Dynamically estimating lifetime of a semiconductor device
AssigneeIntel Corporation
InventorsXavier Vera, Jaume Abella, Osman Unsal, Oguz Ergin, Antonio González
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present invention includes a method for obtaining dynamic operating parameter information of a semiconductor device such as a processor, determining dynamic usage of the device, either as a whole or for one or more portions thereof, based on the dynamic operating parameter information, and dynamically estimating a remaining lifetime of the device based on the dynamic usage. Depending on the estimated remaining lifetime, the device may be controlled in a desired manner.
Claims19
A method comprising:
- obtaining dynamic operating parameter information of a processor;
- determining dynamic usage of the processor based on the dynamic operating parameter information, including:
- for a first time interval when the processor is operating, performing a first calculation using the dynamic operating parameter information for the first time interval and static operating parameter information used to determine steady state expected lifetime of the processor to obtain a dynamic active usage of the processor;
- for a second time interval when the processor is idle, performing a second calculation using a portion of the dynamic operating parameter information for the second time interval, a portion of the static operating parameter information, and a scaling factor to obtain a dynamic idle usage of the processor;
- and
- dynamically estimating a remaining lifetime of the processor based on the dynamic usage.
An apparatus comprising:
- a processor including:
- at least one resource to perform instructions;
- at least one environmental sensor;
- and
- logic coupled to the at least one environmental sensor to determine an actual consumption of the at least one resource based on information from the at least one environmental sensor using an active consumption determined according to a first calculation that relates observed temperature, voltage and frequency to steady state temperature and voltage and maximum frequency, and an inactive consumption determined according to a second calculation that relates observed temperature to the steady state temperature according to a scaling factor, wherein the inactive consumption corresponds to time periods in which the at least one resource is inactive.
A system comprising:
- a first processor to execute instructions, the first processor including:
- at least one core to perform instructions;
- and
- at least one thermal monitor;
- a first controller coupled to the at least one thermal monitor to determine an estimated remaining lifetime of the first processor using information from the at least one thermal monitor;
- a second processor coupled to the first processor to execute instructions;
- a second controller coupled to the first processor and the second processor to receive the estimated remaining lifetime from the first controller and to control usage of at least the first processor based on the estimated remaining lifetime;
- and
- a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) coupled to the first processor and the second processor.
An article comprising a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium including instructions that if executed by a machine enable the machine to perform a method comprising:
- determining an actual usage of a first block of a semiconductor device at a periodic interval based on dynamic information obtained regarding the first block, including determining the actual usage according to a first calculation if the first block is active during the periodic interval and according to a second calculation if the first block is inactive during the periodic interval;
- estimating a dynamic lifetime of the first block based on the actual usage and a static predicted lifetime for the first block;
- and
- storing the actual usage in a non-volatile memory of the semiconductor device.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.