Low Power modes

Autonomous Machines Jetson & Embedded Systems Jetson TX2
1

Hi! I’m trying to find out information on power consumption for the Tx2/Tx2i when in Linux idle, for example. And when using just one of the Denver or A57 cores. Our application is mostly dormant, or doing simple things like monitoring inputs, needing high performance only eventually. I have a Tx1 here, but it’s sadly a -100 revision, and the INAs are, apparently, not connected (I do get readings, but bogus, and then I read it has to be a -300 revision to properly work).

While waiting for my Tx2i, I’d like to know the power consumption when not using GPUs, and also, how much of the SoM can/must be turned off (I figured out there’s a big difference between the CPU power readings from INA and total system power consumption, even when not using GPUs, right?)

The best report I found is NVIDIA Jetson TX2 Linux Benchmarks Review - Phoronix

I’m also trying to understand the same for the Xavier AGX, and I found even less information on that. While I could buy both an measure, power requirements when doing simple linuxy stuff is a selection criteria for me, and I’d love to be able to choose based on that before buying.

Also, I don’t quite understand the differences in power consumption between Tx2 and Tx2i. I guess most of the difference (15W vs 20W) is because the Tx2i can operate at higher temperatures where it needs to dissipate (and consume?) more. But is there other differences in power consumption, maybe due to differences in the components to support industrial temperature ranges?

Any help? pointers?
thanks!

2

Hi gera,

You could refer to NVPModel Clock Configuration for TX2 and TX2i to find the details, we also have this function enabled on AGX Xavier, please refer to Power Management section from NVIDIA Tegra Linux Driver Package Development Guide:
TX2/TX2i : [url]https://developer.nvidia.com/embedded/dlc/l4t-documentation-28-2-ga[/url]
AGX Xavier: [url]https://developer.nvidia.com/embedded/dlc/l4t-documentation-31-0-2[/url]

Thanks

3

Thanks a lot! I had not seen this package, and I had also worked on other embedded systems, and this seems the most comprehensive guide to customizing an embedded linux system.

Now I know I’ll have to work to trim down the system to my needs and reduce power. Still, if anybody could give me some answers I’d really appreciate it. My most basic questions are: How much power do the Tx2/Tx2i/Xavier use when in idle, if possible, with no display, no USB devices, a single core, etc (A simple low power configuration, just configuring what could be done without recompiling the kernel), or otherwise, any other measurement that lets me compare the three (Tx2/Tx2i/Xavier), and compare with other embedded systems.

thanks a lot again!