Reducering av effektförbrukning i inbyggda system med Linux
LinuxEmbedded systemEmbedded LinuxPower consumptionLinuxInbyggda systemInbäddade systemEffektförbrukningEffektreduceringStrömförbrukningTimers
Linux is a growing operating system in embedded systems. Today, Linux is not only in heavy servers but also in cell phones, PDAs, cameras and other devices running on battery power. While current technology is more energy efficient, more and more technologies are implemented into a single unit resulting in an overall increase of power consumption.Low power consumption is an increasingly important feature of a system today. Lower power consumption means lower costs, less environmental impact, and longer life for applications that runs on batteries.This work compiles methods to reduce power consumption of Linux systems. The work includes examining whether the available opportunities are platform-specific or of a more general nature. The evaluations of methods for efficacy, has been performed on three different platforms. Testing consists of different types of stress tests and turning the units on-and-off.The results show that many of the features for power management that are available in a Linux system are of a general nature and that the Linux kernel has good support for implementation of new power management functions. Through the power reduction tests it has been proven that reducing the frequency of the processor and bit rate of the Ethernet controller provides the highest efficiency gain at different load levels.This work also investigates whether implementation of dynamic frequency scaling on a new processor is a complex task or not. Implementations in the Linux kernel provide general code that means that only the processor-specific part needs to be implemented. The implementation was carried out without major complications.