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US 9,310,872 B2Granted
Processor frequency mainly depending on a target frame rate while processing a graphics application
AssigneeNVIDIA Corporation
InventorsIlan Aelion, Aleksandr Frid, Satya Popuri
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A clock frequency controller for a processor and a method of operation thereof. The clock frequency controller may be embodied in a processor, including: (1) a processing core operable at a clock frequency to undertake a processing of a graphics application, and (2) a clock frequency controller coupled to the processing core and operable to adjust the clock frequency based on a current frame rate of the processing and a target frame rate for the processing.
Claims15
A variable frequency processor, comprising:
- a processing core operable at a clock frequency to undertake a processing of a graphics application;
- and
- a clock frequency controller coupled to said processing core and operable to adjust said clock frequency based on a current frame rate of said processing, a target frame rate for said processing, a current load of said variable frequency processor, and a target load for said variable frequency processor, said clock frequency controller configured to:
- make a preliminary decision to scale down said clock frequency if said current load of said variable frequency processor is below said target load;
- make a preliminary decision to scale up said clock frequency if said current load of said variable frequency processor is above said target load;
- increase said clock frequency if said current frame rate is below said target frame rate irrespective of said preliminary decision;
- decrease said clock frequency if said current frame rate exceeds said target frame rate and said preliminary decision is to scale down said clock frequency;
- and
- maintain said clock frequency if said current frame rate exceeds said target frame rate and said preliminary decision is to scale up said clock frequency.
6 more elements
A method of scaling a clock frequency of a processing core processing a graphics application, comprising:
- determining a current frame rate and current processor load;
- making a preliminary decision to scale down said clock frequency if said current processor load is below a target processor load;
- making a preliminary decision to scale up said clock frequency if said current processor load is above said target processor load;
- scaling up said clock frequency if said current frame rate is below a target frame rate irrespective of said preliminary decision;
- scaling down said clock frequency if said current frame rate exceeds said target frame rate and said preliminary decision is to scale down said clock frequency;
- and
- maintaining said clock frequency if said current frame rate exceeds said target frame rate and said preliminary decision is to scale up said clock frequency.
4 more elements
A computing system operable to execute an application for generating graphics at a target frame rate, comprising:
- a display device operable to display said graphics at a current frame rate;
- a display controller configured to determine said current frame rate;
- and
- a variable frequency processor coupled to said display controller and including:
- a processing core operable at a clock frequency to undertake a processing of said application, and
- a clock frequency controller associated with said processing core and operable to adjust said clock frequency based on a current frame rate of said processing, a target frame rate for said processing, a current load of said variable frequency processor, and a target load for said variable frequency processor, said clock frequency controller circuit configured to:
- make a preliminary decision to scale down said clock frequency if said current load of said variable frequency processor is below said target load;
- make a preliminary decision to scale up said clock frequency if said current load of said variable frequency processor is above said target load;
- increase said clock frequency if said current frame rate is below said target frame rate irrespective of said preliminary decision;
- decrease said clock frequency if said current frame rate exceeds said target frame rate and said preliminary decision is to scale down said clock frequency;
- and
- maintain said clock frequency if said current frame rate exceeds said target frame rate and said preliminary decision is to scale up said clock frequency.
9 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.