Method and apparatus for a thermal protection unit

An apparatus for managing operations of a circuit which executes a sequence of digital instructions, comprising:

• means responsive to said sequence of digital instructions to be executed by said circuit for computing a predicted cumulative power dissipation to be caused by said sequence of digital instructions by accumulating predetermined thermal load values for said sequence of instructions to be executed;
• means for determining whether said cumulative power dissipation exceeds a permissible range of said circuit, and if so, to produce an overload indication;
• and
• means, responsive to said overload indication from said means for determining, for reducing the cumulative power dissipation of said circuit when said power dissipation is determined to exceed the permissible range of the circuit prior to execution of the sequence of instructions to be executed.

A method for managing operations of a circuit which executes a sequence of digital instructions, comprising the steps of:

• computing, in response to said sequence of digital instructions to be executed by said circuit, a predicted cumulative power dissipation to be caused by said sequence of digital instructions by accumulating predetermined values for each instruction of said sequence of instructions to be executed;
• determining whether said cumulative power dissipation exceeds a permissible range of said circuit, and if so, producing an overload indication;
• and
• in response to said overload indication, reducing, subsequent to said step of determining, the cumulative power dissipation of said circuit prior to execution of said sequence of instructions.

A method for managing operations of a circuit which executes a sequence of digital instructions, comprising the steps of:

• computing a predicted cumulative power dissipation to be caused by said sequence of digital instructions by accumulating predetermined thermal load values for each instruction of said sequence of instructions to be executed;
• determining whether said cumulative power dissipation exceeds a permissible range of said circuit, and if so, producing an overload indication;
• and
• in response to said overload indication, reducing, subsequent to said step of determining, the cumulative power dissipation of said circuit when said power dissipation is determined to exceed said permissible range, prior to execution of the sequence of instructions to be executed.

A data processing system comprising:

• processing means for processing data, said processing means executing a sequence of digital instructions;
• storage means for storing data to be processed by said processing means;
• and
• means for managing operations of said processing means including
• i) means responsive to said sequence of digital instructions to be executed by said circuit for computing predicted cumulative power dissipation to be caused by said sequence of digital instructions by accumulating predetermined thermal lead values for said sequence of instructions to be executed;
• ii) means for determining whether said cumulative power dissipation exceeds a permissible range of said circuit, and if so, to produce an overload indication;
• and
• iii) means, responsive to said overload indication from said means for determining, for reducing the cumulative power dissipation of said circuit prior to execution of said sequence of instructions.

A data processing system comprising:

• processing means for processing data;
• said processing means executing a sequence of instructions for processing said data;
• storage means for storing data to be processed by said processing means;
• and
• means for managing operations of said processing means, comprising:
• i) means responsive to said sequence of digital instructions to be executed by said circuit for computing a predicted cumulative power dissipation to be caused by said sequence of digital instructions by accumulating predetermined thermal lead values for said sequence of instructions to be executed;
• ii) means for determining whether said cumulative power dissipation exceeds a permissible range of said circuit, and if so, to produce an overload indication;
• and
• iii) means, responsive to said overload indication from said means for determining, for reducing the cumulative power dissipation of said circuit when said power dissipation is determined to exceed the permissible range of the circuit prior to execution of the sequence of instructions to be executed.