Method and apparatus for on-demand power management
First Claim
1. A method, comprising:
- monitoring a processing demand in a processing system operating at a first one or more voltages and a first one or more clock frequencies phase-locked to a reference frequency;
wherein monitoring the processing demand comprises;
detecting a plurality of processing events, wherein the plurality of processing events comprise an average number of processing events per unit time; and
correlating a clock frequency requirement with the plurality of processing events, wherein correlating the clock frequency requirement with the plurality of processing events comprises comparing the average number of processing events per unit time with a current clock frequency;
generating a second one or more clock frequencies in response to the processing demand, the second one or more clock frequencies phase-locked to the reference frequency and phase-matched to the first one or more clock frequencies; and
switching from the first one or more clock frequencies to the second one or more clock frequencies without halting the processing system.
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Abstract
An apparatus for on-demand power management including a system controller, a clock domain manager coupled to the system controller and a power distribution manager coupled to the system controller. The system controller monitors a processing demand in a processing system. The clock domain manager provides one or more clock frequencies and, in response to the processing demand, switches between a first set of clock frequencies and a second set of clock frequencies without halting the processing system. The power distribution manager provides one or more operating voltages and, in response to the processing demand, switches between a first set of voltages and a second set of voltages without halting the processing system.
55 Citations
10 Claims
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1. A method, comprising:
monitoring a processing demand in a processing system operating at a first one or more voltages and a first one or more clock frequencies phase-locked to a reference frequency;
wherein monitoring the processing demand comprises;detecting a plurality of processing events, wherein the plurality of processing events comprise an average number of processing events per unit time; and correlating a clock frequency requirement with the plurality of processing events, wherein correlating the clock frequency requirement with the plurality of processing events comprises comparing the average number of processing events per unit time with a current clock frequency; generating a second one or more clock frequencies in response to the processing demand, the second one or more clock frequencies phase-locked to the reference frequency and phase-matched to the first one or more clock frequencies; and switching from the first one or more clock frequencies to the second one or more clock frequencies without halting the processing system. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
Specification