Electronic apparatus having voltage drop management mechanism and voltage drop management method

Abstract

A voltage drop management method includes: detecting node voltages of a functional circuit block to generate a voltage drop signal when the node voltage drops to a threshold value, thereby determining that a voltage drop event has occurred and recording the system state; analyzing circuit signals of the functional circuit block based on the system state to select candidate signals related to the occurrence of the voltage drop event and recording signal change patterns; performing a verification procedure on the signal change patterns of the candidate signals and the occurrence of the voltage drop event to generate a predicted reliability; and setting candidate signals with predicted reliability within a high reliability range as target signals to generate a predicted voltage drop signal based on the target signal with the signal change pattern to drive a power management circuit to perform a voltage regulation procedure on a target circuit in the functional circuit block related to the target signal.

Claims

1. An electronic system with a voltage drop management mechanism, comprising: a functional circuit block; a power management circuit; and a complex voltage detector configured to detect the complex node voltages of the functional circuit block, and to generate a voltage drop signal to the functional circuit block when any node voltage of the complex node voltage drops to a threshold value, so that the functional circuit block determines that a voltage drop event has occurred and records a system state accordingly. A voltage drop analysis circuit is configured to analyze multiple circuit signals transmitted by a functional circuit block according to the system state, select one of the multiple circuit signals related to the occurrence of the voltage drop event as a candidate signal, record a signal change pattern of the candidate signal corresponding to the voltage drop event, and perform a verification procedure on the signal change pattern of the candidate signal and the occurrence of the voltage drop event during a period of operation of the functional circuit block to generate a predicted reliability of the candidate signal for the voltage drop event; and a voltage drop processing circuit is configured to set the candidate signal with the predicted reliability in a high reliability range as a target signal, generate a predicted voltage drop signal based on the target signal with the signal change pattern to drive the power management circuit to generate a power mode control signal to the functional circuit block, and perform a voltage regulation procedure on a target circuit in the functional circuit block related to the target signal.

2. The electronic system as claimed in claim 1, wherein when the predicted reliability is not within the high reliability range, the voltage drop analysis circuit selects another circuit signal from the plurality of circuit signals related to the occurrence of the voltage drop event as the candidate signal, or analyzes the plurality of other circuit signals transmitted by the functional circuit block according to the system state to select one of the plurality of other circuit signals related to the occurrence of the voltage drop event as the candidate signal.

3. The electronic system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the complex voltage detector generates a slight voltage drop signal when any node voltage of the complex node voltage drops to a first threshold value, and generates a severe voltage drop signal when any node voltage of the complex node voltage drops to a second threshold value, wherein the second threshold value is less than the first threshold value; The voltage drop analysis circuit is configured to record a first signal change pattern of the candidate signal corresponding to a voltage drop event associated with the minor voltage drop signal, and to record a second signal change pattern of the candidate signal corresponding to a voltage drop event associated with the severe voltage drop signal; and the voltage drop processing circuit is configured to generate a first predicted voltage drop signal based on the target signal having the first signal change pattern to drive the power management circuit to generate a first power mode control signal to the functional circuit block to perform a first voltage regulation procedure on the target circuit, and to generate a second predicted voltage drop signal based on the target signal having the second signal change pattern to drive the power management circuit to generate a second power mode control signal to the functional circuit to perform a second voltage regulation procedure on the target circuit.

4. The electronic system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the system state includes a circuit state and / or a program execution state, the circuit state including a register state and / or a hardware signal state, and the program execution state including a program stack state and / or a memory data state.

5. The electronic system as described in claim 1, wherein the system state corresponds to a point in time at which the voltage drop event occurs and / or a preceding time interval prior to the event.

6. The electronic system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the voltage drop analysis circuit records the signal change pattern in a voltage drop history table, and the voltage drop processing circuit compares a signal state of the target signal with the signal change pattern in the voltage drop history table, and generates the predicted voltage drop signal based on the target signal whose signal state matches the signal change pattern in the voltage drop history table.

7. The electronic system as described in claim 1, wherein the voltage regulation procedure includes preferentially providing a sufficient voltage to the target circuit.

8. The electronic system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the voltage drop analysis circuit performs the verification procedure by performing a voltage drop (IR drop) analysis on the candidate signal and / or comparing a signal state of the candidate signal at the time the voltage drop event occurs with historical data of the signal change pattern.

9. The electronic system of claim 1, wherein the voltage drop processing circuit is configured to set a plurality of candidate signals whose predicted reliability is in the high reliability range as a plurality of target signals to generate the predicted voltage drop signal based on one or a combination of the plurality of target signals having the signal variation pattern.

10. A voltage drop management method, comprising: detecting a plurality of node voltages of a functional circuit block, generating a voltage drop signal to the functional circuit block when any node voltage of the plurality of node voltages drops to a threshold value, and causing the functional circuit block to determine that a voltage drop event has occurred and record a system state accordingly; analyzing a plurality of circuit signals transmitted by the functional circuit block according to the system state, selecting one of the circuit signals of the plurality of circuit signals related to the occurrence of the voltage drop event as a candidate signal, and recording a signal change pattern of the candidate signal corresponding to the voltage drop event; During a period of operation of the functional circuit block, a verification procedure is performed on the signal variation pattern of the candidate signal and the occurrence of the voltage drop event to generate a predicted reliability of the candidate signal for the voltage drop event; and the candidate signal with the predicted reliability in a high reliability range is set as a target signal to generate a predicted voltage drop signal based on the target signal with the signal variation pattern to drive a power management circuit to generate a power mode control signal to the functional circuit block to perform a voltage regulation procedure on a target circuit in the functional circuit block associated with the target signal.

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