Hardware/software codesign techniques for low power embedded system

Processor is an important computing element in battery operated real time embedded system. Even with advanced battery technology, energy budget is limited and the processor consumes most of the battery energy. Power consumption in real time embedded system is an important issue and becoming the limiting factor for the functionality of various portable devices. Hence, power consumption reduction strategies are the primary system design constraints. CNIOS is the basic ingredient in majority of embedded processors. In this paper, hardware strategies such as DVS, Dual VDD, are proposed to reduce power consumption. Software approach, using DVS and Code size, is used for energy optimization. Heuristic Algorithm is suggested for energy estimation, based on program code size. ICAP-4 software is used to simulate hardware results.