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SUMMARY:Your Abstractions are Worth^H^H^H^H^HPowerless!Non-Volatile Storag
 e and Computation on Embedded Devices*(*Batteries Not Included) - Kevin Fu
 \, University of Massachusetts Amherst
DTSTART:20120321T110000Z
DTEND:20120321T120000Z
UID:TALK36940@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Microsoft Research Cambridge Talks Admins
DESCRIPTION:Did you hear the one about how many batteries it takes to turn
  on a Turing machine? None! It's outside the model of computation. Yet it'
 s extremely difficult to compute without power. Perpetual computing is har
 d.\n\nThis talk will describe recent results on software techniques for lo
 w-voltage probabilistic storage on microcontrollers with NOR flash\nmemory
  ("Half-Wits" at USENIX FAST) and energy-aware checkpointing on transientl
 y powered\, embedded computers ("Mementos" at ACM ASPLOS). Although embedd
 ed systems continue to shrink in size and power consumption\, batteries ha
 ve become larger and heavier than the\ncomputer itself. So get rid of the 
 battery. A computational RFID subsists on eight orders of magnitude less e
 nergy than a typical AA battery. This lack of energy leads to two research
  challenges: how to reliably store data in non-volatile memory at low cost
  and low voltage\, and how to cope with the frequent and complete loss of 
 volatile memory on transiently powered computers.\n\nThe Half-Wits work an
 alyzes the stochastic behavior of writing to embedded flash memory at volt
 ages lower than recommended by a microcontroller's specifications to reduc
 e energy consumption. Our software-only coding algorithms enable reliable 
 storage at low voltages on unmodified hardware by exploiting the electrica
 lly cumulative nature of half-written data in write-once bits (half-wits).
  Measurements show that our software approach reduces energy consumption b
 y up to 50% for common workloads.\n\nMementos automatically instruments pr
 ograms with energy-aware checkpoints to protect RAM and registers. A suite
  of compile- and run-time tools help to transform long-running programs in
 to interruptible computations. Contributions include an energy-aware check
 pointing system for MSP430 family of microcontrollers\, and a trace-driven
  simulator of transiently powered RFID-scale devices.
LOCATION:Small lecture theatre\, Microsoft Research Ltd\, 7 J J Thomson Av
 enue (Off Madingley Road)\, Cambridge
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