CPU CONTROL METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR IMPROVING APPLICATION PROCESSING SPEED AND POWER CONSUMPTION

• US 20160086083A1
• Filed: 09/23/2015
• Published: 03/24/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/24/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Industry Academic Cooperation Foundation
• Original Assignee: Industry Academic Cooperation Foundation
• Inventors: CHUNG, Jong Moon, HA, Tae Young, KYONG, Tae Hyun, JO, Sung Woong
• Granted Patent: US 10,481,669 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3228 Monitoring task completion, e.g. by use of idle timers, stop commands or wait commands
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/324 by lowering clock frequency
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3419 by assessing time
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/81 Threshold
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A CPU control method and apparatus for improving application processing speed and power consumption are provided. An embodiment of the invention provides a method by which a CPU control apparatus controls a CPU, where the CPU control method includes: (a) measuring a reaction time of a user terminal for a running application; (b) computing a first predictive reaction time by stepwise changing a CPU frequency if the reaction time exceeds a preset threshold; (c) computing a second predictive reaction time by stepwise changing a processing weight of the application if the first predictive reaction time exceeds the preset threshold; and (d) repeating said step (c) if the second predictive reaction time exceeds the preset threshold.

Claims

1. A method of controlling a CPU, the method performed by a CPU control apparatus, the method comprising:

(a) measuring a reaction time of a user terminal for a running application;

(b) computing a first predictive reaction time by stepwise changing a CPU frequency if the reaction time exceeds a preset threshold;

(c) computing a second predictive reaction time by stepwise changing a processing weight of the application if the first predictive reaction time exceeds the preset threshold; and

(d) repeating said step (c) if the second predictive reaction time exceeds the preset threshold.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the changed CPU frequency is set as a current CPU frequency if the first predictive reaction time is smaller than or equal to the preset threshold, and

the changed processing weight is set as a current processing weight if the second predictive reaction time is smaller than or equal to the preset threshold.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said step (b) comprises:

setting a current CPU frequency to a maximum frequency and initializing the processing weight if the reaction exceeds the preset threshold; and

computing the first predictive reaction time based on a frequency that is lowered one step from the maximum frequency and the initialized processing weight, if the current CPU frequency is not a minimum frequency, for a plurality of CPU frequency steps.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein said step (c) comprises:

computing the second predictive reaction time based on a processing weight that is lowered one step from the initialized processing weight and the one-step lowered frequency, if a current processing weight is not a minimum processing weight, for a plurality of CPU frequency steps.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein said step (a) comprises:

measuring the reaction time of the user terminal based on the current CPU frequency of the user terminal and the current processing weight of the application.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said step (a) comprises:

measuring the reaction time of the user terminal based on a time value during which the application received processing by the CPU in a user mode and a kernel mode since a first operation of the application up to a time t in a Linux kernel.

7. A CPU control apparatus for controlling a CPU, the CPU control apparatus comprising:

a reaction time measurement part configured to measure a reaction time of a user terminal for a running application;

a reaction time prediction part configured to compute a first predictive reaction time by stepwise changing a CPU frequency if the reaction time exceeds a preset threshold and configured to compute a second predictive reaction time by stepwise changing a processing weight of the application if the first predictive reaction time exceeds the preset threshold; and

a control part configured to control the reaction time prediction part to re-compute the second predictive reaction time if the second predictive reaction time exceeds the preset threshold.

8. The CPU control apparatus of claim 7, wherein the control part sets the changed CPU frequency as a current CPU frequency if the first predictive reaction time is smaller than or equal to the preset threshold, and sets the changed processing weight as a current processing weight if the second predictive reaction time is smaller than or equal to the preset threshold.

9. The CPU control apparatus of claim 8, wherein the reaction time prediction part sets a current CPU frequency to a maximum frequency and initializes the processing weight if the reaction exceeds a preset threshold for reaction time;

and

computes the first predictive reaction time based on a frequency that is lowered one step from the maximum frequency and the initialized processing weight, if the current CPU frequency is not a minimum frequency, for a plurality of CPU frequency steps.

10. The CPU control apparatus of claim 8, wherein the reaction time prediction part computes the second predictive reaction time based on a processing weight that is lowered one step from the initialized processing weight and the one-step lowered frequency, if a current processing weight is not a minimum processing weight, for a plurality of CPU frequency steps.

11. The CPU control apparatus of claim 8, wherein the reaction time measurement part measures the reaction time of the user terminal based on the current CPU frequency of the user terminal and the current processing weight of the application.

12. The CPU control apparatus of claim 7, wherein the reaction time measurement part measures the reaction time of the user terminal based on a time value during which the application received processing by the CPU in a user mode and a kernel mode since a first operation of the application up to a time t in a Linux kernel.