Portable electronic device and core swapping method thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9715272-B2
Application number	US-201414261037-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 24, 2014
Priority date	Apr 24, 2014
Publication date	Jul 25, 2017
Grant date	Jul 25, 2017

Abstract

A portable electronic device is provided. A power management unit provides a first voltage and a second voltage. A multi-core cluster includes a first processing core configured to be powered by the first voltage and operate at a first operating frequency and a second processing core configured to be powered by the first voltage or the second voltage and operate at a second operating frequency. A third processing core is configured to be powered by the second voltage and operate at a third operating frequency. A first switch is configured to selectively provide the second voltage to the third processing core or stop providing the second voltage to the third processing core according to a first control signal. A second switch is configured to selectively provide the first voltage or the second voltage to the second processing core according to a second control signal.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A portable electronic device, comprising:
a power management unit configured to simultaneously provide a first voltage and a second voltage;
a multi-core cluster, comprising:
a first processing core configured to be powered by the first voltage and operate at a first operating frequency; and
a second processing core configured to be powered by the first voltage or the second voltage and operate at a second operating frequency;
a third processing core configured to be powered by the second voltage and operate at a third operating frequency;
a first switch coupled between the power management unit and the third processing core for receiving the second voltage and configured to selectively provide the second voltage to the third processing core or stop providing the second voltage to the third processing core according to a first control signal; and
a second switch coupled between the power management unit and the second processing core,
wherein the second switch is selectively switched to receive one of the first voltage and the second voltage according to a second control signal, so as to provide the one of the first voltage and the second voltage to the second processing core.

2. The portable electronic device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein when the third processing core is enabled to perform a task, the first switch provides the second voltage to power the third processing core and the second switch provides the first voltage to the second processing core.

3. The portable electronic device as claimed in claim 2 , wherein when the third processing core is disabled, the first switch stops providing the second voltage to the third processing core and the second switch provides the second voltage to the second processing core.

4. The portable electronic device as claimed in claim 3 , wherein when the third processing core is disabled, the first voltage is provided to the first processing core.

5. The portable electronic device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein when the first, second and third processing cores operate at the same operating frequency, a power consumption of the first processing core is larger than a power consumption of the second processing core, and the power consumption of the second processing core is larger than a power consumption of the third processing core.

6. The portable electronic device as claimed in claim 5 , further comprising:
a controller coupled to the first switch and the second switch and configured to generate the first control signal and the second control signal.

7. The portable electronic device as claimed in claim 6 , wherein when the first processing core is enabled to perform a first task with the first operating frequency and the second processing core stays in a sleep mode, the controller is further configured to determine whether the first operating frequency is smaller than a first frequency value.

8. The portable electronic device as claimed in claim 7 , wherein when it is determined that the first operating frequency is not smaller than the first frequency value, the controller generates a third control signal to decrease the first operating frequency, and when it is determined that the first operating frequency is smaller than the first frequency value, the controller wakes up the second processing core from the sleep mode and the first task is migrated to the second processing core from the first processing core, such that the first task is performed by the second processing core with the second operating frequency, wherein the second operating frequency is smaller than the first operating frequency.

9. The portable electronic device as claimed in claim 7 , wherein when the first operating frequency is not smaller than the first frequency value, the controller generates a forth control signal to the power management unit to decrease the first voltage.

10. The portable electronic device as claimed in claim 6 , wherein when the second processing core is enabled to perform a second task with the second operating frequency and the first processing core stays in a sleep mode, the controller is further configured to determine whether the second operating frequency is larger than a second frequency value.

11. The portable electronic device as claimed in claim 10 , wherein when it is determined that the second operating frequency is not larger than the second frequency value, the controller generates a fifth control signal to increase the second operating frequency, and when it is determined that the second operating frequency is larger than the second frequency value, the controller wakes up the first processing core from the sleep mode and the second task is migrated to the first processing core from the second processing core, such that the second task is performed by the first processing core with the first operating frequency, wherein the first operating frequency is larger than the second operating frequency.

12. The portable electronic device as claimed in claim 10 , wherein when the second operating frequency is not larger than the second frequency value, the controller generates a sixth control signal to the power management unit to increase the second voltage.

13. The portable electronic device as claimed in claim 6 , wherein the multi-core cluster, the third processing core and the controller are integrated inside a CPU.

14. The portable electronic device as claimed in claim 13 , further comprising:
a first switching unit integrated inside the CPU and coupled between the power management unit and the first processing core for providing the first voltage to power the first processing core according to a third control signal;
a second switching unit integrated inside the CPU and coupled between the second switch and the second processing core for providing the first or second operating voltage to power the second processing core according to a forth control signal; and
a third switching unit integrated inside the CPU and coupled between the power management unit and the third processing core for providing the second operating voltage to power the third processing core according to a fifth control signal,
wherein the first switch and the second switch are implemented in the power management unit.

15. A core swapping method of a portable electronic device, wherein the portable electronic device comprises a multi-core cluster, which includes a first processing core operating at a first frequency and a second processing core operating at a second frequency, a third processing core operating at a third operating frequency, a power management unit, a first switch and a second switch coupled to the power management unit, wherein a power consumption of the first processing core is larger than a power consumption of the second processing core, and the power consumption of the second processing core is larger than a power consumption of the third processing core, the method comprising:
simultaneously providing a first voltage and a second voltage by the power management unit;
determining whether the third processing core is enabled or disabled;
when it is determined that the third processing core is enabled, switching the second switch to receive the first voltage so as to provide the first voltage to power the second processing core via the second switch, and switching the first switch to receive the second voltage and providing the second voltage to power the third processing core; and
when it is determined that the third processing core is disabled, switching the second switch to receive the second voltage so as to provide the second voltage to power

Assignees

• Htc Corp

Inventors

• Liang Yu-Hsin
• Chu Shih-Hung

Classifications

• Y02D10/00

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

• G01R15/18

  using inductive devices, e.g. transformers · CPC title

• G06F1/3287

  by switching off individual functional units in the computer system · CPC title

• G06F1/3293 Primary

  by switching to a less power-consuming processor, e.g. sub-CPU · CPC title

• G06F1/324

  by lowering clock frequency · CPC title