Systems and methods for memory power saving via kernel steering to memory balloons

A system for reducing memory power consumption in a volatile memory, the system comprising:

• means for configuring a plurality of power saving memory balloons associated with the volatile memory;
• means for steering memory allocations to the plurality of power saving memory balloons the memory allocations including movable pages migratable to other power saving memory balloons and non-movable pages not migratable to other power saving memory balloons;
• means for, in response to initiating a memory power saving mode, determining which of the plurality of power saving memory balloons is preferred over others of the plurality of power saving memory balloons to execute a memory power saving feature on, wherein the determination is based at least in part on whether a power saving memory balloon is allocated one or more non-movable pages;
• means for migrating data from the preferred power saving memory balloon;
• and
• means for executing the memory power saving feature on the preferred power saving memory balloon while in the memory power saving mode.

A system for reducing memory power consumption, the system comprising:

• a volatile random access memory;
• and
• a system on chip (SoC) comprising a memory controller and a kernel memory manager, the memory controller electrically coupled to the volatile random access memory, and the kernel memory manager comprising logic configured to:
• configure a plurality of power saving memory balloons associated with the volatile memory;
• steer memory allocations to the plurality of power saving memory balloons, the memory allocations including movable pages migratable to other power saving memory balloons and non-movable pages not migratable to other power saving memory balloons;
• in response to initiating a memory power saving mode, determine which of the plurality of power saving memory balloons is preferred over others of the plurality of power saving memory balloons to execute a memory power saving feature on, wherein the determination is based at least in part on whether a power saving memory balloon is allocated one or more non-movable pages;
• migrate data from the preferred power saving memory balloon;
• and
• execute the memory power saving feature on the preferred power saving memory balloon while in the memory power saving mode.

A computer program embodied in a non-transitory computer readable medium and executed by a processor for reducing memory power consumption in a volatile memory, the computer program comprising logic configured to:

• configure a plurality of power saving memory balloons associated with the volatile memory;
• steer memory allocations to the plurality of power saving memory balloons, the memory allocations including movable pages migratable to other power saving memory balloons and non-movable pages not migratable to other power saving memory balloons;
• in response to initiating a memory power saving mode, determine which of the plurality of power saving memory balloons is preferred over others of the plurality of power saving memory balloons to execute a memory power saving feature on, wherein the determination is based at least in part on whether a power saving memory balloon is allocated one or more non-movable pages;
• migrate data from the preferred power saving memory balloon;
• and
• execute the memory power saving feature on the preferred power saving memory balloon while in the memory power saving mode.