US 7,455,450 B2Granted

Method and apparatus for temperature sensing in integrated circuits

AssigneeAdvanced Micro Devices, Inc.

InventorsHuining Liu, Larry D. Hewitt

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Abstract

A method and apparatus for temperature sensing in an IC. The IC includes a plurality of remote temperature sensors each coupled to a control logic unit. The plurality of remote temperature sensors may be distributed throughout the integrated circuit. The integrated circuit includes a reference unit coupled to provide a reference temperature to the control logic unit and a reference sensor coupled to provide a signal having a reference frequency to the control logic unit. The reference unit and the reference sensor are located near each other. The control logic unit is configured to correlate the reference frequency received from the reference sensor with the reference temperature received from the reference unit. The control logic unit is further configured to determine the temperature of each of the remote temperature sensors based on this correlation, and also configured to determine the maximum temperature of all of the temperature sensors.

Claims17

Dependent claims

An integrated circuit comprising:

a plurality of remote temperature sensors;
a reference sensor wherein the reference sensor and each of the plurality of remote temperature sensors include a ring oscillator;
a reference unit configured to provide a reference temperature, wherein the reference sensor is located near the reference unit;
and
a control logic unit operatively coupled to each of the plurality of remote temperature sensors and the reference unit, wherein the control logic is configured to determine a temperature of each the plurality of temperature sensors based on the reference temperature and a signal provided by the reference sensor and further configured to determine a maximum temperature of the plurality of remote temperature sensors and the reference sensor;
wherein the integrated circuit is a processor having a processor core and a bridge unit, wherein each of the plurality of remote temperature sensors are located in the processor core, and wherein the reference sensor, reference unit, and the control logic unit are located in the bridge unit;
and
wherein the ring oscillator of the reference sensor and each of the plurality of remote temperature sensors are configured to provide an output signal within a range of frequencies, wherein a maximum frequency in the range of frequencies is at least one order of magnitude less than a clock frequency at which the processor core operates.

5 more elements

A method comprising for monitoring a temperature of a processor, the method comprising:

providing a reference temperature and a signal having a reference frequency to a control logic unit;
providing an output signal from each of a plurality of remote temperature sensors to the control logic unit;
determining a correlation between temperature and frequency based on the reference temperature and the reference frequency;
determining a temperature for each of the plurality of remote temperature sensors based on a frequency of the output signal for each of the plurality of remote temperature sensors and the correlation between temperature and frequency;
and
determining a maximum temperature for the plurality of remote temperature sensors and the reference sensor;
wherein the reference frequency and the frequency of the output signal for each of the plurality of remote temperature sensors is within a range of frequencies, and wherein a maximum frequency in the range of frequencies is at least one order of magnitude less than a clock frequency at which a core of the processor operates.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.