Performance monitoring based dynamic voltage and frequency scaling
First Claim
1. An article comprising a machine-accessible medium having stored thereon instructions that, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to:
- obtain from a performance monitor runtime performance data of a thread level utilization of the machine by an application during an execution of the application on the machine, wherein the runtime performance data is indicative of a set of execution characteristics of a thread of the application, including an instructions-per-clock cycle metric and a memory references-per-clock cycle metric, wherein the runtime performance data includes instruction counts, memory references, and cycle counts obtained from a timer interrupt in the performance monitor; and
based on the instructions-per-clock cycle metric and the memory references-per-clock cycle metric, reduce power dissipation of the machine by adjusting an operating voltage or an operating frequency of the machine during the execution of the application, wherein the operating voltage and operating frequency are nonzero.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Voltage and frequency scaling techniques that are based upon monitored data are provided. The techniques may be used to better manage the power and energy consumption of a processor in an embedded system, such as a cellular telephone, personal data assistant, smart device, or the like. The techniques may be used with processors that offer a performance monitoring capability. The performance monitor may monitor thread-level utilization at runtime. Instructions per cycle and memory references per cycle are example metrics that may be monitored by the performance monitor. The voltage and frequency scaling techniques may adjust the operating voltage and operating frequency of the processor based on the values of these two metrics. For example, the techniques may include accessing a voltage and frequency scheduler lookup table. The techniques may be employed with non-embedded systems, as well, embedded systems.
99 Citations
21 Claims
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1. An article comprising a machine-accessible medium having stored thereon instructions that, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to:
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obtain from a performance monitor runtime performance data of a thread level utilization of the machine by an application during an execution of the application on the machine, wherein the runtime performance data is indicative of a set of execution characteristics of a thread of the application, including an instructions-per-clock cycle metric and a memory references-per-clock cycle metric, wherein the runtime performance data includes instruction counts, memory references, and cycle counts obtained from a timer interrupt in the performance monitor; and based on the instructions-per-clock cycle metric and the memory references-per-clock cycle metric, reduce power dissipation of the machine by adjusting an operating voltage or an operating frequency of the machine during the execution of the application, wherein the operating voltage and operating frequency are nonzero. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A method comprising:
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obtaining, from a performance monitor, runtime performance data of a thread level utilization of a machine by an application during an execution of the application on the machine, wherein the runtime performance data is indicative of a set of execution characteristics of a thread of the application, including an instructions-per-clock cycle metric and a memory references-per-clock cycle metric for a central processing unit (CPU) having an operating voltage and an operating frequency; and reducing power dissipation of the CPU by adjusting the operating voltage or the operating frequency during the execution of the application in response to the instructions-per-clock cycle metric and the memory references-per-clock cycle metric, wherein the operating voltage and operating frequency are nonzero. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A method for adjusting operating voltage and/or operating frequency on a machine having a processor, the method comprising:
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the machine simultaneously monitoring multiple performance events, where each performance event reflects a different thread level utilization of the processor by at least one application during an execution of the at least one application on the processor; based on the simultaneously monitored multiple performance events, obtaining multiple performance metrics indicating events per clock cycle of a thread of the at least one application, the multiple performance metrics including an instructions-per-clock cycle metric and a memory references-per-clock cycle metric; and based on at least the instructions-per-clock cycle metric and the memory references-per-clock cycle metric, reducing power dissipation of the machine by adjusting an operating voltage or an operating frequency of the machine during the execution of the at least one application. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21)
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Specification