Processor having accelerated user responsiveness in constrained environment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12360586-B2
Application number	US-202217880985-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 4, 2022
Priority date	Jun 23, 2016
Publication date	Jul 15, 2025
Grant date	Jul 15, 2025

Abstract

In one embodiment, a processor includes at least one core to execute instructions and a power controller coupled to the at least one core. The power controller may include a first logic to cause the at least one core to exit an idle state and enter into a maximum performance state for a first time duration, thereafter enter into an intermediate power state for a second time duration, and thereafter enter into a sustained performance state. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A processor comprising:
one or more cores to execute instructions;
a power controller coupled to the one or more cores, the power controller including usage profiler logic to receive active state information and/or energy information from a power meter corresponding to the one or more cores; and
logic to cause the one or more cores to exit a corresponding idle performance state and directly enter into a corresponding maximum performance state for a corresponding first time duration to execute a corresponding workload based on usage profiler information, the one or more cores in the corresponding maximum performance state to automatically enter into a corresponding intermediate performance state upon the end of the first time duration for at least one corresponding second time duration based on at least one corresponding budget, and thereafter enter into a corresponding sustained performance state.

2. The processor of claim 1 , wherein the one or more cores comprises at least one asymmetric core.

3. The processor of claim 1 , the one or more cores comprises at least one symmetric core.

4. The processor of claim 1 , wherein frequency and voltage determine a corresponding performance state of the one or more cores.

5. The processor of claim 1 , wherein temperature or power/energy consumed by a core of the one or more cores determines that core's corresponding budget.

6. The processor of claim 1 , wherein the workload is comprised of one or more short burst workloads.

7. The processor of claim 6 , wherein the one or more short burst workloads is comprised of web browsing or photo editing applications.

8. The processor of claim 1 , wherein the workload is comprised of one or more long burst workloads.

9. The processor of claim 8 , wherein the one or more long burst workloads is comprised of video encoding or 3D gaming applications.

10. The processor of claim 1 , wherein the one or more cores comprises a plurality of cores configured for dynamic swapping of workloads between them.

11. The processor of claim 1 , wherein the power controller comprises a PCU.

12. The processor of claim 1 , wherein the power controller comprises a PMIC interface.

13. A non-transitory machine-readable medium having stored thereon instructions, which if performed by a machine, cause the machine to perform a method comprising:
causing a core of one or more cores of a processor to exit a corresponding idle performance state and directly enter into a corresponding maximum performance state for a first time duration in response to a workload partially determined by usage profiler information;
causing the core of the one or more cores in its maximum performance state to automatically enter into one or more intermediate performance states upon the end of the first time duration between its maximum performance state and its sustained performance state based on one or more budgets; and
thereafter, causing the core of the one or more cores in the one or more intermediate performance states to enter into its corresponding sustained performance state.

14. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 13 , wherein the one or more cores comprises at least one asymmetric core.

15. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 13 , wherein the one or more cores comprises at least one symmetric core.

16. A system comprising:
a processor including one or more cores to execute instructions and a power controller, the power controller including usage profiler logic to receive active state information and/or energy information from a power meter corresponding to the one or more cores, the power controller to cause any of the one or more cores to exit a corresponding idle performance state and enter into a corresponding maximum performance state for a first time duration to execute a corresponding workload indicated in a corresponding configuration register, automatically enter into corresponding one or more intermediate performance states according to one or more corresponding exponential decay functions upon the end of the first time duration, and thereafter enter into a corresponding sustained performance state; and
a dynamic random-access memory coupled to the processor.

17. The system of claim 16 , wherein the one or more cores comprises at least one asymmetric core.

18. The system of claim 16 , wherein the one or more cores comprises at least one symmetric core.

19. The system of claim 16 , wherein frequency and voltage determine a corresponding performance state of the one or more cores.

20. The system of claim 16 , wherein temperature or power/energy consumed by a core of the one or more cores determines that core's corresponding budget.

21. The system of claim 16 , wherein exiting the corresponding idle performance state and entering the corresponding maximum performance state is based on usage profiler information.

Assignees

• Tahoe Res Ltd

Inventors

• Rotem Efraim
• Rajwan Doron
• Weissmann Eliezer
• Rosenzweig Nir
• Distefano Eric
• Santos Ishmael F
• Hermerding Ii James G

Classifications

• G06F9/30145

  Instruction analysis, e.g. decoding, instruction word fields · CPC title

• G06F9/30101

  Special purpose registers · CPC title

• G06F1/3228 Primary

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

• G06F1/324

  by lowering clock frequency · CPC title

• Y02D10/00

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