System, apparatus and method for configurable control of asymmetric multi-threading (SMT) on a per core basis

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11579944-B2
Application number	US-201816190806-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 14, 2018
Priority date	Nov 14, 2018
Publication date	Feb 14, 2023
Grant date	Feb 14, 2023

Abstract

In one embodiment, a processor includes: a plurality of cores each comprising a multi-threaded core to concurrently execute a plurality of threads; and a control circuit to concurrently enable at least one of the plurality of cores to operate in a single-threaded mode and at least one other of the plurality of cores to operate in a multi-threaded mode. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A processor comprising: a plurality of cores, wherein each of the plurality of cores comprises a multi-threaded core to concurrently execute a plurality of threads; a control circuit to concurrently enable at least one of the plurality of cores to operate in a single-threaded mode and at least one other of the plurality of cores to operate in a multi-threaded mode; and a configuration storage coupled to the control circuit to store an enable bit for each of the plurality of cores to indicate whether the core is enabled to operate in the multi-threaded mode, the configuration storage to be written during manufacture of the processor by a manufacturer of the processor with the enable bit for at least one of the plurality of cores having a value to indicate that the at least one core is not enabled to operate in the multi-threaded mode; wherein the processor is of a first stock keeping unit, wherein the first stock keeping unit has N cores and M threads, M less than 2N and N greater than one, based at least in part on the enable bit for each of the plurality of cores; and a configuration register to store a selective multi-threading indicator to concurrently enable operation of the processor in the single-threaded mode and the multi-threaded mode.

2. The processor of claim 1 , wherein the configuration storage comprises a fuse storage.

3. The processor of claim 1 , further comprising a configuration register to store a selective multi-threading indicator to indicate whether the control circuit is enabled to concurrently enable operation of the processor in the single-threaded mode and the multi-threaded mode.

4. The processor of claim 1 , further comprising:
a power controller to independently control power consumption comprising a voltage and a frequency of the plurality of cores; and
a memory to store a bit mask based on the enable bit for each of the plurality of cores, wherein the power controller is to communicate at least a first portion of the bit mask to a first microcode engine of a first core to cause the first microcode engine to configure the first core to operate in the single-threaded mode, and communicate at least a second portion of the bit mask to a second microcode engine of a second core to cause the second microcode engine to configure the second core to operate in the multi-threaded mode.

5. The processor of claim 4 , wherein the first microcode engine is to disable one or more multi-threading structures of the first core in response to the first portion of the bit mask.

6. The processor of claim 4 , wherein the power controller is to enable a first core to operate at a turbo mode frequency, the first core enabled to operate in the single-threaded mode, wherein the turbo mode frequency comprises a first baseline turbo mode frequency for the single-threaded mode, the first baseline turbo mode frequency greater than a second baseline turbo mode frequency for the multi-threaded mode.

7. The processor of claim 1 , wherein the configuration storage further comprises thread information to indicate that less than a full number of hardware threads of the at least one other core is to be enabled.

8. The processor of claim 1 , wherein in response to the enable bit for each of the plurality of cores, the control circuit is to selectively enable a first subset of the plurality of cores to operate in the multi-threaded mode and prevent a second subset of the plurality of cores from operation in the multi-threaded mode.

9. A system comprising:
a processor comprising:
a plurality of cores, wherein each of the plurality of cores comprises a multi-threaded core to concurrently execute a plurality of threads;
a control circuit to concurrently enable at least one of the plurality of cores to operate in a single-threaded mode and at least one other of the plurality of cores to operate in a multi-threaded mode; and
a configuration storage coupled to the control circuit to store an enable bit for each of the plurality of cores to indicate whether the core is enabled to operate in the multi-threaded mode, wherein the processor is of a first stock keeping unit having N cores and M threads, M less than 2N and N greater than one, based at least in part on the enable bit for each of the plurality of cores; and

a non-volatile memory coupled to the processor to store a basic input/output system (BIOS), the BIOS including:
a first region to store selective multi-threaded configuration information to identify a first subset of the plurality of cores to be enabled for the single-threaded mode and a second subset of the plurality of cores to be enabled for the multi-threaded mode; and
first code to cause the selective multi-threaded configuration information to be communicated to the processor and to store a selective multi-threading indicator to concurrently enable operation of the processor in the single-threaded mode and the multi-threaded mode.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the BIOS further comprises second code to generate a user interface to enable a user to identify a number of the plurality of cores to be enabled for the single-threaded mode and a number of the plurality of cores to be enabled for the multi-threaded mode.

11. The system of claim 9 , wherein the BIOS further comprises a third code to write the enable bit for each of the plurality of cores based on the selective multi-threaded configuration information.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the processor further comprises a memory to store a bit mask based on the enable bit for each of the plurality of cores, wherein a first microcode engine of the first core is to enable a first core for the single-threaded mode based on a first portion of the bit mask, and a second microcode engine of a second core is to enable the second core for the multi-threaded mode based on a second portion of the bit mask.

13. The system of claim 9 , wherein the processor further comprises a power controller to enable a first core to operate at a turbo mode frequency, wherein the turbo mode frequency comprises a first baseline turbo mode frequency for the single-threaded mode, the first baseline turbo mode frequency greater than a second baseline turbo mode frequency for the multi-threaded mode.

14. The processor of claim 2 , wherein the fuse storage comprises fuse information to enable the multi-threaded mode for one or more first cores and to disable the multi-threaded mode for one or more second cores.

15. The processor of claim 14 , wherein the first cores and the second cores are homogeneous cores.

16. The processor of claim 14 , wherein the second cores have hardware support for the multi-threaded mode.

17. A system comprising:
a processor having a semiconductor die comprising:
a plurality of cores, wherein each of the plurality of cores comprises a multi-threaded core to concurrently execute a plurality of threads;
a fuse storage to store fuse information to indicate that a first subset of the plurality of cores is enabled to operate in a multi-threaded mode and that a second subset of the plurality of cores is not enabled to operate in the multi-threaded mode, the fuse information written during manufacture of the processor by a manufacturer of the processor, wherein the processor is of a first stock keeping unit having N cores and M threads, M less than 2N and N greater than one, based at least in part on the fuse information; and
a configuration register to store a selective multi-threading indicator to concurrently enable operation of the processor in the single-threaded mode and the multi-threaded mode; and

Assignees

• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Ragland Daniel J
• Therien Guy M
• Varma Ankush
• Dehaemer Eric J
• Mayo David T
• Gur Ariel
• Ben-Raphael Yoav
• Seconi Mark P

Classifications

• Y02D10/00

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

• G06F1/324

  by lowering clock frequency · CPC title

• G06F13/20

  for access to input/output bus · CPC title

• G06F1/28

  Supervision thereof, e.g. detecting power-supply failure by out of limits supervision · CPC title

• G06F1/3243

  Power saving in microcontroller unit · CPC title