Usb type-c power delivery management

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2019004584-A1
Application number	US-201715639447-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jun 30, 2017
Priority date	Jun 30, 2017
Publication date	Jan 3, 2019
Grant date	—

Abstract

When power is provided through a USB-C cable from a source device to a sink device, a sudden connection or disconnection of the cable between the two devices may cause a sudden power surge or power drop in at least one of those devices, leading to other problems. To avoid this sudden event from causing potential damage or disruption to one of the devices, in some embodiments a CC pin in the cable is used to announce the impending connection/disconnection, and the device may throttle back its power consumption before power is actually applied to or removed from the power pins.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A device having a USB-C port, a port manager module, and a CPU power budget adjustment module, the device to:
detect a voltage pull-down on a CC pin of the USB-C port; after a time delay, increase a floor of a CPU power budget; notify a CPU Power Budget adjustment module of said increasing the floor of the CPU power budget; apply power to a Vbus pin of the USB-C port; read a power contract negotiated with a second device connected to a USB-C cable connected to the USB-C port; and set a new floor to the CPU power budget based on the power contract.

2 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the CPU floor power comprises a combination of leakage power and power consumed by other components not proportional to clock frequency.

3 . The device of claim 1 , wherein said notifying is to be performed by a CPU power budget adjustment module.

4 . The device of claim 1 , wherein said increasing the floor is to be performed by a port manager module.

5 . The device of claim 1 , further comprising a CPU power management module coupled to the CPU power budget adjustment module and the port manager module.

6 . The device of claim 1 , further comprising the CPU coupled to the CPU power management module.

7 . The device of claim 6 , further comprising a battery coupled to the CPU.

8 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the USB-C port comprises a 24-pin USB-C connector.

9 . A device having a USB-C port, a port manager module, and a CPU power budget adjustment module, the device to:
detect a voltage pull up at a CC pin of a USB-C port; after a time delay, assert a signal to throttle a CPU to a lower power consumption level; provide notification of CPU throttling; verify sink port has been disconnected; and de-assert the signal to throttle the CPU power.

10 . The device of claim 9 , wherein said throttling the CPU comprises performing at least one item selected from a list of items consisting of: a) reducing an operating frequency of the CPU, and b) reducing an operating voltage of the CPU.

11 . The device of claim 9 , wherein said providing notification is provided to the power budget adjustment module.

12 . The device of claim 9 , further comprising a CPU power management module coupled to the CPU power budget adjustment module and the port manager module.

13 . The device of claim 9 , further comprising the CPU coupled to the CPU power management module.

14 . The device of claim 12 , further comprising a battery coupled to the CPU.

15 . A computer-readable non-transitory storage medium that contains instructions, which when executed by one or more processors result in performing operations comprising:
detecting a voltage pull-down on a CC pin of the USB-C port; after a time delay, increasing a floor of a CPU power budget; notifying a CPU Power Budget Adjustment module of said increasing the floor of the CPU power budget; applying power to a Vbus pin of the USB-C port; reading a power contract negotiated with a second device connected to a USB-C cable connected to the USB-C port; and setting a new floor to the CPU power budget based on the power contract.

16 . The medium of claim 15 , wherein the CPU floor power comprises a combination of leakage power and power consumed by other components not proportional to clock frequency.

17 . The medium of claim 15 , wherein said notifying is to be performed by a CPU power budget adjustment module and said increasing the floor is to be performed by a port manager module.

18 . A computer-readable non-transitory storage medium that contains instructions, which when executed by one or more processors result in performing operations comprising:
detecting a voltage pull up at a CC pin of a USB-C port; after a time delay, asserting a signal to throttle a CPU to a lower power consumption level; providing notification of said CPU throttling; verifying a sink port has been disconnected; and de-asserting the signal to throttle the CPU power.

19 . The medium of claim 18 , wherein the operation of throttling the CPU comprises performing at least one item selected from a list of items consisting of: a) reducing an operating frequency of the CPU, and b) reducing an operating voltage of the CPU.

20 . The medium of claim 18 , wherein the operation of providing notification comprises providing notification to a power budget adjustment module.

Assignees

• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Nge Chee Lim
• Gorbatov Eugene
• Wang Zhongsheng
• Hermerding Ii James G
• Astekar Basavaraj B
• Cheng Jenn Chuan
• Kuo Chia-Hung Sophia
• Umapathy Ashwin
• Kung Tin-Cheung
• Li Yifan
• Uan-Zo-Li Alexander B

Classifications

• G06F1/266 Primary

  Arrangements to supply power to external peripherals either directly from the computer or under computer control, e.g. supply of power through the communication port, computer controlled power-strips · CPC title

• G06F13/4081

  Live connection to bus, e.g. hot-plugging (current or voltage limitation during live insertion H02H9/004) · CPC title

• G06F1/3215

  Monitoring of peripheral devices · CPC title

• G06F1/3296

  by lowering the supply or operating voltage · CPC title

• G06F1/324 Primary

  by lowering clock frequency · CPC title