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U. Glaeser

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The cost impact of power consumption on packaging and cooling costs can be seen from the following<br />

data points. (The cost values are from the 1997 timeframe, but the relative trends still hold.)<br />

If the power consumption of a chip is under 1 W, a plastic package can be used for it, at the cost of<br />

about 1 cent per pin. If the power consumption is between 1 and 2 W, a plastic package can still be used,<br />

but special heat conductors are required. The cost for a package of this kind is approximately 2–3 cents<br />

per pin. Exceeding 2 W, however, requires the use of ceramic packages. These packages cost between 5<br />

and 10 cents per pin. Exceeding 10 W requires external cooling (air or liquid cooling) and a further<br />

increase in cost. The package cost for a 200-pin device would therefore be either $2, $4–6, or $10–20,<br />

depending on whether its power consumption is below 1 W, between 1 and 2 W, or above 2 W. Moving<br />

up from one power consumption range to another is therefore accompanied by significant cost increases,<br />

which are significant if the devices are manufactured in large volumes. A specific consideration in this<br />

regard is to keep the power consumption below 2 W. This allows the use of plastic packages, which are<br />

much cheaper than the ceramic packages that are otherwise needed.<br />

Portable Systems<br />

The rising popularity of portable systems is primarily responsible for the upsurge in interest in power<br />

consumption in recent years. Portable systems include palmtop, laptop, notebook computers, telecommunication<br />

devices such as pagers, cellular phones, wireless modems, and consumer products such as<br />

audio players, video cameras, and electronic games. The defining characteristic of a portable system is that<br />

it is not connected to a fixed power source. It runs on the limited energy stored in a rechargeable battery. In<br />

any portable system, the length of battery driven operation (the battery life)<br />

is of prime importance. Longer<br />

battery life can provide a competitive advantage in the marketplace. In each of these applications, size, weight,<br />

and battery life are primary considerations. Low-power DSPs allow designers to extend battery life without<br />

the size and weight increases associated with more powerful batteries.<br />

The trend in portable devices is towards increased computational requirements. Portable computer<br />

users desire performance levels that are comparable to those of desktop systems. In addition, personal<br />

communication applications, with multimedia access supporting full-motion digital video and speech<br />

recognition capabilities are being proposed. What this implies is that portability can no longer be<br />

associated with limited computational rates.<br />

Meeting the increased energy requirements through use of larger and more batteries is not really an<br />

option. This increases the size and the weight—parameters that are also extremely important in portable<br />

systems. Increasing the amount of energy stored in the batteries (the battery capacity)<br />

is one way to solve<br />

the problem; however, growth in rechargeable battery capacity has been slow. Incremental improvements<br />

in nickel-cadmium (NiCd) technology, the mainstay of portable power, have led to about the doubling<br />

of capacity over the last 30 years. Newer battery chemistries, such as nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) are<br />

expected to have 20–30% higher capacity. Thus, battery capacity has increased by a factor of less than 4<br />

over the last three decades. Recently, the ever-growing market for portable systems has motivated a faster<br />

rate of innovation in the battery industry. Lithium-ion, a newer technology, is rapidly gaining popularity<br />

since it allows lighter batteries with higher capacities. This may change with even newer battery technologies<br />

such as lithium-polymer, and zinc-air, which are claimed to have 2 and 10 times higher capacity<br />

than NiMH, respectively.<br />

In any case, growth in battery capacity lags far behind the rapid growth in microprocessor power<br />

consumption, which has gone from under 1 W to over 50 W over the last 20 years. Thus, improvements<br />

in battery technology alone cannot be relied upon to meet the constraints of portable systems. The energy<br />

demand on the batteries has to be reduced.<br />

A noteworthy research project was recently completed at UC Berkeley, California. A butane-powered<br />

Wankel internal combustion engine with a generator about as small as a chip-cooling fan was developed<br />

to power a laptop for longer durations while enabling a very small weight increase. Although it is amusing<br />

to note that an IC (internal combustion) engine is powering the IC (integrated circuit), it will be worth<br />

watching to see the evolution of practicality and application of this technology, in view of its safe and<br />

hazard-free use. The engine reportedly pollutes only as much as a human body.<br />

© 2002 by CRC Press LLC

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