Efficient Embedded Computing
William J. Dally, James D. Balfour, David Black-Shaffer, James L. Chen, Ralf-Christian Härting, Vishal Parikh, Jongsoo Park, David Sheffield · Computer · 2008
Hardwired ASICs - 50X more efficient than programmable processors - sacrifice programmability to meet the efficiency requirements of demanding embedded systems. Programmable processors use energy mostly to supply instructions and data to the arithmetic units, and several techniques can reduce instruction- and data-supply energy costs. Using these techniques in the Stanford ELM processor closes the gap with ASICs to within 3X.