Polling Behavior and Power Consumption (Windows Embedded CE 6.0)
1/5/2010
Ideally, all software should be driven by interrupts rather than by active polling. Interrupts ensure that the target device enters active mode only when a peripheral device requires the CPU. Interrupts reduce power consumption by minimizing the amount of active CPU time (because the processor is only used when a peripheral is ready) and lowering the number of times the processor must transition between idle and active modes.
When polling cannot be avoided, reduce power consumption by ensuring that as many polling routines as possible run simultaneously, during a single active mode instance. This minimizes power consumption by taking advantage of the fact that the time required to transition between idle and active modes is often much greater than the time required to poll a device.