Dynamic power requirement budget manager

• US 7,281,146 B2
• Filed: 06/30/2004
• Issued: 10/09/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tahoe Research Limited (f/k/a Learndale Limited) (Vector Capital Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Nalawadi, Rajeev K., Van Deusen, Mark P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Perveen; Rehana
• Assistant Examiner(s): Brown; Michael J.
• Application Number:
  US10/882,549
• Publication Number:
  US 20060005057A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,196 Days
• Field of Search: 713/320, 713/321, 713/323, 713/324, 713/340
• US Class Current: 713/320
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3203 Power management, i.e. event-based initiation of a power-saving mode
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3287 by switching off individual functional units in the computer system
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A system and method to determine a presence of devices coupled to one a more peripheral buses in a system, and dynamically reducing power consumption of a subset of the devices that are present, based on correlating application/device association and a predetermined power source budget. In one embodiment, the reducing of the power consumption is performed dynamically by having an agent reduce the power limit in a device register(s) corresponding to the subset of devices. Furthermore, in one embodiment, the power resource budget is based at least in part on a user-selected power/performance level.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

polling to determine a presence of devices coupled to a peripheral bus in a system;

after the polling, calculating power requirements of device slots currently containing the devices;

after calculating power requirements of the device slots currently containing devices, generating a prioritized list of the device slots currently containing devices; and

dynamically reducing power consumption of a subset of the devices based on a predetermined power resource budget and the prioritized list of the device slots currently containing devices.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the device slots have corresponding device registers to identify a limit of power to be provided to a respective device slot.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the dynamically reducing power consumption of the subset includes, a power budget manager agent reducing a power limit in a corresponding device register for each device slot of the subset.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the predetermined power resource budget is based at least in part on a user selected performance level.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the power resource budget is based on an application to be executed by the system.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein in response to one of a completion of execution of an application, and removal of a power consuming device, the power budget manager increasing power limits of one or more of the device slots.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the bus includes at a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) Express bus.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising in response to detecting a device has been added to the bus, verifying enough power can be provided to a device slot containing the added device, before enabling the device.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the added device is a hot plug capable device.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the system is one of a mobile computer system.

11. A machine-readable medium having stored thereon a set of instructions, which when executed, perform a machine-readable medium comprising:

polling to determine a presence of devices coupled to a peripheral bus in a system;

after the polling, calculating power requirements of device slots currently containing the devices;

after calculating power requirements of the device slots currently containing devices, generating a prioritized list of the device slots currently containing devices; and

dynamically reducing power consumption of a subset of the devices based on a predetermined power resource budget and the prioritized list of the device slots currently containing devices.

12. The machine-readable medium of claim 11, including additional instructions, when executed, perform the method further comprising, after the polling, calculating power requirements of device slots currently containing the devices.

13. The machine-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the device slots have corresponding device registers to identify a limit of power to be provided to a respective device slot.

14. The machine-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the bus includes at a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) Express bus.

15. The machine-readable medium of claim 12, including additional instructions, when executed, perform the method further comprising, after calculating power requirements of the device slots currently containing devices, generating a prioritized list of the device slots currently containing devices.

16. The machine-readable medium of claim 12, including additional instructions, when executed, perform the method further comprising, in response to detecting a device has been added to the bus, verifying enough power can be provided to a device slot containing the added device, before enabling the device.

17. The machine-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the dynamically reducing power consumption of the subset includes, a power budget manager agent reducing a power limit in a corresponding device register for each device slot of the subset.

18. The machine-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the predetermined power resource budget is based at least in part on a user selected performance level.

19. A system comprising:

A processor,

a network interface coupled to the processor; and

a machine-readable medium having stored thereon a set of instructions which when executed cause a system to perform a method comprising;

polling to determine a presence of devices coupled to a peripheral bus in a system;

after the polling, calculating power requirements of device slots currently containing the devices;

after calculating power requirements of the device slots currently containing devices, generating a prioritized list of the device slots currently containing devices; and

dynamically reducing power consumption of a subset of the devices based on a predetermined power resource budget and the prioritized list of the device slots currently containing devices.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the machine-readable medium includes additional instructions, which when executed, perform the method further comprising, the dynamically reducing power consumption of the subset includes, a power budget manager agent reducing a power limit in a corresponding device register for each device slot of the subset.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the power resource budget is based on an application to be executed by the system.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the machine-readable medium includes additional instructions, which when executed, perform the method further comprising, in response to one of a completion of execution of an application, and removal of a power consuming device, the power budget manager increasing power limits of one or more of the device slots.

23. A method comprising:

calculating power requirements of device slots on a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) Express bus that currently contain devices;

after calculating power requirements of the device slots currently containing devices, generating a prioritized list of the device slots currently containing devices; and

reducing a power limit in corresponding device registers for a subset of the device slots currently containing devices, based on a predetermined power resource budget and the prioritized list of the device slots currently containing devices.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising generating a prioritized list of the device slots currently containing devices, based on at least one of an application being executed, an application to be executed, a preference selected by a user of a computer system, and a pre-configured preference of the system.

25. The method of claim 23, further comprising, in response to one of a completion of execution of an application, and removal of a power consuming device, increasing power limits of one or more of the device slots.

26. A system comprising:

A processor,

a network interface coupled to the processor; and

a machine-readable medium having stored thereon a set of instructions which when executed cause a system to perform a method comprising;

calculating power requirements of device slots on a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) Express bus that currently contain devices;

after calculating power requirements of the device slots currently containing devices, generating a prioritized list of the device slots currently containing devices; and

reducing a power limit in corresponding device registers for a subset of the device slots currently containing devices, based on a predetermined power resource budget and the prioritized list of the device slots currently containing devices.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein the machine-readable medium includes additional instructions, which when executed, perform the method further comprising, generating a prioritized list of the device slots currently containing devices, based on at least one of an application being executed, an application to be executed, a preference selected by a user of a computer system, and a pre-configured preference of the system.

28. The system of claim 26, wherein the machine-readable medium includes additional instructions, which when executed, perform the method further comprising, in response to one of a completion of execution of an application, and removal of a power consuming device, increasing power limits of one or more of the device slots.