Impact of function inlining on resource-constrained embedded systems

Abstract

With the development of computer systems, function inlining schemes were used to reduce execution time while increasing codes. In embedded systems such as wireless sensor nodes, there are extreme limitations on memory space and battery power. This is the reason why function inlining is useful for maximizing memory utilization while minimizing energy consumption of embedded systems. In the previous works, basic inlining schemes were proposed, which were adapted to systems with code memory constraints. However, they were too coarse-grained, and did not evaluate the impact of function inlining in terms of both energy consumption and code memory utilization in actual systems. In this paper, we propose a fine-grained function inlining scheme. We also present the impact of function inlining schemes on resource-constrained embedded systems, in terms of energy consumption and code memory overhead. Based on experimental results, we demonstrate that fine-grained function inlining can improve the energy efficiency of embedded systems while maximizing code memory utilization. Copyright 2009 ACM.