author Alvin R. Lebeck Computer Science