Multi-Region Fabric Power Gating for Mobile Systems
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Solution Overview
Problem
The increasing complexity and power consumption of computing systems with multiple components on a single chip or multi-chip modules pose challenges in power management, particularly in mobile devices where reducing power consumption is crucial to extend battery life and decrease heat generation.
Innovation Solution
A multi-region communication fabric is partitioned into stutter and non-stutter regions, where stutter regions service predictable, periodic clients and non-stutter regions service unpredictable, non-periodic clients, allowing for dynamic power-gating to conserve power by periodically waking up stutter regions while keeping non-stutter regions in a power-gated mode, with stored state maintained to reduce latency and optimize power efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the communication fabric is fully powered on to service all clients, then all clients (both periodic and non-periodic) can be serviced without latency, but power consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The communication fabric is divided into multiple power-gating domains, allowing different regions to be independently powered on or off. This segmentation enables the system to power down unused regions while maintaining service capability in active regions, thus reducing overall power consumption while preserving service responsiveness for active clients.
Solution Approach 2:
The power-gating domains are dynamically controlled based on client activity patterns. The system transitions domains between powered-on and powered-off states according to whether they service periodic or non-periodic clients, enabling adaptive power management that balances service responsiveness with power consumption.
2Use of energy by moving object
If power-gating is applied to reduce power consumption, then battery life increases, but service latency increases for periodic clients
Solution Approach 1:
For domains servicing periodic clients, the system implements periodic wake-up mechanisms that activate the power-gated domain at predictable intervals aligned with the client's periodic activity pattern. This ensures the domain is awake and ready to service the periodic client at the expected time, minimizing latency while still allowing the domain to remain powered-off between periods.
Solution Approach 2:
The system anticipates periodic client activity by waking up the power-gated domain slightly before the expected periodic event, ensuring the domain is fully operational and ready to service the client without delay. This preliminary activation prevents latency while maintaining power savings during intervals between periodic events.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the communication fabric is partitioned into multiple power-gating domains, then power management flexibility improves, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The communication fabric is segmented into multiple power-gating domains with independent power control. This segmentation provides fine-grained power management flexibility, allowing each domain to be independently powered on or off based on client activity, thereby improving adaptability while the modular structure helps manage complexity through clear domain boundaries.
Solution Approach 2:
The power-gating domain architecture serves multiple functions: it enables fine-grained power management, supports both periodic and non-periodic client patterns, and provides a scalable framework for managing complex fabrics. This multi-functionality justifies the added structural complexity by delivering comprehensive power management capabilities.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems, apparatuses, and methods for implementing dynamic control of a multi-region fabric are disclosed. A system includes at least one or more processing units, one or more memory devices, and a communication fabric coupled to the processing unit(s) and memory device(s). The system partitions the fabric into multiple regions based on different traffic types and/or periodicities of the clients connected to the regions. For example, the system partitions the fabric into a stutter region for predictable, periodic clients and a non-stutter region for unpredictable, non-periodic clients. The system power-gates the entirety of the fabric in response to detecting a low activity condition. After power-gating the entirety of the fabric, the system periodically wakes up one or more stutter regions while keeping the other non-stutter regions in power-gated mode. Each stutter region monitors stutter client(s) for activity and processes any requests before going back into power-gated mode.