Patent application number | Description | Published |
20080276236 | DATA PROCESSING DEVICE WITH LOW-POWER CACHE ACCESS MODE - A processor can operate in three different modes. In an active mode, a first voltage is provided to the processor, where the first voltage is sufficient to allow the processor to execute instructions. In a low-power mode, a retention voltage is provided to the processor. The processor consumes less power in the retention mode than in the active mode. In addition, the processor can operate in a third mode, where a voltage is provided to the processor sufficient to allow the processor to process cache messages, such as coherency messages, but not execute other normal operations or perform normal operations at a very low speed relative to their performance in the active mode. | 11-06-2008 |
20080288799 | DYNAMIC PROCESSOR POWER MANAGEMENT DEVICE AND METHOD THEREOF - A processor can operate in different power modes. In an active power mode, the processor executes software. In response to receiving a halt indication from the software, hardware at the processor evaluates bus transactions for the processor. If the bus transactions meet a heuristic, hardware places a processor core in a lower power mode, such as a retention mode. Because the bus transactions are evaluated by hardware, rather than by software, and the software is not required to perform handshakes and other protocols to place the processor in the lower power mode, the processor is able to place the processor core into the lower power mode more quickly, thereby conserving power. | 11-20-2008 |
20090235108 | AUTOMATIC PROCESSOR OVERCLOCKING - Processor overclocking techniques are disclosed. Upon automatically determining that overclocking entry criteria are satisfied, one or more cores are clocked above their standard operation frequencies. The cores may be overclocked until one or more exit criteria are satisfied. At that point, an exit procedure is performed, with the one or more overclocked cores return to their normal operating frequency. | 09-17-2009 |
Patent application number | Description | Published |
20130145180 | METHOD OF POWER CALCULATION FOR PERFORMANCE OPTIMIZATION - A system and method for efficient management of operating modes within an IC for optimal power and performance targets. On a same die, an SOC includes one or more processing units and a input/output (I/O) controller (IOC). The multiple interfaces within the IOC manage packets and messages according multiple different protocols. The IOC maintains an activity level for each one of the multiple interfaces. This activity level may be based at least on a respective number of transactions executed by a corresponding one of the multiple interfaces. The IOC determines a power estimate for itself based on at least the activity levels. In response to detecting a difference between the power estimate and an assigned I/O power limit for the IOC, a power manager adjusts at least respective power limits for the one or more processing units based on at least the difference. | 06-06-2013 |
20130151869 | METHOD FOR SOC PERFORMANCE AND POWER OPTIMIZATION - A system and method for efficient management of resources within a semiconductor chip for an optimal combination of power reduction and high performance. An intergrated circuit, such as a system on a chip (SOC), includes at least two processing units. The second processing unit includes a cache. The SOC includes a power management unit (PMU) that determines whether a first activity level for the first processing unit is above a first threshold and a second activity level for the second processing unit is below a second threshold. If this condition is true, then the PMU places a limit on a highest power-performance state (P-state) used by the second processing unit. The PMU sends an indication to flush the at least one cache within the second processing unit. The PMU changes a P-state used by the first processing unit to a higher performance P-state. | 06-13-2013 |
20130159739 | Power Controller, Processor and Method of Power Management - A processor includes a plurality of exclusive resources, a shared resource, and a controller configured to manage power state transitions of each of the plurality of exclusive resources and the shared resource. The controller receives a request from a resource to transition from a first power state to a lower power state and, in response to receiving the request, the controller controls power state transitions of the resource according to a first power control threshold when the resource is one of the plurality of exclusive resources and according to a second power control threshold that is greater than the first power control threshold when the resource is the shared resource. | 06-20-2013 |
20130159750 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR TRANSITIONING A SYSTEM TO AN ACTIVE DISCONNECT STATE - A processor includes a processor core and a power management controller operable to receive a timer event, store the timer event, generate a hardware system sleep command to enter a hardware system sleep state, and restore the timer event upon exiting from the hardware system sleep state. | 06-20-2013 |
20130159755 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR MANAGING POWER ON A SHARED THERMAL PLATFORM FOR A MULTI-PROCESSOR SYSTEM - A method and apparatus includes a multi-processor apparatus including a plurality of integrated circuit processors having a shared thermal platform. Each processor has at least one subsystem operable at a plurality of different power settings, at least one internal thermal parameter detector providing power data related to the processor, and a power management unit. The method and apparatus illustratively shares power data from the at least one internal thermal parameter detector of each processor between the power management units of the plurality of processors; compares the shared power data from the plurality of processors to a thermal design power limit for the shared thermal platform; and controls a power setting of the at least one subsystem of the plurality of processors within the shared thermal platform based on the comparison of the shared power data to the thermal design power limit for the shared thermal platform. | 06-20-2013 |
