a systematic method for functional unit power estimation in microprocessors
We present a new method for mathematically estimating the active unit power of functional units in modern microprocessors such as the Pentium 4 family. Our method leverages the phasic behavior in power consumption of programs, and captures as many power phases as possible to form a linear system of equations such that the functional unit power can be solved. Our experiment results on a real Pentium 4 processor show that power estimations attained as such agree with the measured power very well, with deviations less than 5\% only.
systems method functional power power estimation estimates microprocessor processor activation families behavior power consumption program experience performance counter