Patent Abstract:
Devices and methods for managing power on a module are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, a module comprises a first die; a second die; and a power manager. The power manager monitors the power requirements of the first die and the second die and allocates power to the first die and the second die based on the power requirements.

Full Description:
BACKGROUND 
     Conventional integrated circuits or modules may have multiple processors or die mounted to a single module. The module is connected to a power source and, therefore, has a limited amount of power that may be drawn from the power supply. The power drawn from the power supply is divided between the die. For example, if the module has two die and 100 watts is available to the module, each die may be limited to using 50 watts. 
     Situations arise wherein one of the die may be relatively idle and another die may be required to perform extensive processing, which requires an increase in the operating frequency of the die. The increased operating frequency, in turn, requires that the die draw more power. In the example described above, the active die will be limited to 50 watts, which limits the operating frequency of the die. Although the total power consumed by the second die may be less than 50 watts and the power consumed by the module may be less than the  100  watts available from the power supply. Thus, potential performance from the available, but unused, power may go unexploited with a simple, fixed division of power as described above. 
     SUMMARY 
     Devices and methods for managing power on a module are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, a module comprises a first die; a second die; and a power manager. The power manager monitors the power requirements of the first die and the second die and allocates power to the first die and the second die based on the power requirements. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is an embodiment of a module having two processors and a power manager. 
         FIG. 2  is an embodiment of a method for allocating power between the two processors of  FIG. 1 . 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Referring to  FIG. 1 , the devices and methods described herein serve to manage the power available to die located on a module  100 . The die could be any devices or circuits. However, in the embodiments described herein, the die are processors. In the embodiment of  FIG. 1 , there are two processors that are referred to individually as the first processor  106  and the second processor  108 . Included in the module  100  is a power manager  110 . It is noted that the power manager  110  may be firmware, an embedded controller or the like that communicates with the processors  106 ,  108 . In other embodiments, the power manager  110  may be software or code that is executed on one or both processors  106 ,  108 . It is noted that other devices may be located on the module  100 ; however, in order to simplify the drawings, they have not been included. 
     The module  100  includes two nodes, a first node  112  and a second node  114 , located on the ends of a segment  116  of the module  100 . The segment  116  conducts power to the processors  106 ,  108 . In some embodiments, the resistance of the segment  116  is known. Voltages are measured at the first node  112  and the second node  114 . Therefore, the current drawn by the module  100  by way of the node  112  may be readily calculated. 
     A power supply  130  is connectable to the module  100  at the node  112 . The amount of current being drawn from the power supply  130  may be measured by way of the difference in voltage at the nodes  112  and  114  divided by the resistance of the segment  116 . The power supply  130  may be able to only supply a limited amount of power or current to the module  100 . Thus, the available power needs to be allocated between the two processors  106 ,  108 , which is described in detail below. 
     As described in greater detail below, the power consumption of a processor is proportional to the frequency at which the processor operates. Thus, a processor operating at a high frequency consumes more power than when it operates at a low frequency. The devices and methods described herein serve to optimize the performance of the processors  106 ,  108  by allocating power in such a way as to enable both processors  106 ,  108  to operate at the highest frequencies possible. 
     Conventional modules simply divide the power between the die or processors on a circuit. Other modules fix the power allocation between the die, which does not provide for changes in the power allocation. This allocation of power does not provide for one die or processor to draw more power when other die or processors are inactive and not drawing their power allocations. The devices and methods described herein overcome this problem by allocating power among die depending on the required current draw of the die. 
     The power manager  110  serves to allocate power between the processors  106 ,  108 . The amount of power used by a processor is proportional to the frequency at which the processor operates. A processor operating at a high frequency draws more power than when it operates at a low frequency. High frequency operation is required in order for a processor to quickly execute instructions. Likewise, when the processor executes fewer instructions or is idle, its operating frequency is reduced. 
     In conventional modules, the power allocated to each die or processor is fixed. For example, each processor may be allocated fifty percent of the available power regardless of the frequency at which the processors are operating. This leads to situations wherein a first processor may be idle and not using all of its allocation of power. A second processor may be executing a plurality of instructions and may be able to increase the execution speed by increasing its operating frequency. Because of the fixed power allocation, the second processor is unable to increase its operating frequency beyond the frequency corresponding to the fixed power allocation. 
     The methods and devices described herein overcome the above-described problems associated with fixed power allocations. In summary, the processors  106 ,  108  indicate their processing requirements to the power manager  110 , which monitors the power consumption of the entire module  100 . The power manager  110  may then enable the processors  106 ,  108  to change their operating frequencies depending on the available power. As an example, the total power available to the module  100  may be one hundred watts. The power manager  110  may, by default, allocate fifty watts to each processor. At one point, the first processor  106  may be relatively idle and may only use thirty watts during this idle period. Accordingly, the first processor  106  is operating at its optimal performance using only thirty watts. The second processor  108  may be executing a lot of code and may be operating at the frequency limit for its fifty watt allocation. Accordingly, the second processor  108  is not operating optimally, but it could operate optimally if it could increase its operating frequency. In order to increase the operating frequency of the second processor  108 , the power manager  110  may allocate power that would otherwise be used by the first processor  106  to the second processor  108 . The second processor  108  may then increase its frequency to correspond to the increased available power. 
