BATTERY-POWERED DEVICE WITH REDUCED POWER CONSUMPTION AND METHOD THEREOF

• US 20080059823A1
• Filed: 08/31/2006
• Published: 03/06/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Advanced Silicon Technologies LLC
• Original Assignee: ATI Technologies Incorporated (Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.)
• Inventors: Balatsos, Aris, O'Neil, Kevin, Sadowski, Greg
• Granted Patent: US 9,582,060 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/323
• 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 1/3287 by switching off individual functional units in the computer system
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A device includes a processor that is operative to process a data stream such as executable code, encoded video or other suitable data stream, and has a plurality of processor portions. The device further includes a power management controller coupled to the processor portions that controls power consumption of the processor portions based on application profile data associated with the data stream. The application profile data may be included with executable code or provided separately and may directly indicate usage/nonusage of portions of the processor or the data stream may have inherent application profile data in the header that indirectly identifies usage of the processor portions. In addition, in one example, a method for reducing power consumption for a battery powered device includes executing code that includes application profile data identifying usage of portions of a first processor during runtime of an application; and, in response to the application profile data, controlling power consumption of the identified processor portions during runtime of the application.

Claims

1. A device comprising:

a power management controller operative to evaluate application profile data associated with a data stream and to operative to set parametric settings of portions of a processor to reduce power consumption of the processor based on the application profile data.

2. The device of claim 1 wherein the data stream comprises executable code and wherein the application profile data comprises header information identifying which portions of the processor can be controlled during runtime of the executable code.

3. The device of claim 2 wherein the processor comprises a video decoder, the data stream comprises encoded video and wherein the header information is used by the power management controller to determine which parametric settings of the video decoder are to be controlled.

4. The device of claim 1 wherein the application profile data is derived prior to runtime.

5. The device of claim 1 wherein the application profile data is used to set parametric settings of portions of a processor to reduce power consumption of the processor at least one of:

(i) prior to runtime of the executable code, (ii) during initialization of the executable code and (iii) during runtime of the executable code.

6. The device of claim 2 comprising an application profiler and wherein the application profile data is derived by the application profiler during runtime of the executable code.

7. The device of claim 1 wherein the application profile data is generated during application development.

8. A battery-powered device comprising:

a battery;

a processor having a plurality of processor portions and operative to execute code, and operatively coupled to the battery; and

a power management controller operatively coupled to the processor portions and operative to control power consumption of the processor portions based on application profile data included with the code, that identifies usage of the processor portions during runtime of an application.

9. The device of claim 8 wherein the power management controller is operative to reduce power draw from the battery by varying parametric settings of the processor portions wherein the parametric settings include at least one of clocking frequency, power supply voltage, and transistor back bias voltage associated with the processor portions.

10. A method for reducing power consumption for a battery powered device comprising:

executing code that includes application profile data identifying usage of portions of a first processor during runtime of an application; and

in response to the application profile data identifying usage of portions of the first processor, controlling power consumption of the identified first processor portions during runtime.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the application profile data is included as header information in the code.

12. The method of claim 10 comprising generating the application profile data by a second processor and wherein the second processor provides the application profile data for the first processor.

13. The method of claim 10 wherein the application profile data is received from a wireless network.

14. The method of claim 10 wherein controlling power consumption includes varying parametric settings of the identified portions, wherein the parametric settings include at least one of clocking frequency, power supply voltage, and transistor back bias voltage.

15. The method of claim 10 wherein the identifying data is based on recording register values associated with first processor portions.

16. The method of claim 10 wherein the application profile data that identifies usage of portions of the first processor includes data representing parametric settings of the processor portions.

17. A battery-powered device comprising:

memory operative to store executable code;

a first processor, having a plurality of processor portions, operatively coupled to the memory and operative to execute the code; and

a power management controller operatively coupled to the first processor and operative to control power consumption of the first processor portions based on application profile data, included with the code, that identifies usage of the portions during runtime of the code.

18. The device of claim 17 wherein the power management controller is comprised of a second processor and is coupled to the memory and operative to derive the application profile data during runtime.

19. The device of claim 18 further comprising a wireless network interface operatively coupled to the power management controller and operative to receive the application profile data from a wireless network.

20. The device of claim 18 wherein the first processor comprises a graphics processing core and wherein the power management controller is operative to vary parametric settings of the first processor portions.

21. The device of claim 20 wherein the parametric settings include at least one of clocking frequency, power supply voltage, and transistor back bias voltage associated with the processor portions.

22. The device of claim 17 wherein the application profile data that identifies usage of the first processor portions is included as header information in the code.

23. A network element comprising:

a memory containing data representing application profile data and corresponding executable code; and

a network interface operatively coupled to the memory and operative to send the application profile data and executable code to a wireless mobile device.

24. The network element of claim 23, wherein the network element is operative to determine a wireless mobile device type and select a corresponding application profile data and executable code based on the wireless mobile device type.

25. A computer readable medium that stores instructions which when executed adapt a device to:

execute code that includes application profile data identifying usage of portions of a first processor during runtime of an application; and

in response to the application profile data identify usage of portions of the first processor, controlling power consumption of the identified first processor portions during runtime.

26. The computer readable medium of claim 25 comprising instructions which when executed adapt a device to control power consumption by varying parametric settings of the identified portions, wherein the parametric settings include at least one of clocking frequency, power supply voltage, and transistor back bias voltage.