Energy limit in a sliding window in power and heat management

• US 8,224,497 B2
• Filed: 08/21/2009
• Issued: 07/17/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/21/2009
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Fong, Liana L., Kephart, Jeffrey Owen, Liu, Yanbin
• Primary Examiner(s): KASENGE, CHARLES R
• Application Number:
  US12/545,711
• Publication Number:
  US 20110046804A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,061 Days
• Field of Search: 700/22, 700/28, 700/275, 700/276, 700/286, 700/291, 700/292, 700/295, 700/296, 700/297, 700/298, 700/299, 700/300, 705/412, 713/300, 713/320, 713/324, 713/340
• US Class Current: 700/296
• 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 1/3296 by lowering the supply or operating voltage
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A system and method for specifying a temporal window of a fixed size that slides along time; specifying energy consumption as the accumulated power consumption in a temporal window; and applying a threshold that limits the energy consumption in a sliding window, while the power consumption can fluctuate within the window. Power-aware systems apply energy limit as a constraint in performance optimization.

Claims

1. An electronic system comprising:

a memory device storing;

an energy limit method that;

receives as input an energy limit, comprising an energy limit value;

receives as input a sliding window size for a sliding window, wherein said sliding window is defined as a fixed size temporal window that slides along time;

receives as input a power consumption history of the electronic system of a previous sliding window ended at the current time; and

returns power management decisions that have a plurality of optimization goals with the energy limit as a constraint; and

the history of power consumption of the electronic system;

a processor device, said processor device comprising;

a parameter setter that receives inputs to define energy limit parameters;

a decision maker that receives the energy limit parameters from the parameter setter and invokes an energy limit algorithm to determine energy consumption of the electronic system, wherein said energy consumption is an accumulated power consumption within the fixed size temporal windows; and

a power controller that takes input from the decision maker and uses power management technologies to adjust the power usage of the electronic device by applying a threshold that limits a sum of the energy consumption within the sliding window instead of limiting the power consumption at any instant, thus allowing said power consumption to fluctuate within said sliding window, wherein said threshold is applied to a current sliding window as any unused energy in said current sliding window.

2. The electronic system of claim 1 wherein the memory device stores an energy limit based on both the sliding window size and energy limit value.

3. The electronic system of claim 1 wherein the parameter setter can use information of the electronic system, the cooling system and a temperature cap to calculate the energy limit that avoids over-heating.

4. The electronic system of claim 1 wherein the power controller controls power usage using clock throttling.

5. The electronic system of claim 1 wherein the power controller controls power usage using Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling power management technology.

6. The electronic system of claim 1 further comprising a workload predictor.

7. The electronic system of claim 1 further comprising a temperature monitor coupled to the said electronic system for measuring a temperature value and determining whether the device is over-heating.

8. The electronic system of claim 7 wherein the decision maker receives an indication that the processor device is overheating from the temperature monitor.

9. The electronic system of claim 1 wherein the decision maker invokes the power controller to apply a threshold limit on the energy consumption in the sliding window while the power consumption fluctuates within the window.

10. A method to modulate power consumption of a power-aware system, the method comprising:

receiving at a computer input device;

energy limit parameters comprising an energy limit value;

a sliding window size for a temporal window of a fixed size that slides along time; and

a power consumption history of a previous sliding window ended at a current time, wherein energy consumption is defined as an accumulation of power consumption within the fixed size temporal windows;

using an information processing device to perform;

processing the power consumption history;

deriving a processing speed for the current or future time by applying energy limit as a constraint, wherein said energy limit is applied as a threshold that limits a sum of the energy consumption within the temporal window instead of limiting power consumption at any instant, thus allowing said power consumption to fluctuate within said temporal window, wherein said threshold is applied to a current temporal window as any unused energy in said current temporal window.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the method is used when a workload changes.

12. The method of claim 11 is used when the workload changes whereas the workload changes at a time comprising task arrival or termination.

13. The method of claim 10 wherein the method is used when the current energy limit is modified.

14. The method of claim 10 wherein the method is used as a response to timer events.

15. The method of claim 11 wherein the workload changes comprise a task arrival.

16. The method of claim 11 wherein the workload changes comprise a task termination.