System and method for dynamically configuring processing speeds in a wireless mobile telecommunications device

• US 8,700,934 B2
• Filed: 07/27/2010
• Issued: 04/15/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/27/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Book, Christopher Simon, Mao, Mingxian
• Primary Examiner(s): Dang, Khanh
• Application Number:
  US12/844,627
• Publication Number:
  US 20120030454A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,358 Days
• Field of Search: 713/300, 713/322, 713/324, 713/340, 710/305, 710/313
• US Class Current: 713/322
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3206 Monitoring of events, devices or parameters that trigger a change in power modality
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3212 Monitoring battery levels, e.g. power saving mode being initiated when battery voltage goes below a certain level
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/324 by lowering clock frequency
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4081 Live connection to bus, e.g. hot-plugging current or voltage limitation during live insertion H02H9/004
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2213/0042 Universal serial bus [USB]
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

There is disclosed a system and method executable in a wireless mobile communication device for dynamically configuring processing speed for a main processor in the device during device initialization. In an embodiment, the method comprises: initiating a boot-rom procedure; determining whether a battery is present in the device, and in response to the presence of the battery, determining whether the battery charge level is above a predetermined threshold; determining whether a USB connection to the device is present, and in response to the presence of a USB connection, enumerating the USB connection; and wherein, in response to the presence of the battery and the battery charge level being above a predetermined threshold, or in response to the USB connection being enumerated at a higher current, the processing speed of the main processor is increased.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

initiating a boot-ROM procedure on a mobile device, the boot-ROM procedure being executed by a processor of the mobile device;

determining whether a battery is present in the mobile device, and when the battery is present, determining whether a charge level of the battery is above a predetermined charge threshold;

determining whether a USB connection to the mobile device is present;

when the USB connection is present, determining a current draw from the USB connection, wherein prior to enumerating the USB connection, a level of current draw available to the mobile device from the USB connection is a lower current threshold, and after enumerating the USB connection, the level of current draw available to the mobile device from the USB connection is an upper current threshold greater than the lower current threshold;

when the battery is present and the battery charge level is above the predetermined charge threshold, and when the USB connection is present and a current draw from the USB connection is at the lower current threshold, increasing the processing speed of the processor during the boot-ROM procedure, wherein current for increasing the processing speed is drawn from both the USB connection at no more than the lower current threshold and the battery, a total current draw from both the USB connection and the battery exceeding the lower current threshold.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

after increasing the processing speed, enumerating the USB connection during the boot-ROM procedure.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the processor of the device includes a plurality of processing cores, and increasing the processing speed of the processor comprises increasing a number of processing cores used to execute the boot-ROM procedure.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising, after increasing the processing speed of the processor:

when the battery charge level is determined to be below the predetermined charge threshold, and the current draw from the USB connection is less than the upper current threshold, decreasing the processing speed of the processor during the boot-ROM procedure.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the USB connection is defined by one of the USB 1.1, USB 2.0 or USB 3.0 specification.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the processing speed is initially set such that the mobile device draws no more than the lower current threshold from the USB connection.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

after completion of the boot-ROM procedure, starting the operating system with the increased processing speed.

8. The method of claim 4, further comprising, after decreasing the processing speed:

enumerating the USB connection during the boot-ROM procedure; and

increasing the processing speed upon determining that a current draw at the upper current threshold is available from the enumerated USB connection.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the lower current threshold is about 100 mA.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein a combined current draw from the battery and the USB connection is about 500 mA.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the upper current threshold is about 500 mA.

12. A mobile device, comprising:

a processor configured to;

initiate a boot-ROM procedure executed by the processor;

determine whether a battery is present in the mobile device, and when the battery is present, determine whether a charge level of the battery is above a predetermined charge threshold;

determine whether a USB connection to the mobile device is present;

when the USB connection is present, determine a current draw from the USB connection, wherein prior to enumerating the USB connection, a level of current draw available to the mobile device from the USB connection is a lower current threshold, and after enumerating the USB connection, the level of current draw available to the mobile device from the USB connection is an upper current threshold greater than the lower current threshold;

when the battery is present and the battery charge level is above the predetermined charge threshold, and when the USB connection is present and a current draw from the USB connection is at the lower current threshold, increase the processing speed of the processor during the boot-ROM procedure, wherein current for increasing the processing speed is drawn from both the USB connection at no more than the lower current threshold and the battery, a total current draw from both the USB connection and the battery exceeding the lower current threshold.

13. The mobile device of claim 12, wherein the processor is further configured to:

after increasing the processing speed, enumerate the USB connection during the boot-ROM procedure.

14. The mobile device of claim 12, wherein the processor of the mobile device includes a plurality of processing cores, and wherein the processor is further configured to:

increase the processing speed by increasing the number of processing cores used to execute the boot-ROM procedure.

15. The mobile device of claim 12 wherein the processor is further configured to:

decrease the processing speed of the processor when the battery charge level is determined to be below the predetermined charge threshold, and the current draw from the USB connection is less than the upper current threshold.

16. The mobile device of claim 15, wherein the processor is further configured to:

enumerate the USB connection during the boot-ROM procedure; and

increase the processing speed upon determining that a current draw at the upper current threshold is available from the enumerated USB connection.

17. The mobile device of claim 12, wherein the USB connection is defined by one of the USB 1.1, USB 2.0 or USB 3.0 specification.

18. The mobile device of claim 12, wherein the processing speed is initially set such that the mobile device draws no more than the lower current threshold.

19. The mobile device of claim 12, wherein the processor is further configured to:

start the operating system with the increased processing speed after completion of the boot-ROM procedure.

20. The mobile device of claim 12, wherein the lower current threshold is about 100 mA.

21. The mobile device of claim 12, wherein a combined current draw from the battery and the USB connection is about 500 mA.

22. The mobile device of claim 12, wherein the upper current threshold is about 500 mA.

23. A non-transitory data processor readable medium storing code that when executed by a mobile device, causes the mobile device to implement a method comprising:

initiating a boot-ROM procedure, the boot-ROM procedure being executed by a processor of the mobile device;

determining whether a battery is present in the mobile device, and when the battery is present, determining whether a charge level of the battery is above a predetermined charge threshold;

determining whether a USB connection to the device is present;

when the USB connection is present, determine a current draw from the USB connection, wherein prior to enumerating the USB connection, a level of current draw available to the mobile device from the USB connection is a lower current threshold, and after enumerating the USB connection, the level of current draw available to the mobile device from the USB connection is an upper current threshold greater than the lower current threshold;

when the battery is present and the battery charge level is above the predetermined charge threshold, and when the USB connection is present and a current draw from the USB connection is at the lower current threshold, increase the processing speed of the processor during the boot-ROM procedure, wherein current for increasing the processing speed is drawn from both the USB connection at no more than the lower current threshold and the battery, a total current draw from both the USB connection and the battery exceeding the lower current threshold.