Distributed Gating Control for Scalable Semiconductor Power Management
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
In semiconductor circuit devices with power gating and clock gating, controlling multiple circuits becomes complex and difficult in massive and highly parallel processor systems, such as GPUs and TPUs, requiring frequent changes to circuit or controller programs.
Innovation Solution
A semiconductor circuit device with a gating control circuit for each target circuit, using power gate switches and clock gate switches controlled by a control signal to enable and disable circuits autonomously, without needing changes to the controller.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of energy
If the number of circuits to be gated is increased to more effectively suppress power consumption, then power consumption suppression is improved, but controller complexity and difficulty of control increases
Solution Approach 1:
The invention divides the gating control function into independent gating control circuits for each target circuit. Each gating control circuit autonomously controls the power gate switch and clock gate switch for its associated target circuit based on control signals received from the controller. This segmentation eliminates the need for the controller to directly manage each circuit individually, thereby reducing controller complexity while enabling effective power gating across multiple circuits.
2Loss of energy
If the number of circuits to be gated is increased to more effectively suppress power consumption, then power consumption suppression is improved, but the need for changes to controller circuit or program increases
Solution Approach 1:
Each gating control circuit is designed to autonomously manage the gating of its associated target circuit. When a control signal is input to enable or disable a target circuit, the corresponding gating control circuit automatically generates the appropriate control signals for the power gate switch and clock gate switch. This self-service mechanism allows the system to scale to any number of circuits without requiring changes to the controller's circuitry or programming, as each gating control circuit independently handles its own target circuit.
3Ease of operation
If conventional power gating control is used with a single controller, then control is centralized, but ease of operation deteriorates when scaling to massive parallel processor systems
Solution Approach 1:
The invention segments the gating control functionality by providing a dedicated gating control circuit for each target circuit. This segmentation allows each gating control circuit to independently and autonomously manage its associated target circuit based on control signals from the controller. Consequently, the system can easily scale to massive parallel processor systems with any number of target circuits, as each gating control circuit handles its target circuit independently without requiring changes to the controller or other gating control circuits.
Data Source
AI summary
A semiconductor circuit device in which a plurality of target circuits are provided and a control signal for controlling enable and disable is input to each of the plurality of target circuits, the device includes: a gating control circuit provided for each of the plurality of target circuits, in which the control signal to the corresponding target circuit is input and an On signal is output in response to the control signal for enabling the target circuit; and a power gate switch for each of the plurality of target circuits, which is provided on each power line for each of the plurality of target circuits for supplying a driving voltage to the target circuit and turned on by the On signal.