Specialized stuff but fascinating reading. From Jack Ganssle:
Hardware and Firmware Issues in Using Ultra-Low Power MCUs
Today many of us are building ultra-low power embedded systems that must run for years off a battery. The idea is that these systems are nearly always in a deep sleep mode, waking from time to time to do something before going back to sleep. Many vendors of microcontrollers (MCUs) claim their products can run like this for decades from a coin cell.
These claims are mostly bogus.
This report describes the hardware and firmware issues one must consider when designing very low-power coin-cell products. There are a lot of nuances; even decoupling capacitor selection can hugely influence battery life. The report also gives data from which one can predict what sort of battery lifetimes are achievable.
An analysis of an area of electronic design that is not covered in textbooks. Much more at his website.
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