Integrating energy budgets for power management

• US 9,261,933 B2
• Filed: 04/08/2013
• Issued: 02/16/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/13/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Burg, David, Obr, Nathan Steven, Sadovsky, Vladimir
• Primary Examiner(s): AUVE, GLENN ALLEN
• Application Number:
  US13/858,804
• Publication Number:
  US 20130227314A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,044 Days
• Field of Search: 713/300, 713/320, 713/322, 713/330
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/26 Power supply means, e.g. regulation thereof for memories G11C
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3206 Monitoring of events, devices or parameters that trigger a change in power modality
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3215 Monitoring of peripheral devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3287 by switching off individual functional units in the computer system

Abstract

Power consumption of a device (e.g., flash storage driver, hard drive, etc.) connected to a host computer system is managed to promote efficient power usage and improved service. Communication between a host computer system (e.g., an operating system) and a device is enabled so that the host system can ascertain a power footprint of the device. Taking the power footprint of the device into consideration, along with the power consumption of the system as a whole (e.g., including the power consumption needs of other devices), a power manager can provide a power budget to the device based upon an informed decision. This allows for improved system power management through a coordination of the device'"'"'s power consumption by the host system, specifically during operation allowing device performance to be enhanced for the task at hand.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving a power footprint associated with a device;

monitoring a usage pattern associated with the device;

determining a power budget for the device based upon the power footprint and the usage pattern;

determining a cost associated with updating the power budget; and

updating the power budget responsive to the cost not exceeding a threshold.

2. The method of claim 1, at least one of:

the power footprint comprising information pertaining to a first power policy of the device;

or

the power budget comprising a second power policy governing an internal operation of the device.

3. The method of claim 1, the threshold based upon a power savings associated with the updating.

4. The method of claim 1, at least one of:

the power footprint comprising information pertaining to power consumption of the device;

or

the power budget comprising an energy allotment for the device.

5. The method of claim 1, determining the cost comprising:

determining the cost responsive to detecting a change in operation of the device.

6. The method of claim 1, comprising:

obtaining the power footprint from an information source external to a host system.

7. The method of claim 1, comprising:

communicating with the device via at least one of a system bus, a storage bus, or a device bus.

8. A system, comprising:

one or more processing units; and

memory comprising instructions that when executed by at least one of the one or more processing units, perform a method comprising;

receiving a power footprint associated with a device;

predicting a usage pattern associated with the device based upon a historical usage of a user when using the device; and

determining a power budget for the device based upon the power footprint and the usage pattern, the power budget providing a plurality of energy options for the device.

9. The system of claim 8, the power footprint comprising information pertaining to a power policy of the device.

10. The system of claim 8, a first energy option of the plurality of energy options related to a first operation of the device and a second energy option of the plurality of energy options related to a second operation of the device.

11. The system of claim 8, the power footprint comprising information pertaining to power consumption of the device.

12. The system of claim 8, receiving the power footprint comprising:

dynamically monitoring the power footprint of the device, thereby allowing for dynamic changes to the power budget of the device.

13. The system of claim 8, the power budget comprising a power policy governing an internal operation of the device.

14. The system of claim 8, the power budget comprising an energy allotment for the device.

15. A computer readable storage device comprising instructions that when executed perform a method, comprising:

receiving a power footprint associated with a device, the power footprint specifying an energy consumption associated with operation of the device;

determining a power budget for the device based upon the energy consumption associated with the operation; and

updating the power budget responsive to a cost to update the power budget not exceeding a threshold.

16. The computer readable storage device of claim 15, the power budget providing a plurality of energy options for the device.

17. The computer readable storage device of claim 16, a first energy option of the plurality of energy options related to a first operation of the device and a second energy option of the plurality of energy options related to a second operation of the device.

18. The computer readable storage device of claim 15, the method comprising providing a notice to a user based upon the power budget.

19. The computer readable storage device of claim 15, the updating comprising:

determining a new power budget for the device based upon an operation to be performed by the device;

determining an amount of power that will be used to perform a switch from the power budget to the new power budget;

comparing the amount of power that will be used to perform the switch to an amount of power saved by switching from the power budget to the new power budget; and

updating the power budget to the new power budget responsive to the amount of power saved by switching exceeding the amount of power that will be used to perform the switch.

20. The computer readable storage device of claim 15, the method comprising:

obtaining the power footprint from an information source external to a host system.