Hierarchical Power Controller Coordination for Domain Stability
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing power control systems lack an efficient mechanism to manage power mode transitions across multiple power domains while considering the relationships and constraints between them, leading to potential instability and incompatibility issues.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a hierarchical relationship between power controllers through communication links, where each power controller, except the highest level, is connected to a higher level controller, and uses power mode transition policies to constrain transitions based on received information from connected controllers, ensuring compatibility and avoiding simultaneous transitions that could cause instability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If power controllers operate independently to control power supply to each power domain, then each power controller can be simple and operate autonomously, but power mode transitions may become incompatible when power domains have relationships with each other
Solution Approach 1:
A hierarchical relationship structure is introduced as an intermediary mechanism between independent power controllers. Each power controller is associated with a hierarchical level, and transitions are coordinated through this hierarchy, allowing independent controllers to operate while ensuring compatibility through the hierarchical coordination mechanism.
Solution Approach 2:
The power mode transition policy is designed to handle multiple functions: it manages individual power domain transitions, coordinates transitions across related power domains, and enforces hierarchical constraints. This universal policy mechanism resolves the contradiction by providing a unified approach that works for both simple and complex power domain relationships.
2Reliability
If power controllers are tightly coupled to ensure power mode compatibility across related power domains, then power mode compatibility is improved, but system complexity increases due to the need for coordination mechanisms
Solution Approach 1:
The coordination mechanism is segmented into hierarchical levels, where each power controller is assigned a specific hierarchical level. This segmentation allows the system to manage complexity by dividing the coordination task into manageable levels, with each level handling transitions for its associated power domain while considering constraints from other levels.
Solution Approach 2:
The hierarchical relationship introduces an additional dimension (hierarchical level) to the power controller architecture. Instead of managing all power domain relationships in a single flat layer, the system uses multiple hierarchical levels to organize and coordinate transitions, effectively distributing the complexity across different dimensional layers.
3Stability of the object's composition
If power mode transitions are constrained to ensure compatibility, then power mode stability is improved, but transition flexibility and speed are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The power mode transition policy is established in advance and configured to reflect the hierarchical relationships and constraints between power domains. By having the policy pre-configured, the system can quickly evaluate whether a transition is valid without performing complex runtime analysis, thus maintaining stability while enabling faster transitions.
Solution Approach 2:
The hierarchical relationship structure provides feedback mechanisms where power controllers at different levels can communicate transition status and constraints. This feedback allows the system to make informed decisions about transitions, ensuring stability by checking compatibility before execution while maintaining speed through efficient feedback loops.
Data Source
AI summary
A system and method are provided for controlling power mode transitions. The system has a plurality of power domains, where each power domain has one or more components, and a plurality of power controllers, where each power domain is associated with one of the power controllers. For each power domain, the associated power controller controls transition of that power domain between a plurality of power modes. The power controllers are connected by communication links in order to implement a hierarchical relationship between the power controllers that comprises two or more hierarchical levels. Each power controller other than a highest level power controller in the hierarchical relationship is connected by a communication link to an associated higher level power controller at a higher hierarchical level in the hierarchical relationship. Each given power controller is arranged to implement a power mode transition policy in order to control transition of the associated power domain between the plurality of power modes. The power mode transition policy takes into account power mode information received from any other power controller that a given power controller is connected to by a communication link, so as to constrain the power mode transitions within the associated power domain in accordance with the hierarchical relationship. This provides an efficient and effective mechanism for handling transitions in power modes of power domains that are related to each other, but managed by different power controllers.