Power constraints: Another dimension of complexity in continuous media playback

Abstract

In this paper, we address the issue of minimizing the power consumption in retrieving the continuous media data from the disk drive for real-time playback purpose. Different from the legacy text based data, real-time multimedia playback requires that the storage supplies the data block continuous fashion. This may put immense burden on the power scarce environment since the disk is required to be active for the entire playback duration. We develop. elaborate algorithm which carefully analyzes the power consumption profile of the disk drive and which establishes the data retrieval schedule for the given playback. It computes the amount of data blocks to read, the length of active and standby period. According to our simulation result, the ARM algorithm exhibits superior performance in continuous media retrieval from the aspect of power consumption to legacy playback scheme.