Energy-efficient signal processing

A method, comprising:

• first signal processing circuitry performing first signal processing operations and generating context information, including beginning to perform a channel estimation procedure on at least a portion of a set of input data while second signal processing circuitry is in a low power state;
• storing the generated context information using one or more storage elements, wherein the context information includes outputs of the channel estimation procedure performed on the at least a portion of the set of input data;
• and
• based on the at least a portion of the set of input data, activating the second signal processing circuitry to complete the channel estimation procedure using the outputs of the channel estimation performed by the second signal processing circuitry, included in the context information, as intermediate results, wherein the first and second signal processing circuitry perform the same processing channel estimation procedure using different amounts of processing resources.

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored thereon design information that specifies a design of at least a portion of a hardware integrated circuit in a format recognized by a semiconductor fabrication system that is configured to use the design information to produce the circuit according to the design, including:

• first signal processing circuitry configured to perform signal processing operations including a channel estimation procedure;
• second signal processing circuitry configured to perform the signal processing operations, wherein the second signal processing circuitry includes a smaller amount of processing resources than the first signal processing circuitry, wherein the second signal processing circuitry is configured to begin performing the channel estimation on at least a portion of a set of input data while the first signal processing circuitry is in a low power state;
• one or more storage elements configured to store context information for the second signal processing circuitry, wherein the context information includes outputs from the channel estimation performed on the at least a portion of the set of input data wherein the one or more storage elements are accessible to the first signal processing circuitry;
• and
• circuitry configured to, based on the at least a portion of the set of input data, activate the first signal processing circuitry to complete the channel estimation procedure using the outputs of the channel estimation performed by the second signal processing circuitry, included in the context information, as intermediate results.