20130246820 | METHOD FOR ADAPTIVE PERFORMANCE OPTIMIZATION OF THE SOC - An apparatus and method for dynamically adjusting power limits for processing nodes and other components, such as peripheral interfaces, is disclosed. The apparatus includes multiple processing nodes and other components, and further includes a power management unit configured to set a first frequency limit for at least one of the processing nodes responsive to receiving an indication of a first detected temperature greater than a first temperature threshold. Initial power limits are set below guard-band power limits for components that do not have reliable reporting of power consumption or for cost or power saving reasons. The amount of throttling of processing nodes is used to adjust the power limits for the processing nodes and these components. | 09-19-2013 |
20130275778 | PROCESSOR BRIDGE POWER MANAGEMENT - A power controller can set the power state of a processor bridge based on which processor modules are in a communicative state. In addition, for a power state where selected processor modules are expected to be non-communicative, the power controller can set the supplied voltage to have a reduced voltage guard band as compared to other power states. These power management techniques can reduce the power consumed by the processor. | 10-17-2013 |
20130326206 | REINTIALIZATION OF A PROCESSING SYSTEM FROM VOLATILE MEMORY UPON RESUMING FROM A LOW-POWER STATE - Boot configuration information is stored to a volatile memory of a processing system during a low-power state. When resuming from the low-power state, a processor device accesses configuration information for a memory controller from a non-volatile memory and restores the memory controller using the configuration information so as to permit access to the volatile memory. The processor device then configures the initial contexts one or more processor cores using the core state information maintained by the volatile memory during the low-power state and accessed via the configured memory controller, and the one or more processor cores completes the boot process by executing resume boot code maintained by the volatile memory during the low-power state and accessed via the configured memory controller, rather than accessing boot code from a non-volatile memory. | 12-05-2013 |
20140136869 | ADAPTIVE CONNECTED STANDBY FOR A COMPUTING DEVICE - Various computing devices and methods of managing the power consumption thereby are disclosed. In one aspect, a method of managing power consumption of a computing device that has a battery is provided. The method includes cycling the computing device between a connected standby active state and a connected standby idle state. The duration of the connected standby idle state is set based at least in part on a charge level of the battery. | 05-15-2014 |
20140181557 | METHODS AND APPARATUS RELATED TO PROCESSOR SLEEP STATES - A system includes a processor including at least a first core and a local interrupt controller associated with the first core. The first core is operable to store its architectural state prior to entering a first core sleep state, and the processor is operable to receive and implement a request for entering a system sleep state in which the first core is in the first core sleep state and the local interrupt controller is powered down and exit the system sleep state by restoring the local interrupt controller and restoring the saved architectural state of the first core. | 06-26-2014 |
20140201542 | ADAPTIVE PERFORMANCE OPTIMIZATION OF SYSTEM-ON-CHIP COMPONENTS - Methods, apparatus, and fabrication relating to adaptive performance optimization of a plurality of components in view of power consumption and demand, component activity, and thermal events. A method may comprise allocating a first power budget to a first component of an apparatus, wherein the first power budget is less than a maximum power required by the first component; applying at least a portion of a borrowable power budget, wherein the borrowable power budget equals the maximum power required by the first component minus the first power budget, to a second component of the apparatus; and increasing the first power budget of the first component, in response to a first number or more of thermal events occurring in a first time period. | 07-17-2014 |
20140344599 | Method and System for Power Management - Embodiments described herein include a method for power management. In an embodiment, the method includes responsive to a determination that an idle time has exceeded a threshold, transitioning a device to an intermediate power state in which a predetermined processing module of the device is powered down, the idle time being a time since a last wakeup event, and determining whether to transition the device from the intermediate power state to a substantially powered down state. | 11-20-2014 |
20150073611 | ESTIMATING LEAKAGE CURRENTS BASED ON RATES OF TEMPERATURE OVERAGES OR POWER OVERAGES - An operating point of one or more components in a processing device may be set using a leakage current estimated based on at least one of a rate of temperature overages or a rate of power overages. In some embodiments, a power management controller may be used to set an operating point of one or more components in the processing device based on at least one of a rate of temperature overages or a rate of power overages for the component(s). | 03-12-2015 |