Dynamically Allocating A Power Budget Over Multiple Domains Of A Processor

• US 20130179704A1
• Filed: 02/28/2013
• Published: 07/11/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/06/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Daedalus Prime LLC (Daedalus Group LLC)
• Original Assignee: Avinash N. Ananthakrishnan, Doron Rajwan, Efraim Rotem, Eliezer Weissmann, Nadav Shulman
• Inventors: Ananthakrishnan, Avinash N., Rotem, Efraim, Rajwan, Doron, Weissmann, Eliezer, Shulman, Nadav
• Granted Patent: US 8,775,833 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/300
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/26 Power supply means, e.g. regulation thereof for memories G11C
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3243 Power saving in microcontroller unit
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5094 where the allocation takes into account power or heat criteria power management in computers in general G06F1/3203; thermal management in computers in general G06F1/206
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

In one embodiment, the present invention includes a method for determining a power budget for a multi-domain processor for a current time interval, determining a portion of the power budget to be allocated to first and second domains of the processor, and controlling a frequency of the domains based on the allocated portions. Such determinations and allocations can be dynamically performed during runtime of the processor. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Claims

1. A processor comprising:

a first domain and a second domain, each of the first and second domains to operate at an independent voltage and frequency;

a memory controller coupled to the first and second domains;

at least one interface; and

first logic to dynamically allocate a power budget for the processor between the first and second domains at run time.

2. The processor of claim 1, wherein the first logic is to dynamically allocate the power budget according to a first sharing policy value for the first domain and a second sharing policy value for the second domain, the first and second sharing policy values controllable by user-level software.

3. The processor of claim 2, wherein the first logic is to determine a portion of the power budget to allocate to the first domain based on the first sharing policy value.

4. The processor of claim 2, wherein the first logic is to dynamically allocate the power budget further according to a first minimum reservation value for the first domain and a second minimum reservation value for the second domain, the first and second minimum reservation values controllable by the user-level software.

5. The processor of claim 4, wherein the first logic is to provide at least a first portion of the power budget to the first domain, the first portion corresponding to the first minimum reservation value.

6. The processor of claim 1, wherein the first logic is to determine the power budget for a current time interval based at least in part on a power budget carried forward from a previous time interval, a power consumed in the previous time interval, and a power budget decay value.

7. The processor of claim 6, wherein the first logic is to determine the power budget according to E_n=E_n−

1*alpha+(1-alpha)*(Power_Limit*deltaT−

Energy), where;

E_n is the power budget for the current time interval;

E<sub>n−

1</sub> is the power budget carried forward from the previous time interval;

Power_limit is a threshold power level;

deltaT is a length of the time interval;

Energy is the power consumed during the previous time interval; and

alpha is the power budget decay value.

8. The processor of claim 1, wherein the first logic is to dynamically allocate substantially all of the power budget to the first domain for a first workload, and to dynamically allocate substantially all of the power budget to the second domain for a second workload executed after the first workload.

9. A machine-readable medium having stored thereon instructions, which if performed by a machine cause the machine to perform a method comprising

determining, in a power controller of a multi-domain processor, a power budget for the multi-domain processor for a current time interval, the multi-domain processor including at least a first domain and a second domain;

determining, in the power controller, a portion of the power budget to be allocated to the first and second domains; and

controlling a frequency of the first domain and a frequency of the second domain based on the allocated portions.

10. The machine-readable medium of claim 9, wherein determining the portion of the power budget to be allocated to the first and second domains includes allocating the power budget to the second domain and not to the first domain if the power budget is less than a minimum reservation value for the second domain.

11. The machine-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the method further comprises obtaining the minimum reservation value for the second domain from a configuration register written by user-level software.

12. The machine-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the method further comprises allocating the minimum reservation value for the second domain to the second domain, and allocating a remaining portion of the power budget to the first domain when the power budget is greater than the minimum reservation value for the second domain but less than a sum of the minimum reservation value for the second domain and a minimum reservation value for the first domain.

13. The machine-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the method further comprises allocating a minimum reservation value to the first domain and a minimum reservation value to the second domain, and sharing a remaining portion of the power budget according to a first sharing policy value for the first domain and a second sharing policy value for the second domain.

14. The machine-readable medium claim 13, wherein the first sharing policy value is controllable by software executing on the first domain, the first sharing policy value to be incremented when a request for a higher frequency for the first domain is not granted, and the second sharing policy value is controllable by software executing on the second domain, the second sharing policy value to be incremented when a request for a higher frequency for the second domain is not granted.

15. A system comprising:

a multicore processor having a first domain including a plurality of cores, a second domain including a graphics engine, and a third domain including system agent circuitry, the third domain to operate at a fixed power budget and including a power sharing logic to dynamically allocate a variable power budget between the first and second domains based at least in part on a first power sharing value for the first domain stored in a first storage and a second power sharing value for the second domain stored in a second storage; and

a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) coupled to the multicore processor.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the system agent circuitry includes a power sharing logic to determine the variable power budget for a current time interval and to allocate a first portion of the variable power budget to the first domain according to the first power sharing value, and to allocate a second portion of the variable power budget to the second domain according to the second power sharing value.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the power sharing logic is to dynamically allocate substantially all of the variable power budget to the first domain for a first workload, and to dynamically allocate substantially all of the variable power budget to the second domain for a second workload executed after the first workload.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the power sharing logic is to increment the first power sharing value when a request for a higher frequency for the first domain is not granted, and to increment the second power sharing value when a request for a higher frequency for the second domain is not granted.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the power sharing logic is to further allocate the first portion of the variable power budget according to a first minimum reservation value for the first domain and allocate the second portion of the variable power budget according to a second minimum reservation value for the second domain.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein the power sharing logic is to further allocate the variable power budget according to a preference value, the preference value to favor the second domain over the first domain.