Advanced Micro Devices Corporation

Ati Technologies Ulc

Ashwini Dwarakanath

Ali Ibrahim

Stephen David Presant

Krishna Sitaraman

Jeffrey Herman

Daniel Parrenas Shimizu

Jia An Huang

Briefly, a method and apparatus adjusts the power consumption level of an integrated circuit by dynamically scaling the clock frequency based on the real-time determined power consumption level. In one example, the method and apparatus changes an actual clock frequency of the integrated circuit to an effective clock frequency based on the maximum clock frequency and the difference between the threshold power consumption level and the actual power consumption level of the integrated circuit in the previous sampling interval. In one example, an effective clock frequency of the integrated circuit in the current sampling interval is determined. In one example, the difference between the maximum and effective clock frequencies in the current sampling interval is proportional to the difference between the threshold and actual power consumption levels in the previous sampling interval. The actual clock frequency of the integrated circuit is changed to the determined effective clock frequency.

Method and apparatus for adjusting power consumption level of an integrated circuit

An integrated circuit comprising a plurality of functional blocks, each functional block being operative to cause one or more power consuming events, each power consuming event being associated with a respective weight. The integrated circuit also comprises at least one accumulation block for monitoring the functional blocks over a time window and generating a weighted count of the number of occurrences of each power consuming event within the time window; and a power calculation module for calculating a runtime power consumption estimate over the time window using the weighted count. The weighted count may comprise a sum of products of each one of the power consuming events by its respective weight. Calculating the runtime power consumption estimate may comprise averaging the weighted count over the time window to generate a dynamic power estimate, calculating a leakage power estimate over the time window, and summing the dynamic power estimate with the leakage power estimate. The integrated circuit may further comprise a power management module for adapting power consumption of the integrated circuit based on a comparison of the runtime power consumption estimate with one or more predetermined thresholds.

Realtime power management of integrated circuits

Growing community of inventors

San Jose, CA, United States of America

Ashwini Dwarakanath