Delaying execution in a processor to increase power savings

A system comprising a processor, the system configured to perform a method comprising:

• applying a power savings technique to at least a subset of a processor;
• monitoring pending work items scheduled to be executed by the processor;
• grouping the pending work items based on the power savings technique, the grouping including delaying a scheduled execution time of at least one of the pending work items to increase an overall number of clock cycles that the power savings technique is applied to the processor;
• determining that an execution criteria has been met;
• and
• executing the pending work items based on the execution criteria being met and the grouping, wherein:
• the power savings technique is power gating,
• the pending work items are off-chip memory requests located in a queue,
• the executing includes a burst of contents of the queue to an off-chip memory, the off-chip memory connected to the memory controller via a memory link,
• the power savings technique is applied to at least one of the processor, a memory located on the processor, the memory link, and the off-chip memory, and
• the execution criteria includes at least one of:
• a number of pending working items in the queue exceeds a threshold number of pending work items and
• a number of cycles since a last burst is longer than a threshold amount of time.

A computer program product comprising:

• a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions readable by a processing circuit to cause the processing circuit to perform a method comprising:
• applying a power savings technique to at least a subset of a processor;
• monitoring pending work items scheduled to be executed by the processor;
• grouping the pending work items based on the power savings technique, the grouping including delaying a scheduled execution time of at least one of the pending work items to increase an overall number of clock cycles that the power savings technique is applied to the processor;
• determining that an execution criteria has been met;
• and
• executing the pending work items based on the execution criteria being met and the grouping, wherein:
• the power savings technique is power gating,
• the pending work items are off-chip memory requests located in a queue,
• the executing includes a burst of contents of the queue to an off-chip memory, the off-chip memory connected to the memory controller via a memory link,
• the power savings technique is applied to at least one of the processor, a memory located on the processor, the memory link, and the off-chip memory, and
• the execution criteria includes at least one of:
• a number of pending working items in the queue exceeds a threshold number of pending work items and
• a number of cycles since a last burst is longer than a threshold amount of time.