Instruction that specifies an application thread performance state

• US 9,310,875 B2
• Filed: 12/22/2011
• Issued: 04/12/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/2011
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Semin, Andrey
• Primary Examiner(s): Choudhury, Zahid
• Application Number:
  US13/997,659
• Publication Number:
  US 20140053009A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,573 Days
• Field of Search: 713/300, 713/310, 713/320, 713/322, 713/323
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/324 by lowering clock frequency
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3243 Power saving in microcontroller unit
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/329 by task scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/30083 Power or thermal control instructions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/3009 Thread control instructions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/3851 from multiple instruction streams, e.g. multistreaming
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

An apparatus is described that includes a processor. The processor has a processing core to execute an instruction that specifies a performance state of an application thread. The instruction belongs to the application thread. The processor includes a register to store the performance state. The processor includes power management control logic coupled to the register to set a performance state of the processing core as a function of the performance state.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

a processor having;

a processing core to execute an instruction that specifies a performance state of an application thread, said instruction belonging to said application thread;

a first register to store said performance state;

a second register to store a system edict value to indicate whether the processor is biased toward higher performance and higher power consumption or lower performance and lower power consumption; and

power management control logic coupled to the first register and the second register to set a performance state of the processing core as a function of said performance state of said application thread and said system edict value.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said processor supports multiple performance states, and, said performance state of said processing core, if said system edict value indicates a bias toward higher performance and power consumption, is a next performance state higher than if said system edict value indicated a bias toward lower performance and lower power consumption.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein said processor is a shared logic block that supports multiple application threads and corresponding performance states thereof.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein said performance state of said processor is a function of said performance state of said application thread because said performance state of said application thread is a highest performance state amongst said multiple application threads, and said system edict value indicates a bias toward higher performance and higher power consumption.

5. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein said performance state of said processor is a function of said performance state of said application thread because said performance state of said application thread is a lowest performance state amongst said multiple application threads, and said system edict value indicates a bias toward lower performance and lower power consumption.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said performance state of said processing core is a performance state of a pipeline within said processing core, said instruction executed by said pipeline.

20. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the power management control logic coupled to the first register and the second register is to set the performance state of the processing core as a function of a performance state of a plurality of application threads and said system edict value.

7. A method, comprising:

executing on a processing core of a processor an instruction that specifies a performance state of a thread of an application, said instruction belonging to said thread;

writing said performance state of said thread to register space;

providing a system edict value that indicates whether the processor is biased toward higher performance and higher power consumption or lower performance and lower power consumption;

accessing said performance state of said thread from said register space; and

changing a performance state of said processing core consistent with said performance state as a function of said performance state of said thread and said system edict value.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein said instruction is executed by a pipeline and said performance state of said processing core is a performance state of said pipeline.

9. The method of claim 7 further comprising determining said changing with power control logic circuitry.

10. The method of claim 9 further comprising said power control logic circuitry taking into account the system edict value when performing said determining.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising said power control logic circuitry taking into account respective performance states of other application threads executed by said processor when performing said changing.

12. The method of claim 7 further comprising taking account of said performance state of said thread and respective performance states of other threads when determining a performance state of a logic block other than said processing core that supports said thread and said other threads, wherein said logic block and said processing core are on a same semiconductor chip.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein said logic block is any of:

an L2 cache;

a system memory controller;

an I/O hub; and

an integrated special purpose computational block.

14. A non-transitory machine readable medium containing program code that when processed by a processor causes a method to be performed, said method comprising:

executing on a processing core of the processor an instruction that specifies a performance state of a thread of an application, said instruction belonging to said thread;

writing said performance state of said thread to register space;

providing a system edict value that indicates whether the processor is biased toward higher performance and higher power consumption or lower performance and lower power consumption;

accessing said performance state of said thread from said register space; and

changing a performance state of said processing core consistent with said performance state as a function of said performance state of said thread and said system edict value.

15. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 14, wherein said instruction is executed by a pipeline and said performance state of said processing core is a performance state of said pipeline.

16. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 14, wherein the method further comprises determining said changing with power control logic circuitry.

17. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 16, wherein the method further comprises said power control logic circuitry taking into account the system edict value when performing said determining.

18. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 17, wherein the method further comprises said power control logic circuitry taking into account respective performance states of other application threads executed by said processor when performing said changing.

19. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 14, wherein the method further comprises taking account of said performance state of said thread and respective performance states of other threads when determining a performance state of a logic block other than said processing core that supports said thread and said other threads, wherein said logic block and said processing core are on a same semiconductor chip.