Supply voltage control based at least in part on power state of integrated circuit

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9342126-B2
Application number	US-201414582799-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 24, 2014
Priority date	Dec 31, 2007
Publication date	May 17, 2016
Grant date	May 17, 2016

Abstract

Disclosed is a switching voltage regulator circuitry controlled to supply a voltage to at least a portion of an integrated circuit (IC). Information corresponding to a current load for a different power state of at least a portion of the IC is received. The switching voltage regulator circuitry is controlled to adjust the voltage to a different value based at least in part on the received information. Disclosed is a voltage received for a power state of at least a portion of an IC having first logic to perform one or more functions and second logic integrated with the first logic. Information corresponding to a current load for a different power state of at least a portion of the IC is sent from the second logic to voltage regulator control logic to adjust the voltage to a different value.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus comprising:
control logic to control switching voltage regulator circuitry to supply a voltage to at least a portion of an integrated circuit, through execution of instructions to control the voltage; and
at least a portion of the switching voltage regulator circuitry,
the control logic to receive first information corresponding to a voltage identification and to control the switching voltage regulator circuitry to adjust the voltage based at least in part on the received first information, the control logic to receive second information corresponding to a current load for a different power state of at least a portion of the integrated circuit and to control the switching voltage regulator circuitry to adjust the voltage based at least in part on the received second information, wherein the second information is separate from the first information.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein at least a portion of the integrated circuit is to reside in the different power state for at least an amount of time, and wherein the control logic is to receive information corresponding to the amount of time.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the control logic is to adjust the voltage for a duration based at least in part on the received information corresponding to the amount of time.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the control logic is to adjust a loadline based at least in part on the received second information.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the control logic is to adjust an input voltage for the switching voltage regulator circuitry based at least in part on the received second information.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the control logic is to reduce the voltage below a voltage corresponding to the different power state based at least in part on the received second information.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the second information is to identify the different power state, and
wherein the control logic is to identify the current load based at least in part on the identified power state.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the control logic is to receive a command having the first information and/or the second information.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the control logic is to receive the second information from power control logic for the integrated circuit.

10. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the control logic is to receive the second information from power control logic for components supported by a board, wherein the components include the integrated circuit.

11. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the control logic and at least a portion of the switching voltage regulator circuitry are integrated on a die.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the integrated circuit is on another die.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the die on which the control logic and at least a portion of the switching voltage regulator circuitry are integrated and the other die having the integrated circuit are in a same package.

Assignees

• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Lam Son H
• Dibene Ii Joseph T
• Koertzen Henry W
• Patzer Steven D

Classifications

• G05F1/465

  Internal voltage generators for integrated circuits, e.g. step down generators · CPC title

• Y02B70/16

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• G06F1/32

  Means for saving power · CPC title

• G05F1/565

  sensing a condition of the system or its load in addition to means responsive to deviations in the output of the system, e.g. current, voltage, power factor (G05F1/563 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H02M3/155

  using semiconductor devices only · CPC title