Method and apparatus for non-obtrusive power profiling

#This invention generally relates to microprocessors, and more specifically to improvements in profiling the power consumption of a microprocessor application.

#Power is a critical constraint in the design of embedded applications. For example, in the world of portable electronics, one of the key concerns for consumers is the time they can operate their devices on battery power. Therefore, a top priority in the portable electronics industry is designing low power devices. To support this endeavor, various techniques for measuring the power consumption of these applications have been developed. Many of these techniques focus solely on the hardware components of the application and ignore the impact of the software components on the overall power consumption.

#Software impacts power consumption at various design levels. At the highest level, the partitioning of application functionality between hardware and software has implications on total power consumption. The choice of algorithm and other higher-level design decisions for the software components also affect system power consumption. The choice of programming language constructs in implementing the design also affects the power cost of the software.

#Particular embodiments in accordance with the invention will now be described, by way of example only, and with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

#FIGS. 1A-1C are block diagrams of systems for power profiling of embedded applications;

#FIG. 2 is a block diagram of emulation support circuitry;

#Corresponding numerals and symbols in the different figures and tables refer to corresponding parts unless otherwise indicated.

#Systems and methods for improved power profiling of embedded applications are described below. These inventions provide the ability to measure the power consumption of an embedded application at varying levels of software granularity as the application is executing on the target hardware. Methods and apparatus are provided to permit such measurements in both real-time and non-real-time.

#The embodiments of the systems and methods presented below are exemplary and are presented in relation to target hardware incorporating digital signal processing technology and advanced emulation technology. Details of the general construction of such digital systems are well known and may be found readily elsewhere. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,072,418 issued to Frederick Boutaud, et al, describes a digital signal processor (DSP) in detail. U.S. Pat. No. 5,329,471 issued to Gary Swoboda, et al, describes in detail how to test and emulate a DSP. Other embodiments using differing processor and/or emulation technology should be apparent to one skilled in the art.