Computing performance and power management with firmware performance data structure

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9535711-B2
Application number	US-201213977530-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 21, 2012
Priority date	Nov 22, 2011
Publication date	Jan 3, 2017
Grant date	Jan 3, 2017

Abstract

In some embodiments, a PPM interface for a computing platform may be provided with functionality to facilitate, to an OS through the PPM interface, firmware performance data.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computing platform, comprising:
a non-volatile memory having a firmware boot program; and
a CPU to execute the firmware boot program when the CPU is reset, the firmware boot program including instructions to create Performance and Power Management (PPM) interface data structures including a firmware performance data table (FPDT) structure to track one or more firmware boot parameters.

2. The computing platform of claim 1 , in which the firmware boot program comprises instructions, that when executed, log a timer value to indicate a firmware boot start time.

3. The computing platform of claim 2 , in which the logged firmware boot start time value is used to populate a RestEnd performance record in an Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) FPDT structure.

4. The computing platform of claim 1 , in which the FPDT is to track firmware boot time when the CPU is reset, and wherein the firmware boot time is to start when the firmware is launched.

5. The computing platform of claim 1 , in which the FPDT is to track a suspend time duration the platform to transition from an active to a sleep state.

6. The computing platform of claim 5 , in which the sleep state is an S 3 system sleep state.

7. The computing platform of claim 5 , in which the suspend time duration is based on a suspend start time when an Operating System (OS) initiates the sleep state and a suspend end time when the firmware is to trigger hardware entry into the sleep state.

8. The computing platform of claim 1 , in which the FPDT is to track a resume time for the platform to transition to an active state from a sleep state.

9. The computing platform of claim 8 , in which the FPDT is to log a full resume value that corresponds to a timer value when the firmware transitions control to a hardware vector for entering the active state.

10. A computing platform, comprising:
a first memory storage device having instructions for an operating system (OS) including OS Performance and Power Management (PPM) components for a PPM interface; and
a second memory storage device having instructions for a firmware boot program including firmware PPM components for a PPM interface, the OS and firmware PPM instructions, when executed, to establish a PPM interface between the OS and platform hardware, the PPM interface including a firmware performance data structure to track firmware performance characteristics.

11. The computing platform of claim 10 , comprising one or more hardware components to be initialized when the firmware boot program executes upon a system power-up, wherein the firmware performance data structure is to track initialization times for at least some of the hardware components.

12. The computing platform of claim 10 , in which the firmware performance data structure is a firmware performance data table (FPDT) in an Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PPM.

13. The computing platform of claim 12 , in which the FPDT comprises a performance record structure.

14. The computing platform of claim 12 , in which FPDT comprises a runtime performance record type table.

15. The computing platform of claim 12 , in which the FPDT comprises an S 3 performance table pointer record structure.

16. The computing platform of claim 12 , in which the FPDT comprises a firmware basic boot performance data record structure.

17. An apparatus, comprising:
a computer platform having firmware including Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI which is to build a firmware performance data table (FPDT) structure for an ACPI interface.

18. The apparatus of claim 17 , in which the FPDT structure includes a performance record structure comprising performance records with firmware performance data.

19. The computing platform of claim 17 , in which the FPDT comprises a runtime performance record type table.

20. The computing platform of claim 17 , in which the FPDT comprises an S 3 performance table pointer record structure.

Assignees

• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Rothman Michael
• Gough Robert
• Doran Mark

Classifications

• G06F2119/06

  Power analysis or power optimisation · CPC title

• G06F11/3447

  Performance evaluation by modeling · CPC title

• G06F9/3012

  Organisation of register space, e.g. banked or distributed register file · CPC title

• G06F15/7871

  Reconfiguration support, e.g. configuration loading, configuration switching, or hardware OS · CPC title

• G06F9/4418

  Suspend and resume; Hibernate and awake · CPC title