Method and apparatus for power distribution using a multiphase voltage regulator with phase redundancy and fault tolerant operation

A method of operating a fault-tolerant multiphase voltage regulator having a plurality of power stages, each of which is configured to deliver a phase current to a processor, the method comprising:

• controlling the plurality of power stages to regulate an output voltage provided to the processor;
• detecting and disabling a faulty power stage;
• continuing to regulate the output voltage provided to the processor even if one or more power stages of the plurality of power stages is detected as being faulty and disabled;
• generating a throttling signal to indicate if one or more of the power stages is faulty and disabled;
• and
• communicating the throttling signal to the processor over a physical line running between the processor and the controller.

A fault-tolerant power distribution system, comprising:

• a processor;
• a multiphase voltage regulator comprising a plurality of power stages, each of which is configured to deliver a phase current to the processor, and a controller configured to:
• control the plurality of power stages to regulate an output voltage provided to the processor;
• detect and disable a faulty power stage;
• continue to regulate the output voltage provided to the processor even if one or more power stages of the plurality of power stages is detected as being faulty and disabled;
• generate a throttling signal to indicate if one or more of the power stages is faulty and disabled;
• and
• communicate the throttling signal to the processor over a physical line running between the processor and the controller;
• and
• a system manager in independent communication with the multiphase voltage regulator and the processor.

A method of operating a fault-tolerant power distribution system having a processor, a multiphase voltage regulator comprising a plurality of power stages, each of which is configured to deliver a phase current to the processor, and a system manager in independent communication with the multiphase voltage regulator and the processor, the method comprising:

• controlling the plurality of power stages at the multiphase voltage regulator to regulate an output voltage provided to the processor;
• detecting and disabling a faulty power stage at the multiphase voltage regulator;
• continuing to regulate the output voltage provided to the processor even if one or more power stages of the plurality of power stages is detected as being faulty and disabled;
• generating a throttling signal at the multiphase voltage regulator to indicate if one or more of the power stages is faulty and disabled;
• communicating the throttling signal from the multiphase voltage regulator to the processor over a physical line running between the processor and the controller;
• and
• managing a computational load of the processor by the system manager based on feedback from the processor and the multiphase voltage regulator.