Intermittently powered devices rely on opportunistic energy-harvesting to function, leading to recurrent power interruptions. This paper introduces DiCA, a proposal for a hardware/software co-design to create differential check-points in intermittent devices. DiCA leverages an affordable hardware module that simplifies the check-pointing process, reducing the check-point generation time and energy consumption. This hardware module continuously monitors volatile memory, efficiently tracking modifications and determining optimal check-point times. To minimize energy waste, the module dynamically estimates the energy required to create and store the check-point based on tracked memory modifications, triggering the check-pointing routine optimally via a nonmaskable interrupt. Experimental results show the cost-effectiveness and energy efficiency of DiCA, enabling extended application activity cycles in intermittently powered embedded devices.

翻译：间歇供电设备依赖机会性能量收集来运行，导致频繁的电源中断。本文提出DiCA，一种硬件/软件协同设计方案，用于在间歇设备中创建差分检查点。DiCA利用一种经济高效的硬件模块简化检查点过程，减少检查点生成时间和能量消耗。该硬件模块持续监控易失性存储器，高效跟踪修改并确定最佳检查点时机。为最小化能量浪费，该模块基于跟踪的存储器修改动态估计创建和存储检查点所需的能量，并通过不可屏蔽中断最优触发检查点例程。实验结果表明，DiCA具有成本效益和能量效率，能够延长间歇供电嵌入式设备的应用活动周期。