General ♣
Race to Idle
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General ♣

Race to Idle

Category: General

Release system resources as soon as they are no longer needed to minimize energy consumption. Many platform resources, such as CPU, wakelocks, and screen states, consume additional energy while active—even if not being actively used. By freeing these resources promptly after use, software systems allow hardware components to return to low-power states faster, saving energy over time. This principle is especially important in mobile and embedded systems, but also applies to servers and desktops where hardware idling can significantly reduce overall power draw.

Sources

  • Cruz, L. and Abreu, R. Energy Patterns for Mobile Apps.
  • Liu, Y. et al. "Understanding and Detecting Wake Lock Misuses for Android Applications."
  • Banerjee, A. and Roychoudhury, A. "Automated Re-factoring of Android Apps to Enhance Energy-efficiency." 2016.
  • Cruz, L. and Abreu, R. "Performance-based Guidelines for Energy Efficient Mobile Applications." 2017.

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