Why DVS
Design objective of a processor: provide the highest possible peak throughput for compute-intensive tasks while maximizing battery life for remaining low-speed and idle periods
Common Power saving technique: Reduce clock frequency during non-compute-intensive activity.
- This reduces power but not the total energy consumption per task, since energy consumption is frequency independent to a first order approximation.
- Conversely, reducing voltage improves the energy efficiency, but compromises peak throughput