Apparatus and method to detect power supply security attack and risk mitigation

Abstract

An adaptive or dynamic power virus control scheme (hardware and/or software) that dynamically adjusts maximum dynamic capacitance (CdynMax) and corresponding maximum frequency (P0nMax) setting per application executed on a processor core. A power management unit monitors telemetry such as a number of throttled cycles due to CdynMax threshold excursions cycles for the processor core and a cost of average cycle Cdyn cost for the processor core. As the number of throttling cycles increases for the processor core, the aCode firmware of the power management unit decides to increase the Cdyn level or threshold for that core (e.g., to make the threshold less aggressive). As the average Cdyn cost over a number of cycles becomes lower than a threshold, aCode adjusts the threshold to a lower threshold (e.g., more aggressive threshold) and lower Cdyn.