Thermal mitigation using selective I/O throttling

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9436628-B2
Application number	US-201414503312-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 30, 2014
Priority date	May 30, 2014
Publication date	Sep 6, 2016
Grant date	Sep 6, 2016

Abstract

A method and apparatus of a device that manages a thermal profile of a device by selectively throttling input/output operations of the device is described. In an exemplary embodiment, the device monitors the thermal profile of the device, where the device executes a plurality of processes that utilize storage of the device. In addition, the plurality of processes include a high priority process and a low priority process. If the thermal profile of the device exceeds a thermal threshold, the device decreases a first bandwidth range for the low priority process and maintains a second bandwidth range for the high priority process. The device further processes a storage request of the low priority process using the first bandwidth range and processing a storage request of the high priority process using the second bandwidth range.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A non-transitory machine-readable medium having executable instructions to cause one or more processing units to perform a method to manage a thermal profile of a device, the method comprising:
monitoring the thermal profile of the device, wherein the device is executing a plurality of input/output operations that utilize storage of the device, the plurality of input/output operations including a first priority input/output operation and a second priority input/output operation;
determining that the thermal profile of the device exceeds a first thermal threshold,
decreasing a first bandwidth range for the first input/output operation to less than 100%, and
decreasing a second bandwidth range for the second input/output operation to less than 100% and the second bandwidth range is greater than the first bandwidth range, wherein the thermal profile is selected from the group consisting of device temperature and audible fan noise;

processing a storage request of the first priority input/output operation using the first bandwidth range;
processing a storage request of the second priority input/output operation using the second bandwidth range; and
determining that the thermal profile falls below the first thermal threshold,
restoring the first and second bandwidth range to previous values.

2. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein a bandwidth range sets an amount of available storage bandwidth that is made is available for an input/output operation.

3. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1 , determining that the thermal profile of the device exceeds a second thermal threshold,
further decreasing the first and second bandwidth ranges, wherein the second bandwidth range is greater than the first bandwidth range.

4. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1 , if the thermal profile falls below the second thermal threshold,
restoring the first and second bandwidth range to previous values.

5. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the high priority input/output operation is associated with a visual process and the low priority input/output operation is associated with a batch process.

6. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the monitoring of the thermal profile comprises:
recording the device temperature.

7. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1 , further comprising:
maintaining a third bandwidth range; and
processing a storage request for a third priority input/output operation using the third bandwidth range.

8. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the first bandwidth range is allocated a first set of tokens and the second bandwidth range is allocated a second set of tokens.

9. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 8 , further comprising:
processing an input/output operation corresponding to one of the first and second bandwidth ranges if that bandwidth range has an available token from a set of tokens corresponding to that the one of the first and second bandwidth ranges; and
decrementing a token from the corresponding bandwidth range.

10. A method to manage a thermal profile of a device, the method comprising:
monitoring the thermal profile of the device, wherein the device is executing a plurality of input/output operations that utilize storage of the device, the plurality of input/output operations including a first priority input/output operation and a second priority input/output operation;
determining that the thermal profile of the device exceeds a first thermal threshold,
decreasing a first bandwidth range for the first input/output operation to less than 100%, and
decreasing a second bandwidth range for the second input/output operation to less than 100% and the second bandwidth range is greater than the first bandwidth range, wherein the thermal profile is selected from the group consisting of device temperature and audible fan noise;

processing a storage request of the first priority input/output operation using the first bandwidth range;
processing a storage request of the second priority input/output operation using the second bandwidth range; and
determining that the thermal profile falls below the first thermal threshold,
restoring the first and second bandwidth range to previous values.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein a bandwidth range sets an amount of available storage bandwidth that is made is available for an input/output operation.

12. The method of claim 10 , determining the thermal profile of the device exceeds a second thermal threshold,
further decreasing the first and second bandwidth ranges, wherein the second bandwidth range is greater than the first bandwidth range.

13. The method of claim 12 , if the thermal profile falls below the second thermal threshold,
restoring the first and second bandwidth range to previous values.

14. A device to manage a thermal profile of a device, the device comprising:
a processor;
a memory coupled to the processor though a bus; and
a process executed from the memory by the processor that causes the processor to monitor the thermal profile of the device, wherein the device is executing a plurality of input/output operations that utilize storage of the device, the plurality of input/output operations including a first priority input/output operation and a second priority input/output operation, determine the thermal profile of the device exceeds a first thermal threshold, the processor to decrease a first bandwidth range for the first input/output operation to less than 100%, and decrease a second bandwidth range for the second input/output operation to less than 100% and the second bandwidth range is greater than the first bandwidth range, the processor further to process a storage request of the first priority input/output operation using the first bandwidth range, process a storage request of the second priority input/output operation using the second bandwidth range and determine that the thermal profile falls below the first thermal threshold, the processor further to restore the first and second bandwidth range to previous values, wherein the thermal profile is selected from the group consisting of device temperature and audible fan noise.

15. The device of claim 14 , wherein a bandwidth range sets an amount of available storage bandwidth that is made is available for an input/output operation.

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Vaishampayan Umesh Suresh
• Kumar Derek R
• Sarcone Christopher John
• Blaine Russell Alexader
• Bahulkar Tejas Arun
• Katz Shachar
• Sokol Jr Joseph
• Byom Matthew John

Classifications

• G06F13/102

  where the program performs an interfacing function, e.g. device driver (G06F13/105 takes precedence; contention policies within device drivers G06F9/4881; scheduling within device drivers G06F9/52) · CPC title

• G06F1/206

  comprising thermal management · CPC title

• G06F13/26 Primary

  with priority control · CPC title

• G05D23/1917

  using digital means · CPC title

• Y02D10/00

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