System, method and apparatus for energy efficiency and energy conservation by configuring power management parameters during run time

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9563254-B2
Application number	US-201113335635-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 22, 2011
Priority date	Dec 22, 2011
Publication date	Feb 7, 2017
Grant date	Feb 7, 2017

Abstract

According to one embodiment of the invention, an integrated circuit device at least one compute engine and a control unit. Coupled to the compute engine(s), the control unit is adapted to dynamically control an energy-efficient operating setting of at least one power management parameter for the integrated circuit device after execution of Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) has already completed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An integrated circuit device comprising:
at least one compute engine;
a machine specific register to store a value representing a load line impedance between the at least one compute engine and a power source, wherein the value representing the load line impedance is to be dynamically changed due to operational variations;
and a control unit coupled to the at least one compute engine, the control unit comprising:
a current estimation circuit to determine an estimated current utilized by the at least one compute engine by analyzing an operating frequency of the at least one compute engine, a voltage supplied to the at least one compute engine, a temperature of the at least one compute engine, and a number of cores utilized by the at least one compute engine;

and a voltage calculation circuit to dynamically calculate a voltage based on the load line impedance and the estimated current;
the voltage calculation circuit further to produce a request for power to the power source when a higher voltage than the calculated voltage is consumable by the integrated circuit device.

2. The integrated circuit device of claim 1 , wherein the control unit further to effectively reduce an operating frequency of the integrated circuit device when the estimated current exceeds a permitted current level.

3. The integrated circuit device of claim 2 , wherein the at least one compute engine is either at least one processor core or a graphics logic.

4. The integrated circuit device of claim 3 , wherein the control unit of the integrated circuit device is located on a first power plane and the value representing a load line impedance between the at least one compute engine and a power source is directed to the current level permitted for a second power plane of the integrated circuit device, the second power plane including the at least one processor core.

5. The integrated circuit device of claim 2 , wherein the current estimation circuit is to determine the estimated current by analyzing at least four of: an operating frequency of the at least one computing engine, a voltage supplied to the at least one computing engine, a temperature of the at least one computing engine, a power virus, and a number of cores utilized by the integrated circuit device.

6. The integrated circuit device of claim 2 , further comprising:
a machine specific register to store a current level permitted value.

7. The integrated circuit device of claim 1 further comprising a clock source to provide a reference clock.

8. The integrated circuit device of claim 7 , wherein the machine specific register to include a value that represents a multiplier applied to the reference clock for overclocking the at least one compute engine.

9. The integrated circuit device of claim 8 , wherein the machine specific register further to include a value that represents an additional voltage to be supplied to the at least one compute engine during overclocking.

10. The integrated circuit device of claim 1 , further comprising:
the control unit to dynamically control an energy-efficient operating setting of at least one power management parameter for the integrated circuit device after execution of Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) has completed.

11. An electronic device comprising:
a housing;
and an integrated circuit device implemented with the housing, the integrated circuit device comprising:
at least one compute engine to execute operating system software to control operations of the electronic device, a machine specific register to store a value representing a current level permitted for the integrated circuit device, a current estimation circuit to determine an estimated current received by the integrated circuit device by analyzing at least four of: an operating frequency of the at least one compute engine, a voltage supplied to the at least one computing engine, a temperature of the at least one computing engine, a power virus, and a number of cores utilized by the integrated circuit device;
and a control unit coupled to the at least one compute engine, the control unit to dynamically, reduce an operating frequency of the integrated circuit device when the estimated current exceeds the current level permitted;
wherein the control unit is to dynamically calculate a voltage based on the load line impedance and the estimated current;
wherein the control unit is to produce a request for power to the power source when a higher voltage than the calculated voltage is consumable by the at least one compute engine.

12. The electronic device of claim 11 , wherein the run time is after Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) software has completed loading and is to be executed by the at least one compute engine.

13. A method comprising:
running an operating system to control operations of an electronic device implemented with an integrated circuit device;
dynamically controlling a machine specific register including a value representing a load line impedance between the integrated circuit device and a power source during run time of the operating system, wherein the load line impedance is to change due to operational variations of the electronic device;
determining an estimated current for at least one compute engine of the integrated circuit device by analyzing at least four of: an operating frequency of the integrated circuit device, a voltage supplied to the integrated circuit device, a temperature of the integrated circuit device, a power virus, and a number of cores utilized by the integrated circuit device;
using the estimated current and the load line impedance to calculate an estimated voltage;
and requesting power from a power source taking into account a difference between the estimated voltage and a voltage consumable by the integrated circuit device.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the machine specific register further includes a value that represents a current level permitted for a first portion of the integrated circuit device.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising:
reducing an operating frequency of the integrated circuit device when the estimated current for the first portion exceeds the current level permitted.

16. The method of claim 13 , wherein the machine specific register further includes a value that represents a multiplier applied to a reference clock for overclocking of at least one compute engine of the integrated circuit device.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the machine specific register further includes a value that represents an additional voltage to be supplied to the at least one compute engine during overclocking.

Assignees

• Wells Ryan D
• Jahagirdar Sanjeev
• Sodhi Inder
• Shrall Jeremy
• Gunther Stephen H
• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Wells Ryan D
• Jahagirdar Sanjeev
• Sodhi Inder
• Shrall Jeremy
• Gunther Stephen H

Classifications

• G06F1/3206

  Monitoring of events, devices or parameters that trigger a change in power modality · CPC title

• G06F1/26

  Power supply means, e.g. regulation thereof (for memories G11C) · CPC title

• G06F1/324 Primary

  by lowering clock frequency · CPC title

• Y02B60/1217

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• Y02D10/00

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