ABSTRACT
The demands of modern society on computing technology are very severe. Its productivity is closely linked to availability of inexpensive and energy-efficient computing devices. While battery technology is developing at a slow pace, the demands of sophisticated mobile computing systems that require to be powered for several hours by batteries without recharging them require novel techniques to be devised to utilize the available energy efficiently. Similarly, large data centers that support complex Web searches and online purchases house thousands of servers that guzzle power. Any energy saved by the microprocessors will lower electricity bills. Under these circumstances, it is no surprise that modern microprocessor design considers energy efficiency as a first-class design constraint [31].
