Dynamically adapting software for reducing a thermal state of a processor core based on its thermal index

• US 7,552,346 B2
• Filed: 05/03/2006
• Issued: 06/23/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/03/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: GlobalFoundries, Inc.
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Johns, Charles Ray, Nutter, Mark Richard, Stafford, James Michael, Aguilar, Maximino Jr.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee; Thomas
• Assistant Examiner(s): WANG, ALBERT C
• Application Number:
  US11/381,380
• Publication Number:
  US 20070260893A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,147 Days
• Field of Search: 713/300, 703/21
• US Class Current: 713/300
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/206 comprising thermal management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/4432 Reducing the energy consumption
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A computer implemented method, data processing system, and computer usable code are provided for optimizing thermal performance of a computer system. Identification of a set of system resources associated with the computer system is performed and a thermal index is requested for each of the set of system resources to form a set of thermal indexes. An action from a set of actions is identified to reduce resource utilization. The action is implemented to reduce a thermal state of the computer system.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for reducing a thermal state of a computer system, the computer implemented method comprising:

identifying a processor core associated with the computer system;

requesting a thermal index for the processor core;

measuring an instruction stall value, a cache activity, a bus activity, and a memory access for the processor core;

generating the thermal index using the instruction stall value, the cache activity, the bus activity, and the memory access;

responsive to receiving the thermal index for the processor core, identifying an action based on the thermal index; and

implementing the action to reduce the thermal state of the processor core.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the thermal index is a thermal efficiency for a system resource.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the thermal index is generated by a compiler.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the thermal index is a single number.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein identifying the action is performed by an operating system.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

when an application has been initiated, sampling the thermal state of each processor core to obtain a thermal state information; and

utilizing the thermal state information and the thermal index associated with the processor core to determine if the processor core is a best processor core to reduce the thermal state for running the application.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 6, further comprising:

analyzing an instruction stream of the application to estimate a cycles-per-instruction efficiency of the processor core; and

generating a new thermal index for the processor core based on the cycles-per-instruction efficiency.

8. The computer implemented method of claim 7, further comprising:

before running the application, requesting the new thermal index for the processor core;

loading a proximity information and a conductive property information for the processor core;

using the new thermal index, the proximity information, and the conductive property information to determine if the best processor core is still the best processor core to reduce the thermal state; and

implementing an action before the application runs, wherein the action modifies the instruction stream or reduces a bandwidth allocation.

9. A data processing system comprising:

a bus system;

a communications system connected to the bus system;

a memory connected to the bus system, wherein the memory includes a set of instructions; and

a processing unit connected to the bus system, wherein the processing unit executes the set of instructions to perform steps comprising;

identifying a processor core associated with the computer system;

requesting a thermal index for the processor core;

measuring an instruction stall value, a cache activity, a bus activity, and a memory access for the processor core;

generating the thermal index using the instruction stall value, the cache activity, the bus activity, and the memory access;

responsive to receiving the thermal index for the processor core, identifying an action, based on the thermal index; and

implementing the action to reduce a thermal state of the processor core.

10. The data processing system of claim 9, wherein the thermal index is a thermal efficiency for the system resource.

11. The data processing system of claim 9, wherein the thermal index is generated by a compiler.

12. The data processing system of claim 9, wherein the thermal index is a single number.

13. The data processing system of claim 9, wherein identifying the action is performed by an operating system.

14. A computer program product comprising:

a memory containing a plurality of instructions for optimizing a thermal performance of a computer system, the plurality of instructions adapted to cause a processor of a computer to perform steps comprising;

identifying a processor core associated with the computer system;

requesting a thermal index for the processor core;

measuring an instruction stall value, a cache activity, a bus activity, and a memory access for the processor core;

generating the thermal index using the instruction stall value, the cache activity, the bus activity, and the memory access;

responsive to receiving the thermal index for the processor core, identifying an action based on the thermal index; and

implementing the action to reduce a thermal state of the processor core.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the thermal index is a thermal efficiency for a system resource.

16. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the thermal index is generated by a compiler.

17. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the thermal index is a single number.