Managing Vt for reduced power using a status table
US6345362B1 · kind B1 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Apr 6, 1999 |
| Grant date | Feb 5, 2002 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Apr 6, 2019 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC Y)Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
- CPC primaryY02D10/00
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
An integrated circuit includes a CPU, a power management unit and plural functional units each dedicated to executing different functions. The power management unit controls the threshold voltage of the different functional units to optimize power/performance operation of the circuit and intelligent power management control responds to the instruction stream and decodes each instruction in turn. This information identifies which of the functional units are required for the particular instruction and by comparing that information to power status, the intelligent power control determines whether the functional units required to execute the command are at the optimum power level. If they are, the command is allowed to proceed, otherwise the intelligent power control either stalls the instruction sequence or modifies process speed.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.