Power management for processing modules

• US 20050120254A1
• Filed: 10/05/2004
• Published: 06/02/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 03/22/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Computer Entertainment Incorporated (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Computer Entertainment Incorporated (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Yamazaki, Takeshi, Suzuoki, Masakazu
• Granted Patent: US 7,516,334 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/320
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/206 comprising thermal management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3203 Power management, i.e. event-based initiation of a power-saving mode
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3243 Power saving in microcontroller unit
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/30145 Instruction analysis, e.g. decoding, instruction word fields
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/30167 of immediate specifier, e.g. constants
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A processing element (PE) includes a processing unit (PU) and a number of attached processing units (APUs). The instruction set of each APU is divided a priori into a number of types, each type associated with a different amount of heat generation. Each APU keeps track of the amount of each type of instruction executed over a time period,—the power information,—and provides this power information to the PU. The PU then performs power management as a function of the provided power information from each APU,—such as directing a particular APU to enter an idle state to reduce power consumption.

Claims

1. A method for performing power management, the method comprising the steps of:

monitoring a rate of execution of instructions by a processor; and

estimating a power consumption rate as a function of the monitored instruction execution rate.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the rate of execution is monitored based on a rate of fetching instructions for execution, wherein the instructions include instructions having different types.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the estimating step estimates a heat level for the processor as a function of instruction count values for each of the different types of instruction being executed.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the different types of instructions include a floating point instruction and an integer instruction.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the different types of instructions include a vector floating point instruction, a vector integer instruction, a scalar floating point instruction and a scalar integer instruction.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the estimating estimates a heat level for the processor.

7. A method for performing power management, the method comprising the steps of:

determining power information based on a rate of execution of instructions by a first processor; and

estimating a rate of power consumption as a function of the determined power information.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the instructions are of different types, and the power information is determined by counting the number of each of the respective types of instructions being executed by the first processor.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the different types of instructions include a floating point instruction and an integer instruction.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the different types of instructions include a vector floating point instruction, a vector integer instruction, a scalar floating point instruction and a scalar integer instruction.

11. The method of claim 7, further comprising sending the power information to a second processor, wherein the estimating is performed by the second processor.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the second processor controls the first processor to reduce energy usage if the estimated energy usage is above a predefined level.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the second processor puts the first processor into an idle state.

14. Apparatus performing power management, the apparatus comprising:

a first processor; and

a monitoring circuit operable to generate power information based on a rate of execution of instructions by the first processor.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the rate of execution is represented by a rate of fetching instructions for execution, the instructions include instructions having different types and the power information includes counts of each of the different types of instructions being fetched for execution.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the different types of instructions include a floating point instruction and an integer instruction.

17. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the different types of instructions include a vector floating point instruction, a vector integer instruction, a scalar floating point instruction and a scalar integer instruction.

18. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the monitoring circuit includes counters for maintaining the counts of each of the different types of instructions.

19. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the first processor is operable to send the power information to a second processor, and the second processor is operable to estimate a rate of power consumption by the first processor.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the second processor is operable to estimate a heat level corresponding to the estimated rate of power consumption.

21. A processing element for performing power management, the processing element comprising:

a first processing unit;

a number of attached processing units, at least one attached processing unit having a monitoring circuit operable to accumulate power information related to a rate at which instructions are executed therein;

wherein the at least one attached processing unit is operable to send the accumulated power information to the first processing unit, and the first processing unit is operable to determine a rate of power consumption from the accumulated power information.

22. The processing element of claim 21, wherein the first processing unit is operable to reduce an energy usage of the at least one attached processing unit if the determined power consumption for that attached processing unit is above a predefined value.

23. The processing element of claim 21, wherein the first processing unit is operable to reduce an energy usage of that attached processing unit by causing that attached processing unit to enter an idle state.

24. The processing element of claim 21, wherein the instructions include instructions having different types, and wherein the accumulated power information includes data representing counts for how many instructions of the different types of instructions have been executed.

25. The processing element of claim 24, wherein the different types of instructions include a floating point instruction and an integer instruction.

26. The processing element of claim 24, wherein the different types of instructions include a vector floating point instruction, a vector integer instruction, a scalar floating point instruction and a scalar integer instruction.

27. The processing element of claim 21, wherein the first processing unit is operable to estimate a heat level corresponding to the determined rate of power consumption.

28. A processing environment comprising:

a first processing unit;

a number of additional processing units each having a monitoring circuit operable to generate power information based on a rate at which instructions are executed by the respective additional processing unit;

wherein the additional processing units are operable to send power information to the first processing unit, the first processing unit being operable to monitor a rate of power consumption of the additional processing units based on the sent power information.

29. The processing environment of claim 28, wherein the first processing unit reduces the rate of power consumption of at least one of the attached processing units when the rate of power consumption is above a predefined value.

30. The processing environment of claim 28, wherein the first processing unit reduces the power consumption of the at least one attached processing unit by causing that attached processing unit to enter an idle state.

31. The processing environment of claim 28, wherein the instructions include instructions having different types and the accumulated power information includes data representing counts of each of the different types of instructions that are executed.

32. The processing environment of claim 31, wherein the different types of instructions include a floating point instruction and an integer instruction.

33. The processing environment of claim 31, wherein the different types of instructions include a vector floating point instruction, a vector integer instruction, a scalar floating point instruction and a scalar integer instruction.

34. The processing environment of claim 28, wherein the first processing unit further estimates a heat level based on the monitored rate of power consumption.