Patent ID: 8243085

Claim:
A graphics system, comprising: graphics hardware in an integrated graphics chipset, wherein the graphics hardware is in a separate voltage well from other logic in the graphics chipset so that a voltage powering the graphics hardware is separately adjustable from a non-graphics hardware voltage powering the other logic; a clock dedicated to providing a first clock frequency and a second clock frequency to the graphics hardware; power control logic to supply a first graphics hardware voltage and a second graphics hardware voltage to the graphics hardware, wherein the first graphics hardware voltage and the second graphics hardware voltage are different from the non-graphics hardware voltage power the other logic; and workload detection software to control whether the first graphics hardware voltage or the second graphics hardware voltage is supplied to the graphics hardware and whether the first clock frequency or the second clock frequency is supplied to the graphics hardware, the voltage and frequency to be based on the current workload on the graphics hardware, the current workload to be identified by a context running on the graphics system, wherein the context is a collection of states managed by the graphics hardware; wherein the graphics hardware: executes a first context at the first clock frequency and the first graphics hardware voltage, wherein the first clock frequency is generated by the clock at the behest of the workload detection software and the first graphics hardware voltage is generated by the power control logic at the behest of the workload detection software; executes a first workload associated with the first context; executes a second context at the second clock frequency and the second graphics hardware voltage, wherein all states associated with the first context are stored in a memory before the second context is executed; and executes a second workload associated with the second context; wherein the voltage and the second graphics hardware voltage are issued by the power control logic at the behest of the workload detection software.