Intelligent power controller

An apparatus for an integrated circuit, comprising:

• a power manager including a hardware logic portion to control a power consumption of two or more power domains in an integrated circuit, where the integrated circuit has one or more interconnects to communicate transactions between two or more initiator Intellectual Property (IP) cores and one or more target IP cores coupled to the interconnect, where the two or more domains include two or more domain controllers, the one or more interconnects, the two or more initiator IP cores, and the one or more target IP cores;
• where the hardware logic portion at least includes 1) a dedicated CPU, 2) dedicated state machine, or 3) any combination of the two to execute power management instructions;
• one or more activity detectors configured to detect and communicate activity levels in the two or more power domains to the power manager;
• and
• wherein the power manager controls the power consumption states of the two or more power domains according to the activity levels communicated by the one or more activity detectors, a time period to transition each power domain from one to another of a plurality of power consumption states, and current power management instructions.

An apparatus for an integrated circuit, comprising:

• a power manager including a hardware logic portion to control a power consumption of two or more domains in an integrated circuit, where the integrated circuit has one or more interconnects to communicate transactions between two or more initiator Intellectual Property (IP) cores and one or more target IP cores coupled to the interconnect, where the two or more power domains include two or more domain controllers, the one or more interconnects, the two or more initiator IP cores, and the one or more target IP cores;
• where the hardware logic portion at least includes 1) a dedicated CPU, 2) dedicated state machine, or 3) any combination of the two to execute power management instructions;
• where the two or more domain controllers each includes a conflict resolution logic portion configured to detect and manage power management conflicts in the two or more power domains;
• and
• where the conflict resolution logic portion is configured to control the power consumption state of the power domain when two or more overlapping power management instructions are implemented to control the power consumption state of a resource shared by the IP cores.

A method of managing power consumption in an interconnect network of an integrated circuit, comprising:

• using two or more activity detectors to detect and communicate activity levels in two or more power domains in an integrated circuit to a power manager including a hardware logic portion configured to control a plurality of power consumption states of the two or more power domains;
• controlling the power consumption states of the two or more power domains according to the activity levels communicated by the two or more activity detectors;
• transitioning components in an appropriate power domain from one to another of the plurality of power consumption states with individual domain controllers and current power management instructions;
• where the hardware logic portion at least includes 1) a dedicated CPU, 2) dedicated state machine, or 3) any combination of the two to execute power management instructions;
• and
• where the integrated circuit has one or more interconnects to communicate transactions between two or more initiator Intellectual Property (IP) cores and one or more target IP cores coupled to the interconnect, where the two or more power domains include two or more domain controllers, the one or more interconnects, the two or more initiator IP cores, and the one or more target IP cores.