ENERGY LIMIT IN A SLIDING WINDOW IN POWER AND HEAT MANAGEMENT

• US 20110046804A1
• Filed: 08/21/2009
• Published: 02/24/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/21/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Kephart, Jeffrey Owen, Liu, Yanbin, Fong, Liana L.
• Granted Patent: US 8,224,497 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/291
• 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 1/3296 by lowering the supply or operating voltage
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A system and method for specifying a temporal window of a fixed size that slides along time; specifying energy consumption as the accumulated power consumption in a temporal window; and applying a threshold that limits the energy consumption in a sliding window, while the power consumption can fluctuate within the window. Power-aware systems apply energy limit as a constraint in performance optimization.

Claims

1. An electronic system comprising:

a memory device storing;

an energy limit method that receives as input an energy limit, comprising an energy limit value and a sliding window size, said sliding window is defined as a fixed size temporal window that slides along time;

receives as input the power consumption history of a previous sliding window ended at the current time; and

returns power management decisions that have a plurality of optimization goals with the energy limit as a constraint; and

a history of power consumption of the electronic system;

a processor device, said processor device comprising;

a parameter setter that receives inputs to define energy limit parameters,

a decision maker that receives the energy limit setting from the parameter setter and invokes the energy limit algorithm to determine the energy consumption of the electronic device; and

a power controller that takes input from the decision maker and uses power management technologies to adjust the power usage of the electronic device.

2. The electronic circuit of claim 1 wherein the memory stores an energy limit based on both a sliding window size and energy limit value.

3. The electronic system of claim 1 wherein the parameter setter can use information of the electronic device, the cooling system and the temperature cap to calculate the energy limit that should avoid over-heating

4. The electronic system of claim 1 wherein the power controller controls power usage using clock throttling.

5. The electronic system of claim 1 wherein the power controller controls power usage using DVFS power management technology.

6. The electronic system of claim 1 further comprising a workload predictor.

7. The electronic system of claim 1 further comprising a temperature monitor coupled to the device for measuring a temperature value and determining whether the device is over-heating.

8. The electronic system of claim 7 wherein the decision maker receives an indication that the processor is overheating from the temperature monitor.

9. The electronic system of claim 1 wherein the decision maker invokes the power controller to apply a threshold limit on the energy consumption in the sliding window while the power consumption fluctuates within the window.

10. A method to modulate power consumption of a power-aware system, the method comprising:

receiving at a computer input device, energy limit parameters comprising an energy limit value and a sliding window size for a temporal window of a fixed size that slides along time; and

using an information processing device to process a power consumption history of a last temporal window ended at a current time deriving a processing speed for the current or future time by applying energy limit as a constraint.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the method is used when a workload changes.

12. The method of claim 10 is used when the workload changes whereas the workload changes at a time comprising task arrival or termination.

13. The method of claim 10 wherein the method is used when the current energy limit is modified.

14. The method of claim 10 wherein the method is used as a response to timer events.

15. The method of claim 11 wherein the workload changes comprise a task arrival.

16. The method of claim 11 wherein the workload changes comprise a task termination.