Mobile Application Aware Smartphone CPU Clock Frequency Optimization

The Android operating system utilizes the Linux kernel. This kernel has a function that dynamically adjusts the CPU clock frequency to control the obtained performance and the power consumed. However, because this kernel was primarily developed for server computers, it may not suitably optimize the clock frequency in smartphones. In this paper, we focus on optimization of the clock frequency of smartphones running the Android operating system. First, we propose a method that modifies this mechanism less aggressively. Then, we evaluate the proposed method and demonstrate that the modified method decreases the power consumed by the CPU without any significant performance decline. For example, experimental result shows that, in the case of a game application, the proposed method decreased the power consumption by 7.28% with only 0.68% processing time increase.