Power Versus Energy

Abstract

Although power consumption always has been an important issue considering electronic equipment design, nowadays it literally is a hot item. To address this issue in a complete way, power as well as energy consumption should be taken into account. Although power and energy are related via a straightforward time integral, the impact on a system when constraining it via power or energy consumption, can be completely different. Power is regarded when considering for instance heat production, on-chip and off-chip power supply circuits and the environment. In the case of heat production it may be clear that local power dissipation (power density) is a key parameter. Tremendously increasing power densities push chip temperatures to the limit. Energy is a key parameter when considering battery lifetime, energy supply by power plants and energy costs.