SDI Seminar

Speaker: Jason Flinn,Carnegie Mellon University

Date:February 18, 1999
Time: Noon
Place: Wean Hall 8220

PowerScope: A Tool for Profiling the Energy Usage of Mobile Applications

Abstract

In this talk, I will describe the design and implementation of PowerScope, a tool for profiling energy usage by applications. PowerScope maps energy consumption to program structure, in much the same way that CPU profilers map processor cycles to specific processes and procedures. Our approach combines hardware instrumentation to measure current level with kernel software support to perform statistical sampling of system activity. Postprocessing software maps the sample data to program structure and produces a profile of energy usage by process and procedure.I will also describe a case study in which we have used PowerScope to reduce the energy consumption of an adaptive video playing application by 46%.