Active Energy Conservation: New App Note

[Woody]

A new app note has been published on the xmos.com documentation page (http://www.xmos.com/support/documentation) that explains how to use active energy conservation (AEC) on XS1-L devices.

AEC reduces the XCore clock frequency when all of the active threads are paused to reduce dynamic power dissipation. Applications simply need to enable the AEC feature and the changes to the clock are automatic so the power savings are very simple to achieve without any other changes to the application code.

For example a 500MHz XS1-L1 device might reduce it's current from 200mA to 56mA when the threads are paused if AEC is enabled. AEC can also be configured to reduce idle current consumption yet further, down to 20mA for example, but there are some considerations the application must address when this is done.

Many applications do not run at full speed all of the time and you should consider enabling AEC as a matter of course on such applications.

[otitov]

thanks! great document!

the document cover XS1-L devices only, can I hope to see similar application notes for G series devices?

[Woody]

thanks! great document!

the document cover XS1-L devices only, can I hope to see similar application notes for G series devices?

I'm afraid that the AEC circuitry was only included in the L series devices.

On the XS1-G devices there is no automatic switching of the XCore divider. However you can manually change the XCore divider at times that you want to reduce dynamic power and don't require the full processing power. See the XS1-G Frequency Control app note for more details http://www.xmos.com/support/documentation.

[otitov]

great!