Ultra low power hands-on workshop

Energy consumption has become a primary design constraint, along with performance and clock frequency:

• A multitude of devices are connected through the Internet (Internet of Things - loT);
• Many devices communicate wirelessly and run on batteries;
• European laws become stricter about energy.

We need to use much less energy.
This workshop shows that the energy consumption can be reduced drastically provided we work on a systematic and holistic way.

Energy consumption is a system issue with many consumption influencing factors. A gain on one place can create a loss on another place. It is a matter of balancing and making compromises.

Significant lower energy consumption can only be achieved by proper design at all levels of abstraction: from architectural design to component selection and physical implementation, but also through careful use and control of the operating system and careful design of application programs. Power management and functionality are interwoven and ask for a real time control.

This hands-on workshop gives a broad and systematic overview of the overwhelming possibilities for ultra low power design. More experienced people can also benefit from this course because of the overview and the many hints and tips.

Various hardware blocks are discussed from the perspective of their possibility to consume less power: MCU’s, memory/processor/I-O, sensors & interfacing, radio, energy sources, regulators. Energy reduction possibilities are discussed on various levels:

• Guidelines for MCU selection;
• System architecture: balance between the location of data processing and data transport, distribution of activities in the pipeline of a system;
• Balance between performance and energy consumption;
• Effects of compiler and linker settings;
• Software mapping onto memory modules dependent on their speed and consumption and on time critical routines (e.g. analysis of the effect of alignment);
• Instruments (hardware tooling, benchmarks) are used to measure the energy consumption before and after the introduced changes.

The lecturer (advanced expert at Capgemini Engineering) has a broad and in-depth hardware-software engineering experience (in research and development, feasibility studies, system performance tuning), has acted a lot on the border between hardware and software and is an advisor of the EEMBC Working Groups ULPMark, IoTMark-BLE and SecureMark-TLS. (EEMBC defines Industry-Standard Benchmarks for Embedded Systems). Other activities the trainer is involved in: participated in the ULP group at Holst Center for 2 years, (co-)author of several papers in the area of parallel programming using the Communicating Sequential Processes paradigm and the use of Analytical Software Design / Dezyne, regularly gives guest lectures at universities, polytechnics and at various conferences, defines graduation projects and coaches students.

The 'Ultra Low Power' hands-on workshop:

• Identifies factors that influence energy consumption;
• Shows how to model and measure energy consumption;
• Provides an overview of available energy measurement tooling;
• Provides an overview of how to reduce the energy footprint;
• Gives a guideline for MCU selection;
• Gives a design process use case on how to investigate and apply the energy reduction techniques in a systematic way;
• Provides hands-on sessions to anchor the obtained knowledge.

This training is available for open enrollment as well as for in-company sessions. For in-company sessions, the training can be adapted to your situation and special needs.

After completion of this course the participant will:

• Understand that power management is a system issue;
• Have guidelines for MCU selection;
• Know modern energy-efficient architectures;
• Understand the hardware features to reduce the energy footprint;
• Understand available tooling for energy measurement;
• Have hands-on experience working with starter kits for energy measurement;
• Know how to identify critical system parameters;
• Have insight into the possibilities and restrictions of a successful implementation of low power targets in embedded systems;
• Know a systematic process for applying power management.

The course is intended for (IoT) developers, software and hardware engineers involved in embedded software design, system architects, project leaders (education: BSc / MSc) working in research, development and/or engineering. Prior knowledge: working experience with a PC with Windows, ability to read simple C programs.