Power management for processing unit

• US 8,386,807 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2008
• Issued: 02/26/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Rotem, Efraim, Baum, Dan, Vikinski, Omer, Korner, Ronny, Luria, Kosta, Doron, Rajwan
• Primary Examiner(s): LEE, THOMAS C
• Assistant Examiner(s): Snyder, Scott
• Application Number:
  US12/242,000
• Publication Number:
  US 20100083009A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,610 Days
• Field of Search: 713/300, 713/320, 713/323, 713/324
• US Class Current: 713/300
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3203 Power management, i.e. event-based initiation of a power-saving mode

Abstract

Methods, apparatuses, and systems for managing power of a processing unit are described herein. Some embodiments include determining a voltage variation of a subset of current components of a current consumed by a processing unit. Other embodiments include detecting architectural events on a processing core of the processing unit and instituting various actions to reduce an input rate of instructions to the core. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a processing unit;

a power characteristic block having a predetermined power characteristic associated with a subset of current components of a current consumed by the processing unit, the power characteristic corresponding to a frequency response of the subset with respect to an operating condition of the processing unit; and

a power management unit coupled to, or integrated within, the processing unit and further coupled to the power characteristic block, the power management unit configured to;

receive, from the power characteristic block, the power characteristic;

determine, based on the power characteristic and the operating condition, a voltage variation that corresponds to the subset of current components of the current consumed by the processing unit, the operating condition including a temperature of one or more cores of the processing unit, state of the one or more cores of the processing unit, number of processes being executed by the processing unit, number of tasks being executed by the processing unit, and/or number of applications that are being executed by the processing unit; and

control a voltage regulator based at least in part on the determined voltage variation.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the subset of current components has direct current characteristics and the power management unit is further configured to determine another voltage variation that corresponds to another subset of current components, the another subset of current components having alternating current characteristics.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the subset includes one or more current components and the power management unit is further configured to determine the voltage variation based at least in part on a magnitude of the one or more current components and an impact value associated with the subset.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the power management unit is further configured to determine a plurality of voltage variations that respectively correspond to a plurality of subsets of current components of the current.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the subset is a first subset of the plurality of subsets and is associated with a first impact value and a second subset of the plurality of subsets is associated with a second impact value that is different from the first impact value.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the first subset includes idle current and leakage current and the second subset includes dynamic current.

7. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the power management unit is further configured to determine a magnitude for at least a first and a second subset of the plurality of subsets based at least in part on the determined operating condition.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the power management unit is configured to control the voltage regulator to provide a voltage guard-band based at least in part on the determined voltage variation.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the power management unit is configured to provide a digital voltage identification value to the voltage regulator to control the voltage regulator.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the power management unit is further configured to:

determine a voltage variation that corresponds to each subset of current components of a plurality of subsets of current components of the current consumed by the processing unit;

determine a total voltage variation as an additive function of the determined voltage variations corresponding to the plurality of subsets of current components; and

control the voltage regulator based at least in part on the determined total voltage variation.

11. A non-transitory machine-accessible medium having associated instructions that, when executed, result in the machine:

reading power characteristics of a subset of current components of a current consumed by a processing unit;

determining a magnitude for the subset based at least in part on the power characteristics based on an operating condition of the processing unit;

determining a voltage variation that corresponds to the subset based at least in part on the magnitude of the subset and the power characteristics; and

setting a voltage based at least in part on the determined voltage variation;

wherein the operating condition of the processing unit includes temperature of one or more cores of the processing unit, state of the one or more cores of the processing unit, number of processes being executed by the processing unit, number of tasks being executed by the processing unit, and/or number of applications that are being executed by the processing unit.

12. The non-transitory machine-accessible medium of claim 11, wherein said instructions, when executed, further result in the machine:

determining another voltage variation that corresponds to another subset of current components of the current; and

setting the voltage based at least further in part on the another voltage variation.