Implementing thermal remediations in reaction to execution of software

• US 10,642,325 B2
• Filed: 04/29/2015
• Issued: 05/05/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 01/30/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Worthington, Bruce Lee, Brown, Tristan A., Calinov, Iulian Doroftei
• Primary Examiner(s): Shmatov, Alexey
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bejcek, II, Robert
• Application Number:
  US14/699,964
• Publication Number:
  US 20160224081A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,833 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/206 comprising thermal management
• 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 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 11/3062 where the monitored property is the power consumption power management in a computing system G06F1/3203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/34 Recording or statistical evaluation of computer activity, e.g. of down time, of input/output operation ; Recording or statistical evaluation of user activity, e.g. usability assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3452 Performance evaluation by statistical analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5094 where the allocation takes into account power or heat criteria power management in computers in general G06F1/3203; thermal management in computers in general G06F1/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/02 Knowledge representation; Symbolic representation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0258 controlling an operation mode according to history or models of usage information, e.g. activity schedule or time of day
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Embodiments are directed to capturing and storing historical data regarding thermal remediations, to predicting and acting on remediation futures and to communicating with applications regarding thermal remediations implemented on the computer system. In one scenario, a computer system determines which thermal remediations are currently being implemented on a monitored computing device. The thermal remediations are based on the monitored computing device'"'"'s current operating environment including the physical thermal environment and/or the current software execution environment. The computer system further tracks thermal remediation levels for those thermal remediations that are currently being implemented on the monitored computing device, the thermal remediation levels indicating the degree to which each thermal remediation is implemented. The computer system also filters the tracked thermal remediation levels for tracked thermal remediation information that includes information regarding the computing device'"'"'s current operating environment, and stores the filtered thermal remediation levels in a data store.

Claims

1. A computer program product comprising one or more hardware storage devices having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a computing system, cause the computing system to predict and act on thermal remediation futures, the computer-executable instructions including instructions that are executable to cause the computing system to at least:

determine one or more current operating state characteristics of a monitored computing system;

track thermal remediation information of the monitored computing system, the tracking thermal remediation information comprising tagging at least one running application with thermal remediation information including at least one of (1) information indicating at least one of a plurality of phases of activity levels that occur during runtime of the at least one running application, (2) information indicating thermal intensity of the at least one running application, (3) information indicating at least a level of thermal remediation to engage for at least one hardware component during runtime of the at least one running application, or (4) information indicating at least a level of utilization for at least one hardware component during runtime of the at least one running application;

determine that at least one operating state characteristic has changed on the monitored computing system, including determining that a particular software is now executing at the monitored computer system; and

based on an identity of the particular software that is now executing at the monitored computing system, proactively prevent a thermal threshold from being reached due to execution of the particular software, including;

accessing the tracked thermal remediation information, including accessing thermal history of one or more implemented thermal remediations being tagged by the particular software;

accessing information related to a current system state, including accessing one or more thermal remediation levels currently implemented at the monitored computer system, the one or more thermal remediation levels indicating a first degree to which one or more thermal remediations were currently implemented;

based on the tracked thermal remediation information and the information related to the current system state, generating a prediction of a second degree to which the one or more thermal remediations could be implemented in reaction to execution of the particular software, in order to prevent the thermal threshold from being reached due to execution of the particular software; and

implementing the second degree of the one or more thermal remediations identified in the generated prediction to reduce heating of the monitored computing system, thereby preventing the thermal threshold from being reached due to execution of the particular software, wherein the implementing the second degree of the one or more thermal remediations includes at least reducing a CPU clock frequency.

2. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein implementing one or more thermal remediations based on the generated prediction comprises changing an applied level of one or more thermal remediations on the monitored computing system.

3. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein determining that at least one operating state characteristic has changed on the monitored computing system occurs based on polling or based on an occurrence of a specified event.

4. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein heuristics are used to analyze thermal remediation history and predict future behavior regarding thermal remediations.

5. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein an operating system of the monitored computing system implements the one or more thermal remediations based on the generated prediction.

6. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the generated prediction is dynamically updated based on one or more events occurring.

7. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein one or more portions of computing system hardware or firmware implement the one or more thermal remediations based on the generated prediction.

8. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the generated prediction is a single bit of information, indicating that thermal remediations are to be increased or decreased.

9. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the generated prediction comprises information indicating thermal remediations for a plurality of pieces of hardware that are to be throttled in a specific way based on the generated predictions.

10. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the second degree of the one or more thermal remediations are applied before allowable temperatures on the monitored computing system are exceeded.

11. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the one or more thermal remediations include one or more of the following:

reducing a CPU clock frequency, moving a work item between CPU cores, display dimming, reducing a data transmission rate, disabling an antenna, disabling a port, reduce a camera frame rate, or changing an idle state.

12. A method, implemented at a computer system that includes one or more processors, for acting on thermal remediation futures, the method comprising:

determining one or more current operating state characteristics of a monitored computing system;

tracking thermal remediation information of the monitored computing system, the tracking thermal remediation information comprising tagging at least one running application with thermal remediation information including at least one of (1) information indicating at least one of a plurality of phases of activity levels that occur during runtime of the at least one running application, (2) information indicating thermal intensity of the at least one running application, (3) information indicating at least a level of thermal remediation to engage for at least one hardware component during runtime of the at least one running application, or (4) information indicating at least a level of utilization for at least one hardware component during runtime of the at least one running application;

determining that at least one operating state characteristic has changed on the monitored computing system, including determining that a particular software is now executing at the monitored computer system; and

based on an identity of the particular software that is now executing at the monitored computing system, proactively preventing a thermal threshold from being reached due to execution of the particular software, including;

accessing the tracked thermal remediation information, including accessing thermal history of one or more implemented thermal remediations being tagged by the particular software;

accessing information related to a current system state, including accessing one or more thermal remediation levels currently implemented at the monitored computer system, the one or more thermal remediation levels indicating a first degree to which one or more thermal remediations were currently implemented;

based on the tracked thermal remediation information and the information related to the current system state, generating a prediction of a second degree to which the one or more thermal remediations could be implemented in reaction to execution of the particular software, in order to prevent the thermal threshold from being reached due to execution of the particular software; and

implementing the second degree of the one or more thermal remediations identified in the generated prediction to reduce heating of the monitored computing system, thereby preventing the thermal threshold from being reached due to execution of the particular software, wherein the implementing the second degree of the one or more thermal remediations includes at least reducing a CPU clock frequency.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein implementing one or more thermal remediations based on the generated prediction comprises changing an applied level of one or more thermal remediations on the monitored computing system.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein determining that at least one operating state characteristic has changed on the monitored computing system occurs based on polling or based on an occurrence of a specified event.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein heuristics are used to analyze thermal remediation history and predict future behavior regarding thermal remediations.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein an operating system of the monitored computing system implements the one or more thermal remediations based on the generated prediction.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein the generated prediction is dynamically updated based on one or more events occurring.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein one or more portions of computing system hardware or firmware implement the one or more thermal remediations based on the generated prediction.

19. The method of claim 12, wherein the one or more thermal remediations include one or more of the following:

reducing a CPU clock frequency, moving a work item between CPU cores, display dimming, reducing a data transmission rate, disabling an antenna, disabling a port, reduce a camera frame rate, or changing an idle state.

20. A computer system comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one computer-readable media having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the computer system to predict and act on thermal remediation futures, the computer-executable instructions including instructions that are executable to cause the computer system to at least;

determine one or more current operating state characteristics of a monitored computing system;

track thermal remediation information of the monitored computing system, the tracking thermal remediation information including tagging at least one running application with thermal remediation information including at least one of (1) information indicating at least one of a plurality of phases of activity levels that occur during runtime of the at least one running application, (2) information indicating thermal intensity of the at least one running application, (3) information indicating at least a level of thermal remediation to engage for at least one hardware component during runtime of the at least one running application, or (4) information indicating at least a level of utilization for at least one hardware component during runtime of the at least one running application;

determine that at least one operating state characteristic has changed on the monitored computing system, including determining that a particular software is now executing at the monitored computer system; and

based on an identity of the particular software that is now executing at the monitored computing system, proactively prevent a thermal threshold from being reached due to execution of the particular software, including;

accessing the tracked thermal remediation information, including accessing thermal history of one or more implemented thermal remediations being tagged by the particular software;

accessing information related to a current system state, including accessing one or more thermal remediation levels currently implemented at the monitored computer system, the one or more thermal remediation levels indicating a first degree to which one or more thermal remediations were currently implemented;

based on the tracked thermal remediation information and the information related to the current state, generating a prediction of a second degree to which the one or more thermal remediations could be implemented in reaction to execution of the particular software, in order to prevent the thermal threshold from being reached due to execution of the particular software; and

implementing the second degree of the one or more thermal remediations identified in the generated prediction to reduce heating of the monitored computing system, thereby preventing the thermal threshold from being reached due to execution of the particular software, wherein the implementing the second degree of the one or more thermal remediations includes at least reducing a CPU clock frequency.