GUID, PnPID, isochronous bandwidth based mechanism for achieving memory controller thermal throttling

• US 20060069525A1
• Filed: 09/30/2004
• Published: 03/30/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Nalawadi, Rajeev K., Ramadoss, Murali
• Granted Patent: US 7,243,041 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/136
• 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 1/324 by lowering clock frequency
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A device to control memory bandwidth including a processing unit and a memory connected to the processing unit, the memory having a memory controller driver to issue at least one command based on a memory bandwidth requirement of another driver process. A memory controller to direct data to and from the memory. An active cooling device is connected to the processing unit and a thermal sensor.

Claims

1. An apparatus to control memory bandwidth comprising:

a processing unit;

a memory coupled to the processing unit, the memory having a memory controller driver to issue at least one command based on a memory bandwidth requirement of another driver;

a memory controller to direct data to and from the memory; and

an active cooling device coupled to the processing unit and a thermal sensor,

wherein the memory controller driver operates to perform passive memory bandwidth throttling to increase memory bandwidth for at least one application and to determine if another application can be paused.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the memory controller driver is further to allocate guaranteed memory bandwidth for at least one isochronous application.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, the memory controller driver is further to allocate minimum memory bandwidth and to activate the active cooling device to reduce a temperature of the processing unit.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a table created by the memory controller driver including minimum bandwidth and maximum bandwidth requirements for applications based on identification of the applications.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein identification of the applications is one of a globally unique identifier (GUID), a plug and play identifier (PnPID), a vendor identifier (ID), and a device ID.

6. A system comprising:

a central processing unit (CPU);

a chipset having a memory controller coupled to the CPU, the memory controller having a memory controller driver to monitor memory bandwidth on the CPU, to manage application performance based on memory bandwidth and to control active cooling;

at least one memory module coupled to the memory controller,

wherein the memory controller driver operates to perform passive memory bandwidth throttling to increase memory bandwidth for at least one application and to determine if another application can be paused.

7. The system of claim 6, further comprising:

an active cooling device coupled to the CPU; and

a thermal sensor coupled to the active cooling device to signal the memory controller driver to activate the active cooling device.

8. The system of claim 6, further comprises:

the memory controller driver is to allocate guaranteed memory bandwidth for at least one application, the at least one application requiring a constant bandwidth.

9. The system of claim 6, the memory controller driver operates to allocate minimum memory bandwidth for running applications and to control temperature of the CPU.

10. The system of claim 6, further comprises:

a data structure including minimum bandwidth and maximum bandwidth requirements for applications based on an identifier.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the identifier is one of a globally unique identifier (GUID), a plug and play identifier (PnPID), a vendor identifier (ID), and a device ID.

12. A method comprising:

storing registered bandwidth values for a plurality of applications;

determining a sum of all bandwidth requirements for the plurality of applications;

performing passive memory bandwidth throttling if a minimum sum bandwidth requirement is not met;

providing active cooling for a device if an overheat condition exists; and

allocating memory bandwidth values for applications lacking an identifier.

13. The method of claim 12, the providing active cooling comprising:

engaging a fan if the overheat condition exists.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

creating a data structure based on identifiers for each of the plurality of applications,

wherein the identifiers include any of a globally unique identifier (GUID), a plug and play identifier (PnPID), a vendor identifier (ID), and a device ID.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein creating comprises:

storing in the data structure minimum bandwidth and maximum bandwidth requirements for applications based on the identifiers.

17. The method of claim 12, the performing passive memory bandwidth throttling includes:

increasing memory bandwidth for at least one application and determining if another application can be paused.

16. (canceled)

18. A machine-accessible medium containing instructions that, when executed, cause a machine to:

transmit registered values for a plurality of applications to a memory controller driver, the memory controller driver to maintain minimum bandwidth requirements for the plurality of applications;

determine bandwidth allocation for the plurality of applications;

provide active cooling for a device; and

supply memory bandwidth values for applications lacking an identifier.

19. The machine-accessible medium of claim 18, the providing active cooling comprising instructions to:

engage a fan if an overheat condition exists.

20. The machine-accessible medium of claim 18, further comprising instructions to create a data structure of memory bandwidth requirements for each of the plurality of applications,

wherein the data structure of memory bandwidth requirements is based on any of a globally unique identifier (GUID), a plug and play identifier (PnPID), a vendor identifier (ID), and a Device ID.

22. The machine-accessible medium of claim 18, the maintain minimum bandwidth requirements further containing instructions that, when executed, cause a machine to:

increase memory bandwidth for at least one application and determine if another application can be one of idled and terminated.

21. (canceled)