Information processing apparatus, control method for the same, and storage medium

• US 8,949,479 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2013
• Issued: 02/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/03/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.), International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Ozawa, Manabu
• Primary Examiner(s): LEE, CHUN KUAN
• Application Number:
  US14/041,469
• Publication Number:
  US 20140095740A1
• Time in Patent Office: 491 Days
• Field of Search: 710/18
• US Class Current: 710/13
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3284 Power saving in printer
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3034 where the computing system component is a storage system, e.g. DASD based or network based digital input from or digital output to record carriers G06F3/06; digital recording or reproducing G11B20/18; for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS], H04L67/1097
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

An information processing apparatus (MFP) according to an aspect of this invention selects, from among memory channel groups composed of possible combinations of available memory channels in a wide IO memory device, a memory channel group with a number of memory channels that can maintain a necessary data transfer rate even if the operation frequency is reduced. At that time, the MFP evaluates the power consumption of the wide IO memory device in the case of using each memory channel group at the operation frequency and operation voltage corresponding to the number of memory channels in the memory channel group and to the transfer rate needed for job execution. As a result of evaluating power consumption, the MFP selects the memory channel group with the lowest power consumption and uses it for job execution.

Claims

1. An information processing apparatus comprising:

a wide IO memory device stacked over an SoC die that includes a CPU;

a plurality of functional modules configured to each execute a separate function;

a specifying unit configured to, upon being instructed to execute a function, specify one or more available memory channels based on a status of use of a plurality of memory channels corresponding to a plurality of memories included in the wide IO memory device;

an evaluation unit configured to, for each of a plurality of memory channel groups composed of possible combinations of the memory channels specified by the specifying unit, evaluate power consumption of the wide IO memory device in a case where the memory channel group is used at an operation voltage and an operation frequency that correspond to a number of memory channels in the memory channel group and a data transfer rate needed for execution of the function; and

a selection unit configured to select, out of the plurality of memory channel groups, a memory channel group for which power consumption of the wide IO memory device is lowest, as a memory channel group to be used by the functional module corresponding to the function.

2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising

a temperature acquisition unit configured to acquire temperature information indicating temperatures of the plurality of memories, wherein

for each of the plurality of memory channel groups, the evaluation unit evaluates power consumption of the wide IO memory device in the case where the memory channel group is used, additionally based on the temperature information regarding the plurality of memories acquired by the temperature acquisition unit.

3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein

for each of the plurality of memory channel groups, the evaluation unit evaluates power consumption of the wide IO memory device in the case where the memory channel group is used, by calculating power consumption due to leak current that occurs in the plurality of memories and corresponds to temperatures indicated by the temperature information of the plurality of memories that is acquired by the temperature acquisition unit, and adding the calculated power consumption to power consumption according to the operation voltage and the operation frequency that correspond to the number of memory channels and the data transfer rate.

4. The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein

the specification unit excludes a memory channel corresponding to a memory whose temperature indicated by the temperature information acquired by the temperature acquisition unit is greater than a predetermined temperature from the one or more available memory channels.

5. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the selection unit selects, out of the plurality of memory channel groups, a memory channel group that has the number of memory channels that enables use of a memory capacity required by the functional module corresponding to the function, and that has the lowest power consumption in the wide IO memory device, as the memory channel group to be used by the functional module corresponding to the function.

6. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising

a control unit configured to control a memory corresponding to each memory channel included in the memory channel group selected by the selection unit, such that when processing is to be executed by the functional module, the memory operates at the operation voltage and the operation frequency corresponding to the selected memory channel group.

7. The information processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein

the control unit reduces the operation voltage and the operation frequency of the memory corresponding to each memory channel included in the memory channel group selected by the selection unit, according to the number of memory channels in the selected memory channel group and the data transfer rate needed for execution of the function.

8. The information processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein

the control unit reserves a memory area for use by the functional module, in the memory corresponding to each memory channel included in the memory channel group selected by the selection unit, and upon completion of processing by the functional module, releases the memory area.

9. The information processing apparatus according to claim 8, wherein

when the memory area to be used by the functional module has been reserved, the control unit enables the functional module to use the memory area by setting a head address of the memory area with respect to the functional module.

10. The information processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein

upon completion of processing by the function module, the control unit returns the operation voltage and the operation frequency of each memory used in the processing executed by the functional module to a state before execution of the processing by the functional module started.

11. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the execution of the function is instructed by a job that is input, and

the data transfer rate is a data transfer rate required for the functional module to execute processing in accordance with the input job.

12. A control method for an information processing apparatus including a wide IO memory device stacked over an SoC die that includes a CPU, the control method comprising steps of:

upon instruction of execution of a function by a functional module out of a plurality of functional modules that each execute a separate function, specifying one or more available memory channels based on a status of use of a plurality of memory channels corresponding to a plurality of memories included in the wide IO memory device;

for each of a plurality of memory channel groups composed of possible combinations of the memory channels specified by the specifying unit, evaluating power consumption of the wide IO memory device in a case where the memory channel group is used at an operation voltage and an operation frequency that correspond to a number of memory channels in the memory channel group and a data transfer rate needed for execution of the function; and

selecting, out of the plurality of memory channel groups, a memory channel group for which power consumption of the wide IO memory device is lowest, as a memory channel group to be used by the functional module corresponding to the function.

13. A computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program for causing a computer to execute steps of a control method for an information processing apparatus including a wide IO memory device stacked over an SoC die that includes a CPU, the control method comprising steps of:

upon instruction of execution of a function by a functional module out of a plurality of functional modules that each execute a separate function, specifying one or more available memory channels based on a status of use of a plurality of memory channels corresponding to a plurality of memories included in the wide IO memory device;

for each of a plurality of memory channel groups composed of possible combinations of the memory channels specified by the specifying unit, evaluating power consumption of the wide IO memory device in a case where the memory channel group is used at an operation voltage and an operation frequency that correspond to a number of memory channels in the memory channel group and a data transfer rate needed for execution of the function; and

selecting, out of the plurality of memory channel groups, a memory channel group for which power consumption of the wide IO memory device is lowest, as a memory channel group to be used by the functional module corresponding to the function.