Method, apparatus, and system for optimizing frequency and performance in a multidie microprocessor
AssigneeIntel Corporation
InventorsJose P. Allarey, Varghese George, Sanjeev S. Jahagirdar, Oren Lamdan, Ofer Nathan, Tomer Ziv
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Abstract
With the progress toward multi-core processors, each core is can not readily ascertain the status of the other dies with respect to an idle or active status. A proposal for utilizing an interface to transmit core status among multiple cores in a multi-die microprocessor is discussed. Consequently, this facilitates thermal management by allowing an optimal setting for setting performance and frequency based on utilizing each core status.
Claims20
A processor comprising:
- a plurality of cores each including clock generation circuitry and a phase locked loop;
- and
- a control logic to increase an operating frequency of at least one of the plurality of cores during a turbo mode in which at least one other of the plurality of cores is idle, wherein the at least one other of the plurality of cores is to communicate a core power status to the at least one core via a link interface.
A system comprising:
- a multi-core processor comprising:
- a plurality of cores;
- a memory controller;
- an I/O controller;
- and
- turbo mode logic to increase an operating frequency of a first core of the plurality of cores when at least one other of the plurality of cores is idle to enable the first core to use available power and thermal headroom, wherein the at least one other of the plurality of cores is to communicate a core power status to the first core;
- and
- a memory coupled to the multi-core processor.
A machine-readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions, which if performed by a machine cause the machine to perform a method comprising:
- receiving communication of a power status and a turbo software mode status of first, second, third and fourth cores of a multicore processor via a serial link interface, the communication including a serial stream of data of the power status and the turbo software mode status converted from a data packet into the serial stream;
- and
- determining an operating frequency for the first core based at least in part on the power status and the turbo software mode status of the first, second, third and fourth cores, according to a number of active cores.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.