Patent ID: 7490302

Claim:
A method for power-gating circuit resources of an integrated circuit, comprising: associating the circuit resources into sets responsive to utilization levels; the utilization levels being associated at least in part with how often the circuit resources are used; the associating including: providing a first set of the sets, a first number of the circuit resources in the first set being associated with a first level of utilization; providing a second set of the sets, a second number of the circuit resources in the second set being associated with a second level of utilization; the first number being less than the second number responsive to the first level of utilization being greater than the second level of utilization; commonly coupling the circuit resources of the first set to a first reference voltage level via a first gating circuit; commonly coupling the circuit resources of the second set to a second reference voltage level via a second gating circuit; and the second number being for coarse-grained power gating.