Methods and apparatuses for operating a data processing system
First Claim
1. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer instructions which when executed by a data processing system cause the data processing system to perform a method, the method comprising:
- receiving load information about processing loads for one or more processing units;
receiving, from one or more thermal sensors, thermal data about the data processing system;
transitioning between multiple power states for each of the one or more processing units based on the load information and the thermal data, the multiple power states including multiple states with different processor voltages or processor frequencies, and wherein the data processing system is configured to transition to a lower power state to reduce heat produced by the data processing system;
throttling thread scheduling based on the load information.
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Abstract
Methods and apparatuses to manage working states of a data processing system. At least one embodiment of the present invention includes a data processing system with one or more sensors (e.g., physical sensors such as tachometer and thermistors, and logical sensors such as CPU load) for fine grain control of one or more components (e.g., processor, fan, hard drive, optical drive) of the system for working conditions that balance various goals (e.g., user preferences, performance, power consumption, thermal constraints, acoustic noise). In one example, the clock frequency and core voltage for a processor are actively managed to balance performance and power consumption (heat generation) without a significant latency. In one example, the speed of a cooling fan is actively managed to balance cooling effort and noise (and/or power consumption).
147 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer instructions which when executed by a data processing system cause the data processing system to perform a method, the method comprising:
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receiving load information about processing loads for one or more processing units; receiving, from one or more thermal sensors, thermal data about the data processing system; transitioning between multiple power states for each of the one or more processing units based on the load information and the thermal data, the multiple power states including multiple states with different processor voltages or processor frequencies, and wherein the data processing system is configured to transition to a lower power state to reduce heat produced by the data processing system; throttling thread scheduling based on the load information. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A method performed by a data processing system, the method comprising:
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receiving load information about processing loads for one or more processing units; receiving, from one or more thermal sensors, the mal data about the data processing system; transitioning between multiple power states for each of the one or more processing units based on the load information and the thermal data, the multiple power states including multiple states with different processor voltages or processor frequencies, and wherein the data processing system is configured to transition to a lower power state to reduce heat produced by the data processing system; throttling thread scheduling based on the load information. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A data processing system comprising:
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a plurality of processing units; a memory coupled to the plurality of processing units; one or more thermal sensors coupled to at least one of the plurality of processing units; and wherein the memory stores an operating system which receives thermal data about the data processing system and obtains load information about processing loads on the plurality of processing units, and wherein the operating system causes each processing unit in the plurality of processing units to transition independently between multiple power states based on the load information and the thermal data, and the operating system throttles thread scheduling based on the load information. - View Dependent Claims (20)
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Specification