Power models and strategies for multiprocessor platforms

Emerging applications in the field of multimedia like new video standards require the capabilities of multiprocessor architectures which are a high source of heat dissipation. In this chapter, we present the definition of a power model suited for multiprocessor power management based on the study of a H264/AVC decoder implementation. We will provide a detailed analysis of multiprocessor execution including the influence of several possible operating points of frequency and voltage. These results will be used to propose a power strategy suited to video processing. Since the consumption of the main memory becomes more and more considerable, we also address the impact of the memory architecture on the energy cost.