Automatic voltage reconfiguration

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11435806-B2
Application number	US-201916715184-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 16, 2019
Priority date	Dec 16, 2019
Publication date	Sep 6, 2022
Grant date	Sep 6, 2022

Abstract

Automatic voltage reconfiguration in a computer processor including one or more cores includes executing one or more user-specified workloads; determining, based on the user-specified workloads, a respective minimum safe voltage for each core of one or more cores; and modifying a respective voltage configuration for each core of the one or more cores based on the respective minimum safe voltage.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of automatic voltage reconfiguration in a computer processor including one or more cores, the method comprising:
executing one or more user-specified workloads;
determining, based on the user-specified workloads, a respective minimum safe voltage for each core of the one or more cores; and
modifying a respective voltage configuration for each core of the one or more cores based on the respective minimum safe voltage, wherein the respective voltage configuration comprises a margin of a frequency voltage curve.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the respective minimum safe voltage for each core of the one or more cores comprises modifying, during execution of the one or more user-specified workloads, a respective operational voltage of each core of the one or more cores until a failure state is identified.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving a selection of one or more predefined test patterns as the one or more user-specified workloads.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein executing one or more user-specified workloads is based on one or more user interactions with one or more software applications.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising saving the respective minimum safe voltage for each core of the one or more cores to a storage location.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising loading, in response to a request to overclock the one or more cores, the respective minimum safe voltage for each core of the one or more cores.

7. An apparatus for automatic voltage reconfiguration in a computer processor including one or more cores comprising:
a voltage configuration module configured to:
execute one or more user-specified workloads;
determine, based on the user-specified workloads, a respective minimum safe voltage for each core of one or more cores; and
modify a respective voltage configuration for each core of the one or more cores based on the respective minimum safe voltage, wherein the respective voltage configuration comprises a margin of a frequency voltage curve.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein determining the respective minimum safe voltage for each core of the one or more cores comprises modifying, during execution of the one or more user-specified workloads, a respective operational voltage of each core of the one or more cores until a failure state is identified.

9. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the voltage configuration module is further configured to receive a selection of one or more predefined test patterns as the one or more user-specified workloads.

10. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein executing one or more user-specified workloads is based on one or more user interactions with one or more software applications.

11. The apparatus of claim 7 , further configured to save the respective minimum safe voltage for each core of the one or more cores to a storage location.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the voltage configuration module is further configured to load, in response to a request to overclock the one or more cores, the respective minimum safe voltage for each core of the one or more cores.

13. A computer program product for automatic voltage reconfiguration a computer processor including one or more cores, the computer program product disposed upon a computer readable medium, the computer program product comprising computer program instructions that, when executed, cause a computer to perform steps comprising:
executing one or more user-specified workloads;
determining, based on the user-specified workloads, a respective minimum safe voltage for each core of one or more cores; and
modifying a respective voltage configuration for each core of the one or more cores based on the respective minimum safe voltage, wherein the respective voltage configuration comprises a margin of a frequency voltage curve.

14. The computer program product of claim 13 , wherein determining the respective minimum safe voltage for each core of the one or more cores comprises modifying, during execution of the one or more user-specified workloads, a respective operational voltage of each core of the one or more cores until a failure state is identified.

15. The computer program product of claim 13 , wherein the steps further comprise receiving a selection of one or more predefined test patterns as the one or more user-specified workloads.

16. The computer program product of claim 13 , wherein executing one or more user-specified workloads is based on one or more user interactions with one or more software applications.

17. The computer program product of claim 13 , wherein the steps further comprise saving the respective minimum safe voltage for each core of the one or more cores to a storage location.

18. The method of claim 3 , wherein the one or more predefined test patterns are selected from a plurality of test patterns each corresponding to a particular category of workload.

19. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the one or more predefined test patterns are selected from a plurality of test patterns each corresponding to a particular category of workload.

20. The computer program product of claim 15 , wherein the one or more predefined test patterns are selected from a plurality of test patterns each corresponding to a particular category of workload.

Assignees

• Advanced Micro Devices Inc
• Ati Technologies Ulc

Inventors

• Ahrens Jerry A
• Mehra Amitabh
• Harwani Anil
• Alverson William R
• Ley Grant E
• Lee Charles Sy

Classifications

• Y02D10/00

  Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management · CPC title

• G06F11/24

  Marginal checking {or other specified testing methods not covered by G06F11/26, e.g. race tests} · CPC title

• G06F1/3296 Primary

  by lowering the supply or operating voltage · CPC title

• G06F1/3234 Primary

  Power saving characterised by the action undertaken · CPC title

• G01R31/3004

  Current or voltage test · CPC title