Techniques for distributing power in electronic circuits and computer systems

• US 20070098037A1
• Filed: 11/02/2005
• Published: 05/03/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/02/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GlobalFoundries, Inc.
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Hamann, Hendrik, Wakil, Jamil, Weger, Alan, Lacey, James
• Granted Patent: US 7,698,114 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 374/137
• CPC Class Codes: G01K 2215/00 Details concerning sensor power supply
• CPC Class Codes: G01K 7/42 Circuits effecting compensation of thermal inertia; Circuits for predicting the stationary value of a temperature
• CPC Class Codes: G01K 7/425 Thermal management of integrated systems

Abstract

Techniques for enhancing thermal design of a system having a number of boundary values are provided. A method for such enhancement includes representing thermal response of the system to the boundary values, obtaining at least one constraining parameter, and determining spatial and/or temporal distribution of the boundary values. The thermal response is represented as a superposition of temperature fields associated with given boundary values. The spatial and/or temporal distribution of the boundary values is determined based on the thermal response represented in the representing step, so as to satisfy the constraining parameter. The boundary values can be, for example, power sources, and the at least one constraining parameter can be, for example, a spatial or temporal location of one of the power sources.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for enhancing thermal design of a system having a plurality of boundary values, said method comprising the steps of:

representing thermal response of said system to said plurality of boundary values as a superposition of temperature fields associated with given ones of said boundary values;

obtaining at least one constraining parameter; and

determining at least one of spatial and temporal distribution of said plurality of boundary values, based on said thermal response represented in said representing step, to satisfy said at least one constraining parameter.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said representing, obtaining and determining steps are performed in a substantially open-loop manner, substantially without using sensor feedback pertaining to power distribution and substantially without using sensor feedback pertaining to temperature distribution.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said boundary values comprise power sources.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said boundary values comprise fixed temperature regions.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said at least one constraining parameter comprises a spatial location at which a given one of said boundary values is constrained to be located.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said at least one constraining parameter comprises a temporal slot during which a given one of said boundary values is constrained to be applied.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said at least one constraining parameter comprises a magnitude specification pertinent to a given one of said boundary values.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein:

at least some of said boundary values comprise power sources; and

said determining step comprises determining spatial location of said power sources to obtain a substantially uniform steady-state temperature distribution for said system.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein:

at least some of said boundary values comprise power sources;

said system is an integrated circuit chip; and

said power sources represent electrical devices to be located on said chip.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising the additional step of providing an integrated circuit having said electrical devices distributed substantially in accordance with said determining step.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein:

at least some of said boundary values comprise power sources;

said system is a data center; and

said power sources represent data-processing components within said data center.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising the additional step of configuring a data center with said data-processing components distributed substantially in accordance with said determining step.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein:

at least some of said boundary values comprise power sources;

said representing step comprises generating a thermal resistance matrix A comprising said temperature fields associated with said boundary values, said boundary values being said power sources; and

said determining step comprises determining distribution of said power sources by solving the equation AP=T under constraints associated with said at least one constraining parameter, where A is a thermal resistance matrix describing given ones of said temperature fields for corresponding given ones of said power sources, P is a vector describing said distribution of said power sources, and T is a vector describing temperature distribution of said system.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein said representing step is performed via predictive thermal modeling with a thermal model of said system and further comprises:

determining an appropriate discretization granularity for said thermal model of said system; and

creating said thermal model according to said discretization granularity.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising the additional steps of:

redefining said constraining parameter to obtain a redefined constraining parameter; and

repeating said determining step based on said redefined constraining parameter.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein said determining step comprises at least determining said temporal distribution, further comprising the additional steps of:

determining an initial power distribution P_t=0 at an initial time t=0;

incrementing said time by a time step t_step substantially less than a characteristic thermal time constant of said system to obtain an incremented time value; and

repeating said incrementing step for a plurality of repetitions to obtain a plurality of subsequent incremented time values;

wherein, at each of said repetitions, said steps of representing thermal response, obtaining at least one constraining parameter, and determining distribution are repeated.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein:

when said step of representing thermal response is repeated for a given incremented time value t, said representing is performed based on a power distribution P<sub>t−

tstep</sub> from a previous time value t−

t_step; and

when said step of determining said distribution is repeated, said distribution comprises P_t, power distribution at time t.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein said representing step is performed via predictive thermal modeling with a thermal model of said system.

19. A computer program product comprising a computer useable medium having computer useable program code for enhancing thermal design of a system having a plurality of boundary values, said computer program product including:

computer useable program code for representing thermal response of said system to said plurality of boundary values as a superposition of temperature fields associated with given ones of said boundary values, to obtain a represented thermal response;

computer useable program code for obtaining at least one constraining parameter; and

computer useable program code for determining at least one of spatial and temporal distribution of said plurality of boundary values, based on said represented thermal response, to satisfy said at least one constraining parameter.

20. An apparatus for enhancing thermal design of a system having a plurality of boundary values, comprising:

a memory; and

at least one processor coupled to said memory and operative to;

represent thermal response of said system to said plurality of boundary values as a superposition of temperature fields associated with given ones of said boundary values, to obtain a represented thermal response;

obtain at least one constraining parameter; and

determine at least one of spatial and temporal distribution of said plurality of boundary values, based on said represented thermal response, to satisfy said at least one constraining parameter.