Method and apparatus for controlling central processing unit

• US 9,405,353 B2
• Filed: 12/21/2013
• Issued: 08/02/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/30/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Huawei Device Company Limited (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Huawei Device Company Limited (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Wei, Konggang, Guo, Yuhua, Peng, Yu
• Primary Examiner(s): Bae, Ji H
• Application Number:
  US14/138,029
• Publication Number:
  US 20140108838A1
• Time in Patent Office: 955 Days
• Field of Search: 713/322, 718/104, 718/105, 714/47.1
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3206 Monitoring of events, devices or parameters that trigger a change in power modality
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/324 by lowering clock frequency
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3409 for performance assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3433 for load management allocation of a server based on load conditions G06F9/505; load rebalancing G06F9/5083; redistributing the load in a network by a load balancer H04L67/1029
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/50 Allocation of resources, e.g. of the central processing unit [CPU]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/505 considering the load
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5094 where the allocation takes into account power or heat criteria power management in computers in general G06F1/3203; thermal management in computers in general G06F1/206
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

The present invention discloses a method for controlling a central processing unit CPU. A usage and a working frequency of a working CPU is obtained. When the usage is greater than a usage threshold, it is determined whether the working frequency is smaller than a first frequency. The working frequency as the first frequency is determined when the working frequency is smaller than the first frequency. The first frequency is smaller than a maximum frequency of the CPU.

Claims

1. A terminal, comprising a processor coupled to a memory, wherein the processor is programmed to:

obtain a usage and a working frequency of a working CPU;

when the usage is greater than a usage threshold, determine whether the working frequency is smaller than a first frequency;

determine the working frequency as the first frequency when the working frequency is smaller than the first frequency, wherein the first frequency is smaller than a maximum frequency of the CPU;

when the working frequency is greater than or equal to the first frequency, determine whether the working frequency is smaller than or equal to a second frequency, wherein the second frequency is greater than the first frequency and smaller than the maximum frequency; and

determine the working frequency as the second frequency when the working frequency is smaller than or equal to the second frequency.

2. The terminal according to claim 1, wherein the processor is programmed to determine the working frequency as the second frequency when the working frequency is smaller than or equal to the second frequency by determining the working frequency as the second frequency when the working frequency is smaller than or equal to the second frequency and a circulation keeping count value is smaller than a circulation keeping count threshold.

3. The terminal according to claim 2, wherein the processor is further programmed to add 1 to the circulation keeping count value.

4. The terminal according to claim 2, wherein the processor is further programmed to determine the working frequency as the maximum frequency when the circulation keeping count value is greater than or equal to the circulation keeping count threshold.

5. The terminal according to claim 2, wherein the processor is further programmed to clear the circulation keeping count value when the usage is greater than the usage threshold and the working frequency is smaller than or equal to the first frequency.

6. The terminal according to claim 1, wherein the processor is further programmed to determine the working frequency as a third frequency when the working frequency is greater than the second frequency, wherein the third frequency is equal to the maximum frequency.

7. The terminal according to claim 1, wherein the second frequency is an average value of the first frequency and the maximum frequency.

8. The terminal according to claim 2, wherein the processor is further programmed to, when the usage is smaller than or equal to the usage threshold, obtain a product of the usage and the working frequency, determine the working frequency as a frequency value closest to the product, and to clear the circulation keeping count value.

9. The terminal according to claim 1, wherein the processor determines the working frequency as the first frequency when the working frequency is smaller than the first frequency by determining the working frequency as the first frequency when the working frequency is smaller than the first frequency and a circulation keeping count value is smaller than a circulation keeping count threshold.

10. The terminal according to claim 9, wherein the processor is further programmed to add 1 to the circulation keeping count value.

11. The terminal according to claim 9, wherein the processor is further programmed to determine the working frequency as the maximum frequency when the circulation keeping count value is greater than or equal to the circulation keeping count threshold.

12. The terminal according to claim 9, wherein the processor is further programmed to, when the usage is smaller than or equal to the usage threshold, obtain a product of the usage and the working frequency, determine the working frequency as a frequency value closest to the product, and clear the circulation keeping count value.

13. The terminal according to claim 1, wherein the processor is further programmed to execute one function when timing of a timer corresponding to the CPU expires.

14. The terminal according to claim 13, wherein the processor is further programmed to control the timer to stop timing when a system is idle.

15. The terminal according to claim 13, wherein the processor is further programmed to control the timer to start timing when a system exits idle.

16. The terminal according to claim 13, wherein the processor is further programmed to control the timer to stop timing if working frequencies which correspond to the timer and are obtained when timing of the timer expires successively are all the maximum frequency, and the number of times that the working frequencies are all the maximum frequency is just greater than a threshold of the number of periods in which the maximum frequency lasts.

17. The terminal according to claim 16, wherein the threshold of the number of the periods in which the maximum frequency lasts is:

(start CPU power consumption sensitive factor threshold×

open core sampling space)/(usage threshold×

frequency weight), wherein the frequency weight is a first weight; and

wherein the number of times that the working frequencies are all the maximum frequency is just greater than a threshold of the number of periods in which the maximum frequency lasts is the number of times that the working frequencies are all the maximum frequency is the threshold of the number of the periods in which the maximum frequency lasts plus 1.

18. The terminal according to claim 1, wherein the first frequency is a frequency corresponding to an inflection point of a current-frequency curve.

19. The terminal according to claim 18, wherein

in the current-frequency curve, a first slope is smaller than a second slope;

the first slope is a slope of a straight line formed by measurement points whose frequencies are lower than the frequency corresponding to the inflection point; and

the second slope is a slope of a straight line formed by measurement points whose frequencies are higher than the frequency corresponding to the inflection point.