Energy-efficient dynamic memory allocators at the middleware level of embedded systems

ABSTRACT

The next generation of embedded systems will be dominated by mobile devices, which are able to deliver communications and rich multimedia content anytime, anywhere. The major themes in these ubiquitous computing systems are applications with increased user control and interactivity with the environment. Therefore, the storage of dynamic data increases, thus making the dynamic memory allocation of heap data at run time a very important component with heavy energy consumption. In this paper, we propose a novel script, which heavily customizes the dynamic memory allocator according to the target application domain and the underlying memory hier-archy of the embedded system. The dynamic memory allocator resides in the middleware level or in the Operating System level (whenever it is available). The result of our script and automated tools is the reduction of energy consumption by 72% on average and the reduction of the execution time by 40% on average, which is demonstrated with the use of 1 real life wireless network appli-cation and 1 multimedia application.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.3 SPECIAL-PURPOSE AND APPLICATION-BASED SYSTEMS

Additional Classification:
  D. Software
  D.4 OPERATING SYSTEMS

  E. Data
  E.1 DATA STRUCTURES

General Terms:
Design, Performance

Keywords:
dynamic memory allocation, embedded systems, heap data, low-energy consumption, middleware