System, apparatus and method for collective power control of multiple intellectual property agents and a shared power rail

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10860083-B2
Application number	US-201816142320-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 26, 2018
Priority date	Sep 26, 2018
Publication date	Dec 8, 2020
Grant date	Dec 8, 2020

Abstract

In one embodiment, a system on chip includes: at least one core; a plurality of intellectual property (IP) agents coupled to the at least one core; a shared power rail to provide an operating voltage to the plurality of IP agents; and a power controller, in response to an indication that the plurality of IP agents are in an idle state and the at least one core is in an active state, to power down the shared power rail while the at least one core remains in the active state. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system on chip (SoC) comprising:
at least one core;
a plurality of intellectual property (IP) agents coupled to the at least one core;
a shared power rail to provide an operating voltage to the plurality of IP agents; and
a power controller, in response to an indication that both the plurality of IP agents are in an idle state and the at least one core is in an active state, to power down the shared power rail while the at least one core remains in the active state.

2. The SoC of claim 1 , wherein a first software agent is to inform an operating system (OS) that a first IP agent is to enter into the idle state, the OS to maintain a table including a plurality of entries, each associated with one of the plurality of IP agents.

3. The SoC of claim 2 , wherein the OS is to update a first entry of the table to indicate that the first IP agent is to be in the idle state.

4. The SoC of claim 2 , wherein the OS is to receive a definition from a basic input/output system (BIOS) that the plurality of IP agents are associated with the shared power rail, and in response thereto, set up the table.

5. The SoC of claim 1 , wherein the power controller is to receive a power down message from an operating system in response to a determination that at least one of the plurality of IP agents has entered the idle state, the power down message comprising the indication.

6. The SoC of claim 1 , wherein the power controller, in response to a request to power on a first IP agent, is to power on the shared power rail, thereafter cause the first IP agent to be powered on, and thereafter indicate to an operating system (OS) that the first IP agent is powered on, the OS to thereafter indicate to a first software agent that the first IP agent is powered on.

7. The SoC of claim 1 , further comprising a shared bus coupled to the plurality of IP agents.

8. The SoC of claim 7 , wherein the power controller is further to block access to the plurality of IP agents and disable the shared bus when the plurality of IP agents are in the idle state.

9. The SoC of claim 1 , wherein the idle state comprises at least a device D3 low power state.

10. The SoC of claim 1 , wherein in response to the indication, the power controller is to maintain the shared power rail powered down for a boot cycle of the SoC.

11. At least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions, which if performed by a machine cause the machine to perform a method comprising:
receiving, from a firmware of a system on chip (SoC) having a plurality of intellectual property (IP) agents, a declaration that the plurality of IP agents are coupled to a common power rail;
setting up a table in response to the declaration;
receiving, in a power controller of the SoC, an indication that the plurality of IP agents are in an idle state;
in response to the indication, causing the common power rail to be powered off; and
allocating at least a portion of a power budget allocated to the plurality of IP agents to at least one other component of the SoC.

12. The at least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 11 , wherein the method further comprises:
receiving a request to wake at least one of the plurality of IP agents;
in response to the request, powering on the common power rail; and
thereafter causing the at least one IP agent to be powered on.

13. The at least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 11 , wherein the method further comprises:
receiving a first power down indication to indicate that a first IP agent of the plurality of IP agents is to enter the idle state; and
updating the table to identify that the first IP agent is in the idle state.

14. The at least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 13 , wherein the method further comprises sending the indication to the power controller in response to the table identifying that the plurality of IP agents are in the idle state.

15. The at least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 14 , wherein the method further comprises sending the indication to the power controller further based on the declaration.

16. A system comprising:
an integrated circuit comprising:
at least one core;
a plurality of intellectual property (IP) agents coupled to the at least one core;
a shared power rail to provide an operating voltage to a first subset of the plurality of IP agents; and
a power controller, in response to an indication that the first subset of the plurality of IP agents are in an idle state, to power down the shared power rail while the at least one core remains in the active state;

a non-volatile storage coupled to the integrated circuit to store firmware for the system, the firmware comprising a definition to identify that the first subset of the plurality of IP agents are coupled to the shared power rail; and
a volatile memory to store at least a portion of an operating system (OS), wherein the OS is to receive the definition and set up a table in the volatile memory, the table including a plurality of entries each to identify one of the first subset of the plurality of IP agents and a corresponding power state for the IP agent.

17. The system of claim 16 , wherein the OS is to update a first entry of the table to indicate that a first IP agent of the first subset of the plurality of IP agents is to be in the idle state, in response to a power down message from a first software agent.

18. The system of claim 17 , wherein the power controller is to receive a request to wake the first IP agent, in response to the request, power on the shared power rail, and thereafter cause the first IP agent to be powered on.

19. The system of claim 16 , wherein the power controller is to allocate at least a portion of a power budget allocated to the first subset of the plurality of IP agents to the at least one core when the shared power rail is powered down.

Assignees

• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Degalahal Vijay S R
• Dutta Pronay
• Gough Robert
• Kumar Panner
• Kuo Chia-Hung
• Vadivelu Karthi

Classifications

• G06F1/3296

  by lowering the supply or operating voltage · CPC title

• G06F9/4401

  Bootstrapping (security arrangements therefor G06F21/57) · CPC title

• G06F1/3287 Primary

  by switching off individual functional units in the computer system · CPC title

• G06F1/3228 Primary

  Monitoring task completion, e.g. by use of idle timers, stop commands or wait commands · CPC title

• G06F1/3243

  Power saving in microcontroller unit · CPC title