ABSTRACT
The explosive proliferation of portable electronic devices, such as notebook computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and cellular phones, has compelled energy-efficient microprocessor design to provide longer battery run-times. At the same time, this proliferation has yielded products that require everincreasing computational complexity. In addition, the demand for low-cost and small form-factor devices has kept the available energy supply roughly constant by driving down battery size, despite advances in battery technology that have increased battery energy density. Thus, microprocessors must continuously provide more throughput per watt.
