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US 2009/0153109 A1Published application
Multi-cell voltage regulator
AssigneeIntel Corporation
InventorsHenry W. Koertzen, Joseph T. Dibene, II
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
In some embodiments, the number of active cells in a multi-cell voltage regulator is controlled so that the current-per-active-cell approaches a predefined target or to be within an acceptable range so that the active cells operate with suitable efficiency.
Claims20
A chip, comprising:
- a plurality of voltage regulator cells coupled together to provide a regulated output voltage supply to a load;
- and
- a controller coupled to the cells to control the number of cells that are engaged to contribute current to the load based on monitored load current and on an activity state for the load.
An apparatus, comprising:
- a processor with one or more cores;
- and
- a voltage regulator having one or more domains to independently provide the one or more cores with regulated voltage supplies, wherein each domain includes a plurality of VR cells to be controlled so that the number of active cells to provide current to an associated core is based on monitored current demand for the core and on an activity state for the core.
A system, comprising:
- a processor;
- a voltage regulator having a plurality of voltage regulator cells coupled together to provide a regulated output voltage supply to the processor, and a controller coupled to the cells to control the number of cells that are engaged to contribute current to the processor based on monitored processor load current and on an activity state for the processor;
- and
- an AC/DC adaptor to provide the voltage regulator with a DC supply.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.