NBTI-aware DVFS: A new approach to saving energy and increasing processor lifetime

Scaling process technology necessitates the introduction of wide design-time guard bands that ensure lifetime reliability as circuits wear out over time. In this paper, we show how to utilize this knowledge of the guard band and a predictive model to absolutely improve processor power consumption and lifetime without impacting the processor performance against Negative Bias Temperature Instability (NBTI) degradation. For the first time, we evaluate the long-term potential and impact of NBTI-aware job-to-core mapping quantitatively and account for process variations in the system. Our approach saves up to 16% of the dynamic energy consumed and improve lifetime by two years.

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