TURDUCKEN
The goal of Turducken is to allow laptops to behave more like desktops: always on, always aware, and able to fetch mail or software updates as soon as they become available. This is typically not done since current laptops, operating in this always-on mode last only a few hours. We could get a larger battery; however, since the battery is already the single heaviest component of most laptop systems, we focus on improving device efficiency.
Turducken allows always-on operation at low power cost using Hierarchical Power Management (HPM) which involves combining multiple independent platforms into a single integrated hierarchical platform. Our prototype Turducken system combines an IBM Thinkpad X31, a Stargate, and a mote (we have used both Mica motes from Crossbow, and TelosB motes from MoteIV). These additional components add little weight and size to the laptop and allow a much wider range of available power states.
When the system is not in use, higher tiers are suspended and control passes to lower tiers. When an event occurs (wireless network available, new mail ready, etc) the lower tiers try to handle the event and wake up higher tiers as needed. Simple tasks such as receiving email can be performed by the middle tier without ever waking the laptop. This results in much more efficient use of energy when the system is not in use by the user.
Publications
- J. Sorber, N. Banerjee, M. D. Corner, and S. Rollins. Turducken: Hierarchical Power Management for Mobile Devices. To appear in the Proceedings of The Third International Conference on Mobile Systems, Applications, and Services (MobiSys '05), Seattle, WA, June 2005. Previously as Technical Report 05-01. University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Amherst, MA. January, 2005.Slides
