Graphcore Limited

Ian Malcolm King

Stephen Felix

Simon Douglas Chambers

Two clocks, a fast clock and a slow clock are provided for clocking a processing unit. A plurality of frequency settings, referred to as gears, are defined for the two clock. Each of these gears indicates a maximum frequency for the fast clock and a minimum frequency for the slow clock, such that the gap between the two frequencies may be kept to a manageable level so as to reduce transients upon switching between the two clocks. The system switches between the gears as required. In response to a determination to increase the frequency of the clock signal, a higher gear is selected at which the maximum and minimum frequencies defined for that gear are higher than the previous selected gear.

Multi-clock control

A system and method for docking a processing unit provided. According to the method, the system dithers between the two signals provided by the two clock generators so as to clock the processing unit at an average clock frequency having a value between the frequencies of the two signals. The average clock frequency is adjusted by modifying the proportion of time spent on one clock signal vs the other clock signal.

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Bristol, United Kingdom

Ian Malcolm King