Graphics energy profiling system and method

1. A method for profiling energy usage and visual effect of a graphics user interface (UI) update in handheld mobile devices, comprising:

mapping pixel changes of each frame to a responsible UI update;

identifying method invocations at all layers of a UI rendering stack corresponding to each UI update, comprising:

tracking asynchronous dependence across all of the layers of the UI rendering stack corresponding to each UI update by assigning a unique frame identification (frame-ID) per frame refresh and a unique view identification (view-ID) to track the asynchronous dependence between the UI update and its corresponding callbacks across all of the layers of the UI rendering stack

tracking information flow across a corresponding graphics processing unit (GPU) by using an OpenGL record-and-replay method, comprising:

recording OpenGL calls along with associated view-IDs and frame-IDs but not the frames during energy profiling,

reconstructing the frames by replaying the OpenGL calls on the corresponding GPU during post processing; and

comparing the frames to account for the mapped pixel changes by each UI update, and;

tracking and accounting the energy usage during each frame rendering interval, comprising:

tracking a corresponding central processing unit (CPU) energy usage,

tracking the corresponding GPU energy usage, and

accounting the energy usage to the individual UI updates to an associated frame.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein accounting the energy usage to the individual UI updates to an associated frame comprises:

tracking and adding up the CPU energy usage by all the identified method invocations corresponding to each UI update, and

splitting the GPU energy among the UI updates based on the corresponding OpenGL call view-IDs.