US 8,527,801 B2 · Performance control of frequency-adapting processors by voltage domain adjustment

Abstract

A performance control technique for a processing system that includes one or more adaptively-clocked processor cores provides improved performance/power characteristics. An outer feedback loop adjusts the power supply voltage(s) provided to the power supply voltage domain(s) powering the core(s), which may be on a per-core basis or include multiple cores per voltage domain. The outer feedback loop operates to ensure that each core is meeting specified performance, while the cores also include an inner feedback loop that adjusts their processor clock or other performance control mechanism to maximize performance under present operating conditions and within a margin of safety. The performance of each core is measured and compared to a target performance. If the target performance is not met for each core in a voltage domain, the voltage is raised for the voltage domain until all cores meet the target performance.

Claims25

Dependent claims

A method of managing energy consumption and performance in a computer system having at least one processor core, the method comprising:

at the processor core, determining whether a performance control of the processor core can be increased;
responsive to determining that the performance control can be increased, increasing the performance control according to an inner feedback loop of the processor core;
at the processor core, determining whether the performance control of the processor core should be decreased;
responsive to determining that the performance control of the processor core should be decreased, decreasing the performance control according to the inner feedback loop;
determining whether or not a performance measure at the processor core has met a target performance values;
and
responsive to determining that the processor core has not met the target performance value, increasing a power supply voltage of a voltage domain supplying the processor core according to an outer feedback loop.

4 more elements

A computer system including comprising:

at least one processor core for executing program instructions including a performance margin monitor for determining whether a performance control of the processor core can be increased or should be decreased, wherein the processor core includes a performance controller implementing a portion of an inner feedback loop that increases the performance control of the processor core in response to determining that the performance of the processor core can be increased and decreases the performance control of the processor core in response to determining that the performance control should be decreased;
at least one programmable power supply for supplying a power supply voltage to the processor core;
and
a power supply controller that receives a performance measure indicative of whether or not a performance of the processor core has met a target performance value, wherein the power supply controller, in response to determining that the processor core has not met the target performance value, increases the power supply voltage of the programmable power supply, whereby the power supply controller implements a portion of an outer feedback loop.

1 more element

A computer program product comprising a computer-readable storage media storing program instructions for execution by a processor within a computer system, wherein the program instructions are program instructions for controlling a programmable power supply that supplies a processor core, wherein the processor core is a processor core that automatically adapts a performance control to maximize performance according to an inner feedback loop, and wherein the program instructions comprise program instructions implementing a portion of an outer feedback loop, the program instructions comprising program instructions for:

determining whether or not the processor core has met a target performance value;
and
responsive to determining that the processor core has not met the corresponding target performance value, controlling the programmable power supply to increase the power supply voltage supplied to the processor core.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Performance control of frequency-adapting processors by voltage domain adjustment

Life of this patent

Performance control of frequency-adapting processors by voltage domain adjustment

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims25