Temperature calculation based on non-uniform leakage power

• US 11,164,806 B2
• Filed: 02/07/2012
• Issued: 11/02/2021
• Est. Priority Date: 12/27/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Adhikari, Dhananjay, Cai, Zhong-Ning George, Schneider, Jacob
• Primary Examiner(s): Vazquez, Arleen M
• Assistant Examiner(s): Becker, Brandon J
• Application Number:
  US13/367,870
• Publication Number:
  US 20120134385A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,556 Days
• Field of Search: 702130, 374 4
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 23/34 Arrangements for cooling, heating, ventilating or temperature compensation ; Temperature sensing arrangements thermal treatment apparatus H01L21/00
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/00 Indexing scheme for arrangements or methods for connecting or disconnecting semiconductor or solid-state bodies as covered by H01L24/00
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/0002 Not covered by any one of groups H01L24/00, H01L24/00 and H01L2224/00

Abstract

A system may include determination of a spatial power map associated with an integrated circuit based on an architecture of the circuit, generation of a spatial thermal map associated with the integrated circuit based on the spatial power map, and determination of a spatial leakage power map based on the spatial thermal map. In some aspects, a system includes determination of a temperature of an integrated circuit, comparison of the temperature with a thermal divergence temperature, determination that the temperature of the integrated circuit is primarily due to leakage power, and disabling of power to the integrated circuit.

Claims

1. An integrated circuit comprising:

a processing core;

a temperature sensor to determine a first temperature of the processing core;

a lookup table to store a temperature value which is a thermal divergence temperature, wherein the thermal divergence temperature is a temperature at which continued application of supply power causes a runaway temperature condition; and

a hardware comparator circuit to compare the first temperature of the processing core with the stored temperature value, wherein the hardware comparator circuit is positioned in the processing core.

2. The integrated circuit of claim 1, wherein the temperature sensor comprises a digital thermometer.

3. The integrated circuit of claim 1, wherein the temperature sensor is positioned at a location where leakage power is higher than other locations in the processing core.

4. The integrated circuit of claim 1, wherein the lookup table is operable to store a plurality of temperature values, wherein at least one of the temperature values from the plurality of temperature values is flagged to indicate applicability of the temperature value to the integrated circuit.

5. The integrated circuit of claim 1, further comprising a power regulator which is operable to reduce a power supply level to the processing core or eliminate power supply to the processing core according to an output signal from the hardware comparator circuit.

6. The integrated circuit of claim 5, wherein the power regulator is operable to eliminate power supply to the processing core when an off-chip voltage regulator instructs the power regulator to stop power delivery.

7. The integrated circuit of claim 1, wherein the temperature sensor is to determine the first temperature of the processing core due to leakage power when the processing core is inactive.

8. The integrated circuit of claim 7, wherein the determination that the processing core is inactive is made via an operating system.

9. The integrated circuit of claim 7, wherein the temperature sensor is to determine a second temperature of the processing core after it is determined that the temperature of the processing core is due to leakage power, and wherein the integrated circuit is to determine whether the second temperature is greater than the temperature value.

17. The integrated circuit of claim 1, wherein the hardware comparator circuit is to indicate a TRUE output if the temperature is less than the thermal divergence temperature.

18. The integrated circuit of claim 1, wherein the temperature sensor is to determine a second temperature of the processing core due to leakage power when the processing core is determined to be inactive.

19. The integrated circuit of claim 1, wherein the processing core comprises one or more performance counters to determine whether the integrated circuit is active.

20. The integrated circuit of claim 19, comprising logic to reduce workload if it is determined that the integrated circuit is active.

23. The integrated circuit of claim 1, wherein:

the temperature sensor is to determine the first temperature of the processing core, while the processing core is inactive;

the hardware comparator circuit is to determine that the first temperature of the processing core is proximate to and less than the thermal divergence temperature;

subsequent to and in response to the hardware comparator circuit determining that the first temperature of the processing core is proximate to and less than the thermal divergence temperature, the temperature sensor is to determine a second temperature of the processing core, while the processing core is inactive;

the hardware comparator circuit is to determine that the second temperature of the processing core is higher than the thermal divergence temperature; and

in response to the second temperature of the processing core being more than the thermal divergence temperature, power to one or more sections of the integrated circuit is to be disabled.

10. A system comprising:

a memory;

an integrated circuit, coupled to the memory, comprises;

a processing core;

a temperature sensor to determine a temperature of the processing core;

a lookup table to store a temperature value which is a thermal divergence temperature, wherein the thermal divergence temperature is a temperature at which continued application of supply power causes a runaway temperature condition; and

a hardware comparator circuit to compare the temperature of the processing core with the stored temperature value, wherein the hardware comparator circuit is positioned in the processing core; and

an operating system to indicate whether the processing core in the integrated circuit is active.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the memory is at least one of:

Double Data Rate (DDR) Random Access Memory (RAM);

Single Data Rate (SDR) RAM;

or

Programmable Read Only Memory (PROM).

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the processing core comprises an execution engine to illicit behavior of the integrated circuit.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the temperature sensor comprises a digital thermometer.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the temperature sensor is positioned at a location where leakage power is higher than other locations in the processing core.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein the integrated circuit further comprises a power regulator which is operable to reduce a power supply level to the processing core or eliminate power supply to the processing core according to an output signal from the hardware comparator circuit.

16. The system of claim 15, further comprising a voltage regulator external to the integrated circuit which is operable to instruct the power regulator to stop power delivery according to the output signal from the hardware comparator circuit.

21. An integrated circuit comprising:

a processing core;

a temperature sensor to determine a first temperature of the processing core, while the processing core is inactive;

a lookup table to store a temperature value which is a thermal divergence temperature; and

a hardware comparator circuit to compare the first temperature of the processing core with the stored temperature value, and to determine that the first temperature of the processing core is proximate to and less than the stored temperature value,

wherein subsequent to the comparison of the first temperature with the stored temperature value and while the processing core is inactive, the temperature sensor is to determine a second temperature of the processing core,

wherein the hardware comparator circuit is to compare the second temperature of the processing core with the stored temperature value, and

wherein in response to the second temperature of the processing core being more than the stored temperature value, power to one or more sections of the integrated circuit is to be disabled.

22. The integrated circuit of claim 21, wherein:

the hardware comparator circuit is positioned in the processing core; and

the thermal divergence temperature is a temperature at which continued application of supply power causes a runaway temperature condition.