Low Power Processor Architectures and Contemporary Techniques for Power Optimization – A Review

The technological evolution has increased the number of transistors for a given die area significantly and increased the switching speed from few MHz to GHz range. Such inversely proportional decline in size and boost in performance consequently demands shrinking of supply voltage and effective power dissipation in chips with millions of transistors. This has triggered substantial amount of research in power reduction techniques into almost every aspect of the chip and particularly the processor cores contained in the chip. This paper presents an overview of techniques for achieving the power efficiency mainly at the processor core level but also visits related domains such as buses and memories. There are various processor parameters and features such as supply voltage, clock frequency, cache and pipelining which can be optimized to reduce the power consumption of the processor. This paper discusses various ways in which these parameters can be optimized. Also, emerging power efficient processor architectures are overviewed and research activities are discussed which should help reader identify how these factors in a processor contribute to power consumption. Some of these concepts have been already established whereas others are still active research areas. © 2009 ACADEMY PUBLISHER

The research teaching nexus in the computing disciplines: a comparative survey

Many institutions make claims in strategy documents and official publications that students will receive an education which is research-led, research-informed, or guided by the scholarship of teaching and learning. Academics who teach regularly experience at first-hand the sometimes conflicting demands of research, teaching and supporting learning. Curricula guidelines are unlikely to help in developing any sophisticated understanding of ways in which research and teaching can be symbiotically applied, since such guidelines most typically deal with the content rather than the educational process experienced by our undergraduates. For these reasons an academic’s understanding of the research teaching nexus is more likely to be informed by their own workaday experience of designing and delivering educational experiences than from an analysis of the students’ perspective. If academics in the computing disciplines are to effectively deliver on their institutional missions to be scholarly, research-led or research-informed in their educational approaches, a clearer understanding of the possible meanings and implications of these terms in the context of the typical computing curricula would be of assistance. This paper presents and analyses the results of a survey conducted at two Universities which sought to identify how far their undergraduate curriculum was informed by research. This data is presented alongside qualitative data gathered from academics which explores their attitudes towards, and understanding of, the various terms commonly used to describe a research-informed approach to education in the computing disciplines

Self-Control in Cyberspace: Applying Dual Systems Theory to a Review of Digital Self-Control Tools

Many people struggle to control their use of digital devices. However, our understanding of the design mechanisms that support user self-control remains limited. In this paper, we make two contributions to HCI research in this space: first, we analyse 367 apps and browser extensions from the Google Play, Chrome Web, and Apple App stores to identify common core design features and intervention strategies afforded by current tools for digital self-control. Second, we adapt and apply an integrative dual systems model of self-regulation as a framework for organising and evaluating the design features found. Our analysis aims to help the design of better tools in two ways: (i) by identifying how, through a well-established model of self-regulation, current tools overlap and differ in how they support self-control; and (ii) by using the model to reveal underexplored cognitive mechanisms that could aid the design of new tools.Comment: 11.5 pages (excl. references), 6 figures, 1 tabl

The Effects of the Quantification of Faculty Productivity: Perspectives from the Design Science Research Community

In recent years, efforts to assess faculty research productivity have focused more on the measurable quantification of academic outcomes. For benchmarking academic performance, researchers have developed different ranking and rating lists that define so-called high-quality research. While many scholars in IS consider lists such as the Senior Scholar’s basket (SSB) to provide good guidance, others who belong to less-mainstream groups in the IS discipline could perceive these lists as constraining. Thus, we analyzed the perceived impact of the SSB on information systems (IS) academics working in design science research (DSR) and, in particular, how it has affected their research behavior. We found the DSR community felt a strong normative influence from the SSB. We conducted a content analysis of the SSB and found evidence that some of its journals have come to accept DSR more. We note the emergence of papers in the SSB that outline the role of theory in DSR and describe DSR methodologies, which indicates that the DSR community has rallied to describe what to expect from a DSR manuscript to the broader IS community and to guide the DSR community on how to organize papers for publication in the SSB

Work Alienation among IT Workers: A Cross-Cultural Gender Comparison

Information Technology (IT) has experienced a worrisome decline in female participation over two decades, much of which can be attributed to fewer women choosing IT careers. However, women IT professionals also demonstrate mid-career turnover for reasons such as work-life balance, work exhaustion, role ambiguity, role conflict, and growth needs. This study explores alienation among women IT professionals and examines factors that lead to work alienation and abandonment of IT careers. Such alienation appears to be less prevalent in Asian countries where women perceive IT careers to be more conducive to female participation. A comparison among women from American and Asian cultures is proposed