Memory Bank Allocation Layout for Deep Sleep Power Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Volatile memory consumption is a significant power drain during deep sleep mode in low-power wireless devices, necessitating an efficient method to minimize the number of memory banks that must remain powered.
Innovation Solution
A system utilizing linked lists to manage memory banks, ensuring blocks are allocated from the bank with the fewest free blocks, thereby maximizing the number of banks that can be powered off during deep sleep mode.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If volatile memory banks are kept powered on to retain data, then data retention is ensured, but power consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The memory system is divided into multiple independently controllable banks. Each bank can be individually powered on or off based on whether it contains data that needs to be retained during deep sleep mode, allowing selective power management that reduces overall power consumption while maintaining data integrity for essential banks.
Solution Approach 2:
The power state parameter of memory banks is dynamically changed based on data importance. Banks containing critical data (instructions, network stack) maintain powered-on state, while banks with disposable data are transitioned to powered-off state during deep sleep, optimizing the balance between data retention and power consumption.
2Adaptability or versatility
If memory banks are divided into smaller allocatable blocks, then allocation flexibility improves, but the complexity of managing which banks to power on/off increases
Solution Approach 1:
The memory management system automatically tracks and maintains the state of each bank and block through linked list data structures. The system self-manages the complexity of tracking free blocks across multiple banks without requiring external intervention, making the detailed management transparent to user-level software while maintaining fine-grained allocation control.
Solution Approach 2:
Linked list data structures serve as intermediaries between the allocation requests and the physical memory banks. These data structures abstract the complexity of tracking individual bank states and free blocks, providing a simplified interface for allocation while maintaining detailed awareness of bank utilization for power management decisions.
3Speed
If blocks are allocated from any available bank, then allocation speed is maximized, but the number of banks requiring power during sleep mode increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system pre-organizes free blocks into linked lists within each bank and maintains tracking data structures that identify the state of each bank. This preliminary organization enables rapid allocation decisions that are aware of bank utilization patterns, allowing the system to allocate blocks quickly while simultaneously making informed decisions about which banks can be powered down.
Solution Approach 2:
The memory management system continuously tracks the allocation state of each bank through linked lists and maintains information about which banks have free blocks available. This feedback mechanism enables allocation algorithms to consider bank utilization patterns and steer allocations in a way that consolidates usage in fewer banks, allowing more banks to be powered off during sleep mode.
Data Source
AI summary
A system and method for allocating blocks from a memory pool is disclosed. The memory is made up of a plurality of banks, wherein the power to each is independently controlled. Several linked lists are used to ensure that blocks are always allocated from the bank with the fewer free blocks. In this way, the possibility of having banks where all of their blocks are unallocated is increased, and these banks may be powered off during deep sleep mode. The linked lists track the location of the free blocks in each bank, and the number of free blocks in each bank.