ENERGY-AWARE BOOSTING OF PROCESSOR OPERATING POINTS FOR LIMITED DURATION WORKLOADS

• US 20150268713A1
• Filed: 03/24/2014
• Published: 09/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/24/2014
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
• Inventors: Jain, Ashish, Branover, Alexander J., Naffziger, Samuel D., Zhan, Dongyuan
• Application Number:
  US14/223,555
• Publication Number:
  US 20150268713A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3203 Power management, i.e. event-based initiation of a power-saving mode
• 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 1/3243 Power saving in microcontroller unit
• 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

The operating point of a processing unit is controlled based on the power consumption (i.e., the rate of energy consumption) associated with a workload, wherein low power consumption may indicate short-duration workloads with idle phases and high power consumption may indicate long, sustained workloads. Energy credits are accumulated while a drain rate of a battery is lower than a threshold drain rate and the energy credits are consumed while the drain rate is higher than the threshold drain rate. The operating point of the processing unit may be increased from a first operating point to a second operating point in response to the energy credits exceeding a first threshold. The operating point of the processing unit may be decreased from the second operating point to the first operating point in response to the energy credits falling below a second threshold.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

modifying an operating point of a processing unit of a processing system based on a rate of energy consumption concurrent with performance of a set of one or more tasks by the processing unit.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying the operating point of the processing unit comprises increasing at least one of an operating voltage supplied to the processing unit or an operating frequency of the processing unit.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying the operating point of the processing unit comprises increasing the operating point of the processing unit in response to an indication that a drain rate of a battery that supplies the battery power to the processing unit is below a threshold drain rate.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

determining the drain rate of the battery using information generated by a direct current (DC) power supply to indicate the drain rate of the battery.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

determining the drain rate of the battery using at least one platform-level indicator that indicates the drain rate of the battery.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein determining the drain rate of the battery comprises determining the drain rate of the battery using at least one skin temperature measured proximate to at least one location on a case that contains the processing unit.

7. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

accumulating energy credits while the drain rate is lower than the threshold drain rate; and

consuming energy credits while the drain rate is higher than the threshold drain rate.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein increasing the operating point of the processing unit comprises increasing the operating point of the processing unit from a first operating point to a second operating point in response to the energy credits exceeding a first threshold.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein modifying the operating point comprises decreasing the operating point of the processing unit from the second operating point to the first operating point in response to the energy credits falling below a second threshold.

10. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium embodying a set of executable instructions, the set of executable instructions to manipulate a processing system to:

modify an operating point of a processing unit of a processing system based on a rate of energy consumption concurrent with performance of a set of one or more tasks by the processing unit.

11. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium set forth in claim 10, wherein the set of executable instructions manipulate the processing system to:

accumulate energy credits while a battery drain rate is lower than a threshold drain rate;

consume energy credits while the battery drain rate is higher than the threshold drain rate;

increase the operating point of the processing unit from a first operating point to a second operating point in response to the energy credits exceeding a first threshold; and

decrease the operating point of the processing unit from the second operating point to the first operating point in response to the energy credits falling below a second threshold.

12. An apparatus comprising:

a processing unit; and

boost logic to modify an operating point of the processing unit based on a rate of energy consumption concurrent with performance of a set of one or more tasks by the processing unit.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the boost logic is to modify the operating point of the processing unit by increasing at least one of an operating voltage supplied to the processing unit or an operating frequency of the processing unit.

14. The apparatus of claim 12, further comprising:

a battery to supply power to the processing unit, and wherein the boost logic is to modify the operating point by increasing the operating point of the processing unit in response to an indication that a drain rate of the battery is below a threshold drain rate.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, further comprising:

a direct current (DC) power supply, and wherein the boost logic is to determine the drain rate of the battery using information generated by the DC power supply to indicate the drain rate of the battery.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the boost logic is to determine the drain rate of the battery using at least one platform-level indicator that indicates the drain rate of the battery.

17. The apparatus of claim 14, further comprising:

a case to contain the processing unit; and

at least one sensor to measure at least one skin temperature proximate at least one location on the case, wherein the boost logic is to determine the drain rate of the battery using said at least one skin temperature.

18. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the boost logic is to accumulate energy credits while the drain rate is lower than the threshold drain rate and consume energy credits while the drain rate is higher than the threshold drain rate.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the boost logic is to modify the operating point by increasing the operating point of the processing unit from a first operating point to a second operating point in response to the energy credits exceeding a first threshold.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the boost logic is to modify the operating point by decreasing the operating point of the processing unit from the second operating point to the first operating point in response to the energy credits falling below a second threshold.