Opportunistic waking of an application processor

• US 9,958,933 B2
• Filed: 06/04/2015
• Issued: 05/01/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/04/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Lingutla, Varaprasad V., De La Cropte De Chanterac, Cyril
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Vincent
• Assistant Examiner(s): ERDMAN, CHAD G
• Application Number:
  US14/731,311
• Publication Number:
  US 20160357248A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,062 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3206 Monitoring of events, devices or parameters that trigger a change in power modality
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3287 by switching off individual functional units in the computer system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/329 by task scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3296 by lowering the supply or operating voltage
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0209 in terminal devices terminal devices per se H04W88/02
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Described herein in various embodiments are techniques to better coordinate long wakeup events on a network processor that are due to radio or network activity with the long wakeups that are due to requests from an application processor. In one embodiment, power management logic can receive wake requests from system processes upon notice that one or more application processors are transitioning into a low power state. The power management logic can coalesce the wake requests based on a supplied margin and determine a wake timeframe in which the application processor may be opportunistically woken from the low power state. The power management logic can provide the wake timeframe for the application processor to a network processor in the system. The network processor can opportunistically cause an early wake of the application processor during the wake timeframe.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

notifying one or more processes of a data processing system having one or more processors that at least one of the one or more processors is to transition to a low power state;

receiving a plurality of wake requests from the one or more processes to indicate a period in which to wake the at least one processor, wherein each of the plurality of wake requests includes a wake time and a wake margin;

determining a wake timeframe by coalescing the plurality of wake requests into a processor wake request using at least the wake times and wake margins of plurality of wake requests; and

notifying a network processor of the wake timeframe, wherein the network processor is to wake the at least one processor upon the network processor waking from a low power state when the processor wake request is within the wake timeframe of the at least one processor and the processor wake request is in response to the network processor being woken from a low power state due to network activity.

2. The method as in claim 1, further comprising:

configuring a real-time clock to wake the at least one processor at a determined time within the wake timeframe, wherein the network processor is to wake the at least one processor from the low power state before the determined time.

3. The method as in claim 2, wherein the plurality of wake requests further includes a resource to use upon wake.

4. The method as in claim 3, wherein notifying the network processor of the wake timeframe includes determining whether the plurality of wake requests includes a resource provided by the network processor and, upon the determining, notifying the network processor of the wake timeframe.

5. The method as in claim 4, wherein the network processor is to process incoming network information upon waking from the low power state and is to wake the at least one processor before the determined time to perform network processing on behalf of at least one of the one or more processes executing on the at least one processor.

6. The method as in claim 1, further comprising:

transitioning the network processor to a low power state;

waking the network processor from the low power state in response to an external network event;

performing a network maintenance event via the network processor after waking the network processor from the low power state;

after performing the network maintenance event, determining whether current time is within the wake timeframe and whether the one or more application processors are in the low power state; and

causing, in response to the determination, the one or more application processors to wake from the low power state before the determined wake time.

7. The method as in claim 6, further comprising performing an activity associated with at least one of the one or more wake requests after the one or more application processors wake from the low power state.

8. A data processing system comprising:

one or more application processors;

a wireless network processor coupled with the one or more application processors, the wireless network processor to process network data on behalf of the one or more application processors and the network processor is to wake at least one of the one or more application processors upon the network processor waking from a low power state when the at least one application processor wake is within a wake timeframe of the at least one of the one or more application processors and the at least application processor wake is in response to the network processor being woken from a low power state due to network activity; and

power management logic to determine a wake timeframe for the one or more application processors from a plurality of wake requests of one or more processes, communicate the wake timeframe to the wireless network processor, and cause the one or more application processors to transition to a low power state, wherein the wake timeframe is determined by coalescing a plurality of wake requests using at least wake times and wake margins of the plurality of wake requests.

9. The system as in claim 8, further comprising a real-time clock, wherein the power management logic is further to program the real-time clock to wake the one or more application processors from the low power state at a determined wake time within the wake timeframe.

