Power management for processing modules

• US 7,516,334 B2
• Filed: 10/05/2004
• Issued: 04/07/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/22/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Sony Computer Entertainment Incorporated (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Computer Entertainment Incorporated (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Yamazaki, Takeshi, Suzuoki, Masakazu
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee; Thomas
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chang; Eric
• Application Number:
  US10/959,700
• Publication Number:
  US 20050120254A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,645 Days
• Field of Search: 713/300
• US Class Current: 713/300
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/206 comprising thermal management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3203 Power management, i.e. event-based initiation of a power-saving mode
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3243 Power saving in microcontroller unit
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/30145 Instruction analysis, e.g. decoding, instruction word fields
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/30167 of immediate specifier, e.g. constants
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A processing element (PE) includes a processing unit (PU) and a number of attached processing units (APUs). The instruction set of each APU is divided a priori into a number of types, each type associated with a different amount of heat generation. Each APU keeps track of the amount of each type of instruction executed over a time period, —the power information, —and provides this power information to the PU. The PU then performs power management as a function of the provided power information from each APU, —such as directing a particular APU to enter an idle state to reduce power consumption.

Claims

1. A method for performing power management, the method comprising the steps of:

determining power information based on a rate of execution of instructions by a first processor;

sending the power information to a second processor; and

estimating a rate of power consumption by the second processor as a function of the determined power information so that processing by the first processor is controllable according to the rate of power consumption;

wherein the instructions are of different types, the power information is determined by counting the number of each of the respective types of instructions being executed by the first processor, and determining the power information is further based on an average heat level for each of the different types of instructions.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the different types of instructions include a floating point instruction and an integer instruction.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the different types of instructions include a vector floating point instruction, a vector integer instruction, a scalar floating point instruction and a scalar integer instruction.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the second processor controls the first processor to reduce energy usage if the estimated energy usage is above a predefined level.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the second processor puts the first processor into an idle state.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the power information includes estimating a heat level (L) according to the following equation:

L=(F)(f)+(I)(i),

wherein F is the average heat level for each floating point instruction, I is the average heat level for each fixed point instruction, f represents a number of counted floating point instructions and i represents a number of counted fixed point instructions.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the average heat levels F and I are determined experimentally.

8. Apparatus performing power management, the apparatus comprising:

a first processor;

a second processor; and

a monitoring circuit operable to generate power information based on a rate of execution of instructions by the first processor;

wherein the first processor is operable to send the power information to the second processor, the second processor is operable to estimate a rate of power consumption by the first processor, wherein the rate of execution is represented by a rate of fetching instructions for execution, the instructions include instructions having different types and the power information includes counts of each of the different types of instructions being fetched for execution; and

wherein the power information is further based on an average heat level for each of the different types of instructions.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the different types of instructions include a floating point instruction and an integer instruction.

10. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the different types of instructions include a vector floating point instruction, a vector integer instruction, a scalar floating point instruction and a scalar integer instruction.

11. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the monitoring circuit includes counters for maintaining the counts of each of the different types of instructions.

12. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the second processor is operable to estimate a heat level corresponding to the estimated rate of power consumption.

13. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the power information is further based on an estimated heat level (L) according to the following equation:

$L=\underset{k=1}{\overset{K}{\sum <br><br>}}<br><br>W_k<br><br>I_k<br><br>H;<br><br>$

wherein W_k represents a weight for instruction type k, I_k represents a count for the instruction type k, H is the average heat level for each type of instruction k, and K represents the number of different types of instructions.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the average heat level H for each type of instruction k is determined experimentally.

15. A processing element for performing power management, the processing element comprising:

a first processing unit;

a number of attached processing units, at least one attached processing unit having a monitoring circuit operable to accumulate power information related to a rate at which instructions are executed therein;

wherein the at least one attached processing unit is operable to send the accumulated power information to the first processing unit, and the first processing unit is operable to determine a rate of power consumption from the accumulated power information;

wherein the instructions include instructions having different types, and wherein the accumulated power information includes data representing counts for how many instructions of the different types of instructions have been executed; and

wherein the power information is further determined based on an average heat level for each of the different types of instructions.

16. The processing element of claim 15, wherein the first processing unit is operable to reduce an energy usage of the at least one attached processing unit if the determined power consumption for that attached processing unit is above a predefined value.

17. The processing element of claim 15, wherein the first processing unit is operable to reduce an energy usage of that attached processing unit by causing that attached processing unit to enter an idle state.

18. The processing element of claim 16, wherein the different types of instructions include a floating point instruction and an integer instruction.

19. The processing element of claim 15, wherein the different types of instructions include a vector floating point instruction, a vector integer instruction, a scalar floating point instruction and a scalar integer instruction.

20. The processing element of claim 15, wherein the first processing unit is operable to estimate a heat level corresponding to the determined rate of power consumption.

21. The processing element of claim 15, wherein power information determination includes estimating a heat level (L) according to the following equation:

L=(F)(f)+(I)(I)

wherein F is the average heat level for each floating point instruction, I is the average heat level for each fixed point instruction, f represents a number of counted floating point instructions and i represents a number of counted fixed point instructions.

22. The processing element of claim 21, wherein the average heat levels F and I are determined experimentally.

23. A processing environment comprising:

a first processing unit;

a number of additional processing units each having a monitoring circuit operable to generate power information based on a rate at which instructions are executed by the respective additional processing unit;

wherein the additional processing units are operable to send power information to the first processing unit, the first processing unit being operable to monitor a rate of power consumption of the additional processing units based on the sent power information;

wherein the instructions include instructions having different types and the accumulated power information includes data representing counts of each of the different types of instructions that are executed; and

wherein the power information is further based on an average heat level for each of the different types of instructions.

24. The processing environment of claim 23, wherein the first processing unit reduces the rate of power consumption of at least one of the attached processing units when the rate of power consumption is above a predefined value.

25. The processing environment of claim 23, wherein the first processing unit reduces the power consumption of the at least one attached processing unit by causing that attached processing unit to enter an idle state.

26. The processing environment of claim 23, wherein the different types of instructions include a floating point instruction and an integer instruction.

27. The processing environment of claim 23, wherein the different types of instructions include a vector floating point instruction, a vector integer instruction, a scalar floating point instruction and a scalar integer instruction.

28. The processing environment of claim 23, wherein the first processing unit further estimates a heat level based on the monitored rate of power consumption.

29. The processing environment of claim 23, wherein the power information is further based on an estimated heat level (L) according to the following equation:

$L=\underset{k=1}{\overset{K}{\sum <br><br>}}<br><br>W_k<br><br>I_k<br><br>H;<br><br>$

wherein W_k represents a weight for instruction type k, I_k represents a count for the instruction type k, H is the average heat level for each type of instruction k, and K represents the number of different types of instructions.

30. The processing environment of claim 29, wherein the average heat level H for each type of instruction k is determined experimentally.