Power signal interface

• US 10,007,314 B2
• Filed: 06/16/2014
• Issued: 06/26/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 08/21/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Arm Ltd. (United Kingdom) (SoftBank Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Arm Ltd. (United Kingdom) (SoftBank Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Flynn, David Walter, Myers, James Edward
• Primary Examiner(s): Bae, Ji H
• Application Number:
  US14/907,945
• Publication Number:
  US 20160170465A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,471 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/26 Power supply means, e.g. regulation thereof for memories G11C
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3203 Power management, i.e. event-based initiation of a power-saving mode
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3206 Monitoring of events, devices or parameters that trigger a change in power modality
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3234 Power saving characterised by the action undertaken
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/324 by lowering clock frequency
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3296 by lowering the supply or operating voltage
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/30 Monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3024 where the computing system component is a central processing unit [CPU]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3058 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring environmental properties or parameters of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring of power, currents, temperature, humidity, position, vibrations thermal management in cooling arrangements of a computing system G06F1/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3096 wherein the means or processing minimize the use of computing system or of computing system component resources, e.g. non-intrusive monitoring which minimizes the probe effect: sniffing, intercepting, indirectly deriving the monitored data from other directly available data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/00 Interconnection of, or transfer of information or other signals between, memories, input/output devices or central processing units interface circuits for specific input/output devices G06F3/00 ; multiprogram control therefor G06F9/46; multiprocessor systems G06F15/16
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

Mechanisms are provided for energy management signalling with an apparatus for processing data, such as a system-on-chip integrated circuit (2). Processing circuitry (6, 8, 10) is coupled to consumer energy interface circuitry (14, 16, 18) which communicates with energy management circuitry (4). The energy management signals which are communicated include a static power consumption signal indicative of a level of power consumption which is independent of processing operations being performed and a dynamic power consumption signal indicative of a level of dynamic power consumption which is dependent upon the processing operations being performed.

Claims

1. Apparatus for processing data comprising:

processing circuitry configured to perform processing operations; and

consumer energy interface circuitry coupled to said processing circuitry and configured to communicate energy management signals with energy management circuitry;

wherein said energy management signals include;

(i) a static power consumption signal indicative of a level of static power consumption of said apparatus independent of processing operations performed by said processing circuitry, said static power consumption signal being independent of an operating temperature of said apparatus; and

(ii) a dynamic power consumption signal indicative of a level of dynamic power consumption of said apparatus dependent upon processing operations performed by said apparatus.

2. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said static power consumption signal is indicative of power consumed at least partially due to leakage currents within said processing circuitry.

3. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said static power consumption signal varies in accordance with a selected one of a plurality of modes of said apparatus when not performing processing operations, said plurality of modes including at least one of:

(i) a standby mode in which state signals of said apparatus remain in situ such that said apparatus is able to resume processing without having to reinstate said state signals;

(ii) a state retention mode in which state signals of said apparatus are saved to state retention circuitry within said apparatus such that said apparatus is able to resume processing by restoring said state signals from said state retention circuitry; and

(iii) a power-down mode in which state signals of said apparatus are no longer stored within said apparatus and a power supply to said apparatus is gated off.

4. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said dynamic power consumption signal is indicative of a prediction of power consumed by said processing operations.

5. Apparatus as claimed in claim 4, wherein said dynamic power consumption signal varies in dependence upon a level of detected processing activity within said apparatus.

6. Apparatus as claimed in claim 4, wherein said dynamic power consumption signal varies in dependence upon a mode of processing operations performed by said apparatus.

7. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said energy management signals include an allocation signal indicative of a power level allocated by said energy management circuitry for use by said apparatus.

8. Apparatus as claimed in claim 7, comprising operation control circuitry responsive to said allocation signal to control operation of said processing circuitry such that power consumption of said apparatus does not exceed said power level allocated by said energy management circuitry.

9. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein at least one of said energy management signals uses a logarithmic encoding of power level.

10. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein at least one of said energy management signals uses a thermometer encoding of power level.

11. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein one or more of said static power consumption signal and said dynamic power consumption signal represent an absolute level of power consumption by said apparatus.

12. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein communication of said energy management signals with said energy management circuitry uses asynchronous request-acknowledge handshaking between said consumer energy interface circuitry and said energy management circuitry.

13. A method of processing data comprising the steps of:

performing processing operations with processing circuitry; and

communicating energy management signals with energy management circuitry;

wherein said energy management signals include;

(i) a static power consumption signal indicative of a level of static power consumption of said apparatus independent of processing operations performed by said processing circuitry, said static power consumption signal being independent of an operating temperature of said apparatus; and

(ii) a dynamic power consumption signal indicative of a level of dynamic power consumption of said apparatus dependent upon processing operations performed by said processing circuitry.