POWER MEASUREMENT TECHNIQUES OF A SYSTEM-ON-CHIP (SOC)

• US 20110060931A1
• Filed: 09/10/2009
• Published: 03/10/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/10/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Liu, Yi-Feng, Jourdan, Stephan J., Tan, Sin S., Lool, Lily P., RADHAKRISHNAN, SIVAKUMAR
• Granted Patent: US 8,275,560 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/340
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3203 Power management, i.e. event-based initiation of a power-saving mode
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3237 by disabling clock generation or distribution
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/50 in wire-line communication networks, e.g. low power modes or reduced link rate

Abstract

A method and system to enable power measurements of a system-on-chip in various modes. In one embodiment of the invention, the system-on-chip has full controllability of its logic and circuitry to facilitate configuration of the system-on-chip into a desired mode of operation. This allows hooks or interfaces to access the system-on-chip externally for measurements. For example, in one embodiment of the invention, the hooks in the system-on-chip allow a backend tester to configure the system-on-chip into various modes easily to perform power consumption measurements of one or more individual components of the system-on-chip. The power consumption measurement of the individual components in the system-on-chip can be performed faster and can be more accurate. In addition, the overall yield of the SOC can be increased as it is easier to detect failure parts.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

setting one or more interfaces of a system-on-chip (SOC) into an idle mode;

setting one or more processor cores in the SOC into an idle state;

disabling one or more clock inputs to the SOC;

reducing a voltage level of one or more logic blocks of the SOC, the one or more logic blocks having a common voltage plane; and

measuring a power consumption of the SOC.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein setting the one or more interfaces of the SOC into the idle mode comprises setting one or more mode registers associated with the one of more interfaces of the SOC.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more logic blocks of the SOC comprise one or more registers, and wherein reducing the voltage level of the one or more logic blocks of the SOC comprises reducing the voltage level of the one or more logic blocks such that each register is able to retain its state.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more interfaces of the SOC comprise one or more of a Direct Media Interface (DMI), a Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCI-E) interface, and a Common System Interface (CSI).

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the idle mode of the one or more interfaces of the SOC is compliant at least in part with an Active State Power Management (ASPM) idle state.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein disabling the one or more clock inputs to the SOC comprises turning off one or more Phase Locked Loops (PLLs) of the SOC.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the idle state of the one or more processor cores is compliant at least in part with an Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) idle state.

8. A method comprising:

setting one or more interfaces of a system-on-chip (SOC) into an active mode;

setting one or more processor cores in the SOC into an idle state;

enabling one or more clock inputs to the SOC;

providing communication traffic to the SOC; and

measuring a power consumption of the SOC.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein setting the one or more interfaces of the SOC into the active mode comprises setting one or more mode registers associated with the one of more interfaces of the SOC.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising providing peer-to-peer communication traffic to the SOC.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the one or more interfaces of the SOC comprise one or more of a Direct Media Interface (DMI), a Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCI-E) interface, and a Common System Interface (CSI).

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the idle mode of the one or more interfaces of the SOC is compliant at least in part with an Active State Power Management (ASPM) idle state.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein the idle state of the one or more processor cores is compliant at least in part with an Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) idle state.

14. An apparatus comprising:

power management logic to;

control one or more power gates, each power gate coupled with a voltage input and a power domain of one or more logic blocks; and

control one or more clock inputs to the one or more logic blocks.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the power management logic is further to control a link state of each of one or more interfaces of the apparatus.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein each power gate, in response to an activation of each power gate, is to provide the voltage input to the power domain of the one or more logic blocks.

17. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein each power gate, in response to a deactivation of each power gate, is to:

reduce the voltage input; and

provide the reduced voltage input to the power domain of the one or more logic blocks.

18. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the one or more interfaces comprise one or more of a Direct Media Interface (DMI), a Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCI-E) interface, and a Common System Interface (CSI).

19. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the power management logic is further to control input/output (I/O) logic of the apparatus.

20. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the one or more clock inputs comprise one or more Phase Lock Loops (PLLs) clock inputs.

21. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the one or more interfaces of the SOC are compliant at least in part with an Active State Power Management (ASPM).

22. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the apparatus further comprises a processor having one or more processing cores, and wherein the power management unit is further to control an operating state of at least one of the one or more processing cores of the processor.

23. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the operating state of the at least one processor core is compliant at least in part with an Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI).

24. The apparatus of 14, further comprising a module coupled with the processor and the power management logic to simulate a read command and a write command of the processor when the processor is set in an idle mode.

25. The apparatus of 24, further comprising a switch module coupled with the module and the one or more interfaces to:

determine that communication traffic from the one or more interfaces does not require processing by the processor; and

route the communication traffic among the one or more interfaces without any processing by the processor.

26. The apparatus of 25, wherein the switch module to determine that the communication traffic from the one or more interfaces does not require processing by the processor is to check that a header of the communication traffic indicates that the communication traffic is not directed to the processor.