Energy conservation in a controller using dynamic frequency selection
AssigneeIntel Corporation
InventorEric C. Samson
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Systems and methods of adjusting a frequency of a graphics controller may include a logic to determine a metric associated with an input/output (I/O) queue. The metric may be used to determine whether an I/O limited condition exists. The I/O limited condition may be associated with a graphics controller. There may be a logic to cause a frequency of the graphics controller to be decreased when the I/O limited condition exists, and a logic to cause the frequency of the graphics controller to be increased when the I/O limited condition does not exist. The I/O limited condition may exist when a magnitude of the metric is equal to or greater than a first threshold. The I/O limited condition may not exist when the magnitude of the metric is equal to or less than a second threshold.
Claims20
An apparatus comprising:
- a first controller;
- an input/output (I/O) queue to store I/O requests;
- an I/O controller to manage the queue;
- logic to determine whether an I/O limited condition exists based on a metric associated with the input/output (I/O) queue wherein the I/O limited condition is to be associated with the first controller;
- logic to cause a frequency of the first controller to be decreased if the I/O limited condition exists to enable a reduction of power consumption by the first controller after a first condition is met;
- and
- logic to cause the frequency of the first controller to be increased if the I/O limited condition does not exist after a second condition is met,
- wherein the I/O controller has a frequency that can be maintained as the frequency of the first controller varies, and
- wherein the first controller is to be configured to process a graphics workload having multiple frames, and wherein the logic is to increase or decrease the frequency of the first controller independently of a frame boundary associated with the workload.
A computer-implemented method comprising:
- determining a metric associated with an input/output (I/O) queue that is associated with a first controller, wherein the input/output queue is managed by an I/O controller, and wherein a magnitude of the metric is high if the I/O queue is full and low if the I/O queue is not full;
- decreasing a frequency of the first controller if the I/O queue is full and a first condition is met;
- and
- increasing a frequency of the first controller if the I/O queue is not full and a second condition is met,
- wherein the decreasing and increasing of the frequency of the first controller is performed independently of a frame boundary associated with frames of a graphical workload.
A system comprising:
- a processor;
- an external power supply coupled to the processor;
- a first controller coupled to the processor;
- and
- logic to determine whether an I/O limited condition exists based on a metric associated with an input/output (I/O) queue managed by an I/O controller, wherein the I/O limited condition is to be associated with the first controller;
- and
- logic to decrease a frequency of the first controller if an input/output (I/O) limited condition exists and a first condition is met, and to increase the frequency if the I/O limited condition does not exist and a second condition is met,
- wherein the first controller is to be configured to process a graphics workload having multiple frames, wherein the logic is to increase or decrease the frequency of the first controller independently of a frame boundary associated with the workload.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.