Design techniques for low-power systems

Portable products are being used increasingly. Because these systems are ba ttery powered, reducing power consumption is vital. In this report we give the properties of low-power design and techniques to exploit them on the ar chitecture of the system. We focus on: minimizing capacitance, avoiding unn ecessary and wasteful activity, and reducing voltage and frequency. We revi ew energy reduction techniques in the architecture and design of a hand-hel d computer and the wireless communication system including error control, s ystem decomposition, communication and MAC protocols, and low-power short r ange networks. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.