     The operating frequency of the first processor  106  is then limited because some of its power has been allocated to the second processor  108 . Should the first processor  106  need to increase its operating frequency, it will have to do so by way of the power manager  110 . For example, the first processor  106  may send a signal or the like to the power manager  110  indicating that it needs to increase its operating frequency and, thus, needs to use more power. The power manager  110  may then instruct the second processor  108  to reduce its power consumption or operating frequency so that power may be allocated to the first processor  106 . The power allocation will shift between the processors  106 ,  108  until both processors are operating at the same fraction of optimal performance. This fraction of optimal performance is sometimes referred to as optimability. It is noted that optimal performance is achieved when a processor is able to operate with the need to increase its operating frequency. 
     With regard to the previous example, the first processor  106  may be operating at one hundred percent of optimal performance even when it only uses thirty watts of power consumption because there is no need to run faster. The second processor  108  will be operating at less than one hundred percent performance even when it consumes fifty watts because it has a very active application running. It becomes the job of the power manager to balance the performance of both processors  106 ,  108  by allocating power between the processors  106 ,  108  until their performances equal. This will result in active processors receiving more power and running at higher frequencies than inactive processors. 
     Performance optimality can be calculated in different ways. In one embodiment, performance optimality is calculated by dividing the desired operating frequency of a processor by the actual operating frequency of the processor. The desired frequency could be up to one hundred percent of the maximum frequency the processor can achieve. It is likely that the power consumed by a processor operating at maximum frequency would be considerably larger than one half of the power available to the module  100 . Thus, if both processors  106 ,  108  want to achieve maximum frequency due to a high workload, they will both be limited to the same fraction of that maximum. Their performance optimality will be less than one hundred percent each, but the performance optimality may be the same for both processors  106 ,  108 . 
     Similarly if the first processor  106  is idle and the second processor  108  wants to operate at its maximum frequency, the second processor  108  will receive power from the power manager  110  until that maximum frequency is achieved. In this situation, the performance optimality of both processors is equal to 1.0 or one hundred percent. 
     It should be noted that other power allocation defaults may be assigned to the processors  106 ,  108 . For example, if both processors  106 ,  108  are required to operate at high frequencies, the power manager  110  may allocate power on a fixed allocations, such as sixty percent to one processor and forty percent to the other processor depending on what is performance optimal. It should also be noted that his approach makes the power management independent of the exact power used by each processor. Sometimes manufacturing differences will result in the same processor design consuming significantly different power for the same workload and frequency. By only communicating performance optimality (not power) to the power manager, these manufacturing differences are normalized out A flow chart  200  illustrating an embodiment of a method of allocating power between the two processors  106 ,  108  is shown in  FIG. 2 . At block  202 , the socket power is determined. This is the power that is available to the module  100  by way of the power supply  130 . At decision block  204  a determination is made as to whether the first processor  106  is operating at its optimal frequency. 
     If the first processor  106  is operating at optimal performance, processing proceeds to block  208 . Block  208  sends an indication to the power manager  110  that the first processor  106  is operating optimally. In other words, the first processor  106  does not need to increase its operating frequency and, thus, does not need to consume more power. Processing proceeds to block  210  where the power consumption of the first processor  106  is noted to the power manager  110 . This enables to the power manager  110  to reallocate power if necessary. 
     Referring again to decision block  204 , if the decision of decision block  204  is negative, processing proceeds to decision block  212 . Decision block  212  determines if there is power available to be allocated to the second processor  208 . If power is available, processing proceeds to block  214  where the power allocation to the first processor  106  is increased. This situation may occur when the second processor  108  is not operating at a high frequency and, thus, is not consuming a high amount of power. At block  216 , the increased power allotment to the first processor  106  is noted, which serves to track the power allocation between the processors  106 ,  108 . 
     If the outcome of decision block  212  is negative, meaning that no more power is available for the first processor  106 , processing proceeds to block  220 . The negative result of block  212  indicates that, according to the power manager  110 , there is no available power from the power source  110  and the second processor  108  is using all of its allocated power. 
     Processing then proceeds to decision block  224  where a determination is made as to whether the second processor  108  has been allocated more power than the first processor  108 . If both processors  106 ,  108  need to increase their performance, the power manager  110  may allocate equal power to both processors. If the decision of block  224  indicates that the second processor  108  has not been allocated more power than the first processor  106 , no further action is taken. 
     If the decision of decision block  224  indicates that the second processor  108  has been allocated more power than the first processor  106 , processing proceeds to block  226 . Block  226  decreases the power allocated to the second processor  108  in order to transfer the power to the first processor  106 . This reallocation of power may continue until both the first processor  106  and the second processor  108  have been allocated the same amount of power. 
     It is noted that if the processors  106 ,  108  have been allocated the same amount of power and the first processor  106  still needs power, the request for more power from the first processor  106  may stay in the power manager  110 . The power manager  110  may continuously query the second processor  108  to determine if it may operate at a reduced frequency, which requires less power. If so, the power manager  110  may reduce the power allocation to the second processor  110  and allocate the power to the first processor  106 . 
     As set forth above, the devices and methods described herein serve to efficiently allocate the available power between die on a module. The result increases the operating frequency of a die on the module without diminishing the performance of other die located on the module.

Technology Classification (CPC): 6