Method and apparatus for adaptive power consumption

• US 7,634,668 B2
• Filed: 08/22/2002
• Issued: 12/15/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/22/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
• Original Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
• Inventors: White, Jonathan B., van Welzen, James L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee; Thomas
• Assistant Examiner(s): Stoynov; Stefan
• Application Number:
  US10/226,708
• Publication Number:
  US 20040039954A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,672 Days
• Field of Search: 713/300, 713/320, 702/60, 703/22
• US Class Current: 713/300
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3203 Power management, i.e. event-based initiation of a power-saving mode
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/324 by lowering clock frequency
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3287 by switching off individual functional units in the computer system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/30083 Power or thermal control instructions
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A method for adapting power consumption of a processor based upon an application demand is provided. The method initiates with determining an application demand based upon a current processing operation. Then, a time interval associated with the application demand is determined. Next, unnecessary power consuming functions for the application demand are determined. Then, a clock frequency for the unnecessary power consuming functions is reduced for the time interval. In one embodiment, the power is terminated to the unnecessary power consuming functions. In another embodiment, the clock frequency of the processor is adjusted for at least a portion of the time interval. A program interface for adapting power consumption of a computer system, processor instructions for adapting power consumption of a computer system and a processor are included.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

determining a future demand of an application through a hook to the application;

determining a time interval associated with the future demand from a table that associates the future demand of the application to a corresponding time interval;

determining unnecessary power consuming functions within a processor based on the future demand; and

writing data to a control register based on the future demand, time interval and unnecessary power consuming functions, wherein the control register controls power consumption within the processor.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the processor is selected from the group consisting of a central processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), network processing unit (NPU) and a storage processing unit (SPU).

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the unnecessary power consuming functions include one of a 3-dimensional graphics pipeline and a 2-dimensional graphics pipeline, each pipeline associated with a graphics processing unit.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the current processing operation is associated with playback of a movie on a portable computer.

5. A method comprising:

determining a future demand of an application through a hook to the application;

determining a time interval associated with the future demand from a table that associates the future demand of the application to a corresponding time interval;

determining unnecessary power consuming functions within a processor for the time interval and the future demand; and

writing data to a control register based on the further demand, the time interval and the unnecessary power consuming function, wherein the control register controls a clock speed of the processor and a plurality of power consuming functions of the processor.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the processor is selected from the group consisting of a central processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), network processing unit (NPU) and a storage processing unit (SPU).

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the unnecessary power consuming functions include one of a 3-dimensional graphics pipeline and a 2-dimensional graphics pipeline, each pipeline associated with a graphics processing unit.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the current processing operation is associated with playback of a movie on a portable computer.