System and Method for Power Optimization

• US 20110213950A1
• Filed: 05/25/2010
• Published: 09/01/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/11/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
• Original Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
• Inventors: Smith, Brian, Carmack, Phil, Mathieson, John George
• Application Number:
  US12/787,359
• Publication Number:
  US 20110213950A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 712/30
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/206 comprising thermal management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3203 Power management, i.e. event-based initiation of a power-saving mode
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/324 by lowering clock frequency
• 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 1/3293 by switching to a less power-consuming processor, e.g. sub-CPU
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/8007 single instruction multiple data [SIMD] multiprocessors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/5022 Workload threshold
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/508 Monitor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5088 involving task migration
• 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

A technique for reducing the power consumption required to execute processing operations. A processing complex, such as a CPU or a GPU, includes a first set of cores comprising one or more fast cores and second set of cores comprising one or more slow cores. A processing mode of the processing complex can switch between a first mode of operation and a second mode of operation based on one or more of the workload characteristics, performance characteristics of the first and second sets of cores, power characteristics of the first and second sets of cores, and operating conditions of the processing complex. A controller causes the processing operations to be executed by either the first set of cores or the second set of cores to achieve the lowest total power consumption.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for processing one or more operations within a processing complex, the method comprising:

causing the one or more operations to be processed by a first set of cores within the processing complex;

evaluating at least a workload associated with processing the one or more operations, performance data and power data associated with the first set of cores, and performance data and power data associated with a second set of cores included within the processing complex to determine whether the one or more operations should continue to be processed by the first set of cores or should be processed by the second set of cores; and

causing the one or more operations to continue to be processed by the first set of cores or to be processed by the second set of cores.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the performance data and power data associated with the first set of cores and the performance data and power data associated with the second set of cores is included within fuses associated with processing complex.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the performance data and power data associated with the first set of cores and the performance data and power data associated with the second set of cores is determined dynamically during operation of the processing complex.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the performance data associated with the first set of cores and the second set of cores includes at least one of an operating frequency range of the first set of cores and an operating frequency range of the second set of cores, the number of cores in the first set of cores and the number of cores in the second set of cores, and an amount of parallelism between the cores in the first set of cores and an amount of parallelism between the cores in the second set of cores.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the power data associated with the first set of cores and the second set of cores includes at least one of a maximum voltage at which the cores in the first set of cores can operate and a maximum voltage at which the cores in the second set of cores can operate, a maximum current that the cores in the first set of cores can tolerate and a maximum current that the cores in the second set of cores can tolerate, and an amount of power dissipation as a function of at least an operating frequency for the cores in the first set of cores and an amount of power dissipation as a function of at least an operating frequency for the cores in the second set of cores.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of evaluating further comprises evaluating one or more operating conditions of the processing complex.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the one or more operating conditions are determined dynamically during operation of the processing complex.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the one or more operating conditions include at least one of a supply voltage, a temperature of each chip included in the processing complex, and an average leakage current over a period of time of each chip included in the processing complex.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more operations should be processed by the second set of cores when less power would be consumed by the processing complex if the one or more operations were processed by the second set of cores.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of evaluating further comprises evaluating at least one of a thermal constraint, a performance requirement, a latency requirement, and a current requirement, and wherein determining whether the one or more operations should continue to be processed by the first set of cores or should be processed by the second set of cores is based on at least one of the thermal constraint, the performance requirement, the latency requirement, and the current requirement.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the first set of cores is included on a first chip, and the second set of cores is included on a second chip.

12. A computer-readable medium including instructions that, when executed, cause a processing complex to perform the steps of:

causing the one or more operations to be processed by a first set of cores within the processing complex;

evaluating at least a workload associated with the one or more operations, performance data and power data associated with processing the first set of cores, and performance data and power data associated with a second set of cores included within the processing complex to determine whether the one or more operations should continue to be processed by the first set of cores or should be processed by the second set of cores; and

causing the one or more operations to continue to be processed by the first set of cores or to be processed by the second set of cores.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the performance data and power data associated with the first set of cores and the performance data and power data associated with the second set of cores is included within fuses associated with processing complex.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the performance data and power data associated with the first set of cores and the performance data and power data associated with the second set of cores is determined dynamically during operation of the processing complex.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the performance data associated with the first set of cores and the second set of cores includes at least one of an operating frequency range of the first set of cores and an operating frequency range of the second set of cores, the number of cores in the first set of cores and the number of cores in the second set of cores, and an amount of parallelism between the cores in the first set of cores and an amount of parallelism between the cores in the second set of cores.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the power data associated with the first set of cores and the second set of cores includes at least one of a maximum voltage at which the cores in the first set of cores can operate and a maximum voltage at which the cores in the second set of cores can operate, a maximum current that the cores in the first set of cores can tolerate and a maximum current that the cores in the second set of cores can tolerate, and an amount of power dissipation as a function of at least an operating frequency for the cores in the first set of cores and an amount of power dissipation as a function of at least an operating frequency for the cores in the second set of cores.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the step of evaluating further comprises evaluating one or more operating conditions of the processing complex that are determined dynamically during operation.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the one or more operating conditions include at least one of a supply voltage, a temperature of each chip included in the processing complex, and an average leakage current over a period of time of each chip included in the processing complex.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the one or more operations should be processed by the second set of cores when less power would be consumed by the processing complex if the one or more operations were processed by the second set of cores.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the step of evaluating further comprises evaluating at least one of a thermal constraint, a performance requirement, a latency requirement, and a current requirement, and wherein determining whether the one or more operations should continue to be processed by the first set of cores or should be processed by the second set of cores is based on at least one of the thermal constraint, the performance requirement, the latency requirement, and the current requirement.

22. A computing device, comprising:

a processor configured to;

cause one or more operations to be processed by a first set of cores;

evaluate at least a workload associated with processing the one or more operations, performance data and power data associated with the first set of cores, and performance data and power data associated with a second set of cores to determine whether the one or more operations should continue to be processed by the first set of cores or should be processed by the second set of cores; and

cause the one or more operations to continue to be processed by the first set of cores or to be processed by the second set of cores.

23. The computing device of claim 22, further comprising a memory that includes instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to cause the one or more operations to be processed by the first set of cores, evaluate the at least the workload, and cause the one or more operations to continue to be processed by the first set of cores or to be processed by the second set of cores.

24. The computing device of claim 22, wherein the first set of cores is included on a first chip, and the second set of cores is included on a second chip.