INFORMATION PROCESSING DEVICE, NON-TRANSITORY, COMPUTER READABLE STORAGE MEDIUM, AND METHOD OF CONTROLLING INFORMATION PROCESSING DEVICE

• US 20130031353A1
• Filed: 06/05/2012
• Published: 01/31/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 07/28/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: NORO, Masaaki
• Granted Patent: US 9,003,212 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3212 Monitoring battery levels, e.g. power saving mode being initiated when battery voltage goes below a certain level
• 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

An information processing device has a storage unit configured to store correlation information in which a control rule for an operating frequency of a central processing unit of the information processing device is correlated with a combination of a state change of a first element of the information processing device, and a state of a second element of the information processing device which is different from the first element, a detecting unit configured to detect the state change of the first element, a determining unit configured to determine the state of the second element in the event that state change of the first element has been detected by the detecting unit, a searching unit configured to search for, a control rule corresponding to a combination of the state change and the state, and a control unit configured to control the operating frequency of the central processing unit.

Claims

1. An information processing device comprising:

a storage unit configured to store correlation information in which a control rule for an operating frequency of a central processing unit of the information processing device is correlated with a combination of a state change of a first element of the information processing device, and a state of a second element of the information processing device which is different from the first element;

a detecting unit configured to detect the state change of the first element;

a determining unit configured to determine the state of the second element in the event that state change of the first element has been detected by the detecting unit;

a searching unit configured to search for, from correlation information stored in the storage unit, a control rule corresponding to a combination of the state change detected by the detecting unit and the state determined by the determining unit; and

a control unit configured to control the operating frequency of the central processing unit based on the control rule searched for by the searching unit.

2. The information processing device according to claim 1, wherein the state change of the first element includes the state change of hardware in the case of a user ending operating of the information processing device, the state of the second element includes a state of whether or not a particular software executed by the central processing unit is being executed, and in the correlation information, a control rule is correlated with the combination of the state change of hardware in the case of the user ending the operating and the state of the particular software being executed, so that the processing capabilities of the central processing unit are higher than with a case of a control rule being correlated with the combination of the state change of hardware in the case of the user ending the operating and the state of the particular software not being executed.

3. The information processing device according to claim 2, wherein the state change of hardware in the case of the user ending the operating includes change of a display of the information processing device going from on to off.

4. The information processing device according to claim 3, wherein the state change of the first element includes stopping supply of external power to the information processing device, the state of the second element includes a state of whether or not a particular software executed by the central processing unit is being executed, and in the correlation information, a control rule is correlated with the combination of the supply stop and the state of the particular software being executed, so that the processing capabilities of the central processing unit are higher than with a case of a control rule being correlated with the combination of the supply stop and the state of the particular software not being executed.

5. The information processing device according to claim 4, wherein the state change of the first element includes starting of a particular software which is executed by the central processing unit, the state of the second element includes a state of whether or not the remaining battery of the information processing device is at or above a threshold value, and in the correlation information, a control rule is correlated with the combination of the starting of particular software and the state of the remaining battery not being at or above a threshold value, so that the power consumption of the central processing unit is lower than with a case of a control rule being correlated with the combination of starting of particular software and the state of the remaining battery not being at or above a threshold value.

6. The information processing device according to claim 5, wherein the state change of the first element includes the state change of hardware in the case of a user starting operating of the information processing device unit, the state of the second element includes a state of whether or not the remaining battery of the information processing device is at or above a threshold value, and in the correlation information, a control rule is correlated with the combination of the state change of hardware in the case of the user starting the operating and the state of the remaining battery not being at or above a threshold value, so that the power consumption of the central processing unit is lower than with a case of a control rule being correlated with the combination of state change of hardware in the case of the user starting the operating and the state of the remaining battery not being at or above a threshold value.

7. The information processing device according to claim 6, wherein the state change of hardware in the case of the user ending the operating includes change of a display of the information processing device going from off to on.

8. The information processing device according to claim 7, wherein the control rule is information indicating at least one of an algorithm and parameter for the control unit to control the operating frequency, and the control unit changes at least one of the algorithm and parameter based on the control rule searched by the searching unit.

9. The information processing device according to claims 8, wherein the state change of the first element includes a load increase in which the load on the central processing unit increases from below a threshold value to or above the threshold value, and the control unit increases the upper limit value of the operating frequency in the event that the load increase has been detected by the detecting unit.

10. The information processing device according to claim 9, further comprising a calculating unit configured to calculate the load based on a percentage of time at which the central processing unit has operated at an upper limit value of the operating frequency within a predetermined period of time, wherein the detecting unit detects the load increase based on the percentage calculated by the calculating unit.

11. The information processing device according to claim 10, wherein the state change of the first element includes change in the operating state of the particular software, and the detecting unit detects change in the operating state of the particular software based on usage time of the central processing unit by the particular software.

12. The information processing device according to claim 11, wherein the detecting unit starts detecting processing of the change in operating state upon the particular software starting, and ends detecting processing of the change in operating state upon the particular software stopping.

13. The information processing device according to claim 12, further comprising an installer configured to install an application in the information processing device, wherein the state change of the first element includes starting of a particular software which is executed by the central processing unit, or, the state of the second element includes a state of whether or not the particular software is being executed, and the installer stores an application to be installed as the particular software in the event that access authority of the application to be installed as to the information processing device is a particular access authority.

14. The information processing device according to claim 12, further comprising an uninstaller configured to uninstall an application from the information processing device, wherein the state change of the first element includes starting of a particular software which is executed by the central processing unit, or, the state of the second element includes a state of whether or not the particular software is being executed, and the uninstaller excludes an application to be uninstalled from being the particular software.

15. A non-transitory, computer readable storage medium storing information processing program to cause a computer to execute a processing comprising:

obtaining correlation information in which a control rule for an operating frequency of a central processing unit of an information processing device is correlated with a combination of a state change of a first element of the information processing device, and a state of a second element of the information processing device which is different from the first element;

detecting the state change of the first element;

determining the state of the second element in the event that state change of the first element has been detected;

searching for, from the correlation information, a control rule corresponding to a combination of the detected state change and the determined state; and

controlling the operating frequency of the central processing unit based on the searched control rule.

16. A method of controlling an information processing device comprising:

obtaining correlation information in which a control rule for an operating frequency of a central processing unit of an information processing device is correlated with a combination of a state change of a first element of the information processing device, and a state of a second element of the information processing device which is different from the first element;

detecting the state change of the first element by the information processing device;

determining the state of the second element in the event that state change of the first element has been detected;

searching for, from the correlation information, a control rule corresponding to a combination of the detected state change and the determined state; and

controlling the operating frequency of the central processing unit based on the searched control rule.