Patent ID: 9524013
Filing Date: 2016-12-20
CPC Classification: G06F,Y02D

Claim Text:
1. A controller for controlling a dynamically adjustable bandwidth of a physical link layer of an external interface for interconnecting processing units of a computer system, the controller comprising: an interface for receiving an indication of a required bandwidth for operation of the physical link layer; and a control circuit that, from the required bandwidth, determines an active width and operating frequency for the physical link layer that meet the required bandwidth, sets a current active width of the physical link layer to the determined active width, sets a current operating frequency of the physical link layer to the determined operating frequency, whereby the physical link layer is operated using the current active width and the current operating frequency, wherein the control circuit predicts a future bandwidth requirement for the physical link layer, wherein the interface receives the predicted future bandwidth requirement, wherein the control circuit further determines the active width and operating frequency for the physical link layer by determining whether or not a current utilization of the external interface is less than a threshold usage, evaluates a quality of the predicting, and compares the quality of the predicting to a threshold quality, and wherein the control circuit sets at least one of the current operating frequency or the current active width responsive to determining that the current utilization of the external interface is less than the threshold usage and responsive to determining that the quality of the predicting is less than the threshold quality by reducing the at least one of the current operating frequency or the current active width, wherein the control circuit sets the current operating frequency responsive to determining that the current utilization of the external interface is less than the threshold usage and responsive to determining that the quality of the predicting is less than the threshold quality by reducing the current operating frequency while maintaining the current active width of the physical link layer.