10. The system as in claim 9, wherein the wireless network processor is further to:

transition to a low power state;

wake from the low power state in response to an external network event;

perform a network maintenance event after waking from the low power state;

after the network maintenance event is performed, determine whether current time is within the wake timeframe and whether the one or more application processors are in the low power state; and

in response to the determination, cause the one or more application processors to wake from the low power state before the determined wake time.

11. The system as in claim 10, wherein the power management logic is further to receive the plurality of wake requests in response to a notice to one or more processes executing on the one or more application processors of an impending transition of the one or more application processors to the low power state.

12. The system as in claim 11, wherein the one or more wake requests further include a resource.

13. The system as in claim 12, wherein the power management logic is to determine the wake timeframe for the one or more application processors by coalescing the one or more wake requests based on the wake time and wake margin of each request before communicating the wake timeframe to the network processor.

14. The system as in claim 13, wherein the power management logic is to communicate the wake timeframe to the wireless network processor when the one or more wake requests include a resource provided by the wireless network processor.

15. The system as in claim 8, wherein the wireless network processor includes one or more of a cellular baseband processor or a wireless local area network (WLAN) processor including a Bluetooth or WI-FI network processor.

16. The system as in claim 15, wherein the wireless network processor is to transition to the low power state during a discontinuous reception cycle and wake from the low power state to process network traffic.

17. The system as in claim 16, wherein the one or more application processors execute a first operating system and the wireless network processor executes a second operating system that is different from the first operating system.

18. An electronic device comprising:

an application processor; and

a network processor to receive a wake timeframe of the application processor, the wake timeframe including a scheduled wake deadline and an opportunistic timeframe, wherein the wake timeframe is determined by coalescing, with an application processor, a plurality of wake requests of one or more processes using at least wake times and wake margins of the plurality of wake requests;

wherein the network processor is configured to enter and wake from a low power state and, upon waking from the low power state, to determine whether a current time is within the wake timeframe of the application processor; and

wherein the network processor, in response to the wake from the low power state due to network activity and upon a determination that the current time is within the opportunistic timeframe, is further to cause the application processor to wake from a low power state prior to the scheduled wake deadline.

19. The device as in claim 18, wherein the application processor is configured to enter and wake from a low power state and the scheduled wake deadline indicates when the application processor is to wake from a low power to perform a network operation via the network processor.

20. The device as in claim 19, wherein the network processor is a wireless network processor configured to wake from the low power state in response to a network event received via a wireless receiver.

21. The device as in claim 20, wherein the network event is base station transition.

22. The device as in claim 21, wherein the wireless network processor is a wireless baseband processor, wireless local area network (WLAN) processor, or a Bluetooth network processor.

23. A non-transitory machine-readable medium storing instructions which, when performed by one or more processors of a data processing system, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

notifying one or more processes of the data processing system that at least one of the one or more processors is to transition to a low power state;

receiving a plurality of wake requests from the one or more processes to indicate a period in which to wake the at least one processor, wherein each of the plurality of wake requests includes a wake time and a wake margin;

determining a wake timeframe by coalescing the plurality of wake requests into a processor wake request using at least the wake times and wake margins of plurality of wake requests; and

notifying a network processor of the wake timeframe, wherein the network processor is to wake the at least one processor upon the network processor waking from a low power state when the processor wake request is within the wake timeframe of the at least one processor and the processor wake request is in response to the network processor being woken from a low power state due to network activity.

24. The medium as in claim 23, the operations further comprising:

configuring a real-time clock to wake the at least one processor at a determined time within the wake timeframe, wherein the network processor is to wake the at least one processor from the low power state before the determined time.

25. The medium as in claim 24, wherein the one or more wake requests further includes a resource to use upon wake.

26. The medium as in claim 25, wherein notifying the network processor of the wake timeframe includes determining whether the plurality of wake requests includes a resource provided by the network processor and, upon the determining, notifying the network processor of the wake timeframe.

27. The medium as in claim 26, wherein the network processor is to process incoming network information upon waking from the low power state and is to wake the at least one processor before the determined time to perform network processing on behalf of at least one of the one or more processes executing on the at least one processor.