Method and apparatus for adaptive power management of memory
AssigneeBroadcom Corporation
InventorKenneth Ma
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method and apparatus are disclosed for performing adaptive memory power management in a system employing a CPU and a memory subsystem. A CPU throttle control (THR) module generates a CPU throttle control signal indicating when the CPU is idle. A memory controller (MC) module generates memory power management signals based on at least one of the CPU throttle control signal, memory read/write signals, memory access break events, and bus master access requests. Certain portions of the memory subsystem are powered down in response to the memory power management signals. Memory power management is performed on a time segment by time segment basis to achieve efficient power management of the memory subsystem during CPU run time.
Claims19
1-24. (canceled)
In a system comprising a CPU and a memory, a method for performing adaptive power management of said memory, said method comprising:
- generating a CPU throttle control signal when a processor is idle;
- detecting a memory access signal;
- generating a memory power management signal based on one or both of said CPU throttle control signal and said memory access signal;
- and
- closing at least one memory bank in a memory row based on said memory power management signal, wherein said memory row may power down when all memory banks of said memory row are closed.
A system comprising a CPU and a memory, wherein the system further comprises:
- a first circuit for detecting a memory access signal;
- a second circuit for generating a CPU throttle control signal when a processor is idle and a memory power management signal based on one or both of said CPU throttle control signal and said memory access signal;
- and
- a third circuit for closing at least one memory bank in a memory row based on said memory power management signal, wherein said memory row may power down when all memory banks of said memory row are closed.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.