Patent ID: 7480586
Filing Date: 2009-01-20
Classification: G01K,G06F

Abstract:
1. A computer implemented method for thermal interrupt generation in an integrated circuit, comprising: setting an interrupt temperature to a first temperature; setting an interrupt direction to a greater than or equal to determination; responsive to the interrupt direction, determining whether a sensed temperature from a digital thermal sensor meets or exceeds the interrupt temperature, wherein the digital thermal sensor is one of a plurality of digital thermal sensors, and further comprising: responsive to the sensed temperature meeting or exceeding the interrupt temperature, generating a first interrupt, wherein the setting, determining, and generating steps are performed by a thermal management control state machine residing within the integrated circuit, wherein the first interrupt is handled by a software interrupt handler, and wherein the software interrupt handler performs at least one of slowing down the workload being executed on a unit associated with the digital thermal sensor or offloading the workload being sent to a unit associated with the digital thermal sensor; responsive to the generation of the first interrupt, setting the interrupt temperature to a second temperature to form a new interrupt temperature, wherein the first temperature and the second temperature are selectable and user-programmable; responsive to the generation of the first interrupt, setting the interrupt direction to a less than determination to form a new interrupt direction; responsive to the new interrupt direction, determining whether the sensed temperature from the digital thermal sensor is less than the new interrupt temperature; responsive to the sensed temperature being less than the new interrupt temperature, generating the second interrupt, wherein the second interrupt returns the workload to a level that existed prior to the first interrupt, resets the new interrupt temperature to the first temperature, and resets the new interrupt direction to a greater than or equal to determination; setting a performance monitor to a tracing mode, wherein the performance monitor is located on the integrated circuit, wherein the performance monitor is programmed to run until at least one of a specific time period, user input is received, and a specific thermal condition occurs, and wherein the performance monitor traces thermal data provided by the plurality of digital thermal sensors into at least one of internal memory of the performance monitor, main memory of the integrated circuit, and another device: and responsive to the performance monitor no longer running, reading the temperature information traced by the performance monitor.