Dynamic voltage transitions

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-8935546-B2
Application number	US-201213652307-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 15, 2012
Priority date	Dec 30, 2002
Publication date	Jan 13, 2015
Grant date	Jan 13, 2015

Abstract

The operating voltage of an integrated circuit (e.g., a processor) is changed in response to one or more conditions (e.g., a laptop computer is connected to an AC power source). Both the operating frequency and the operating voltage of the integrated circuit are changed. The voltage regulator providing the operating voltage to the integrated circuit is caused to transition between voltage levels using one or more intermediate steps. The integrated circuit continues to operate in the normal manner both at the new voltage and throughout the voltage transition.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A processor comprising:
a cache;
a phase lock loop (PLL); and
a voltage regulator controller to change an operating voltage of the processor in response to one or more conditions, including a temperature of the processor,
wherein the voltage regulator controller is to send voltage identifier (VID) codes to a voltage regulator external to the processor,
wherein the operating voltage of the processor is to be changed from a first level to a second level…

Assignees

• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Gunther Stephen H
• Greiner Robert J
• Dia Xia
• Ma Hung-Piao

Classifications

• G06F1/26 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F1/20

  Physics · mapped topic

• G05F3/02

  Physics · mapped topic

• F04D13/0666 Primary

  Mechanical Engineering · mapped topic

• G11B33/1413

  Physics · mapped topic