Passgate strength calibration techniques for voltage regulators

A system to regulate a voltage, comprising:

• a voltage regulator circuit comprising a passgate device, which regulates a supply voltage of a load circuit;
• and
• control circuitry configured to (i) obtain information that specifies operating conditions of the voltage regulator circuit, (ii) predict a passgate device width which is sufficient to supply a maximum load current that is demandable by the load circuit under the operating conditions specified by the obtained information, and (iii) set an active width of the passgate device according to the predicted passgate device width,
• wherein the control circuitry is configured to predict the passgate device width by using the obtained information to access information from at least one look-up table and predicting the passgate device width based on the accessed information;
• wherein the obtained information comprises an operating frequency of the load circuit, an input voltage of the voltage regulator circuit and a regulated output voltage of the voltage regulator circuit;
• wherein the accessed information comprises:
• the maximum load current of the load circuit as a function of the operating frequency of the load circuit and the regulated output voltage of the voltage regulator circuit;
• and the passgate device width as a function of the input voltage of the voltage regulator circuit and the regulated output voltage of the voltage regulator circuit.

A system, comprising:

• at least one external voltage regulator circuit;
• and
• an integrated circuit chip coupled to the at least one external voltage regulator circuit, wherein the integrated circuit chip comprises:
• a plurality of processor cores;
• a plurality of integrated voltage regulator circuits, wherein each integrated voltage regulator circuit comprises a passgate device that regulates a supply voltage of load circuitry of a corresponding one of the processor cores;
• and
• control circuitry configured to control the at least one external voltage regulator circuit and the plurality of integrated voltage regulator circuits to dynamically regulate supply voltages applied to the plurality of processor cores,
• wherein the control circuitry is configured to (i) obtain information that specifies operating conditions of each of the integrated voltage regulator circuits, and for each integrated voltage regulator circuit, to (ii) predict a passgate device width which is sufficient to supply a maximum load current that is demandable by the load circuitry of the corresponding processor core under the operating conditions specified by the obtained information for the given integrated voltage regulator circuit, and (iii) set an active width of the passgate device according to the predicted passgate device width;
• wherein the control circuitry is configured to predict the passgate device width for a given integrated voltage regulator circuit by using the obtained information for the given integrated voltage regulator circuit to access information from at least one look-up table and predicting the passgate device width based on the accessed information;
• wherein the obtained information for the given integrated voltage regulator circuit comprises:
• an operating frequency of the corresponding processor core;
• an input voltage of the given integrated voltage regulator circuit;
• and a regulated output voltage of the given integrated voltage regulator circuit;
• and
• wherein the accessed information comprises:
• the maximum load current of the load circuitry as a function of the operating frequency of the corresponding processor core and the regulated output voltage of the given integrated voltage regulator circuit;
• and
• the passgate device width as a function of the input voltage of the given integrated voltage regulator circuit and the regulated output voltage of the given integrated voltage regulator circuit.