Realtime Power Management Integrated Circuit
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current integrated circuits face challenges in managing power consumption due to increasing demands for performance and complexity, leading to issues such as increased leakage power and potential system shutdowns when new applications exceed power limits, necessitating accurate real-time power monitoring and management.
Innovation Solution
An integrated circuit with functional blocks that monitor power-consuming events, generate weighted counts, and calculate runtime power consumption estimates using a power calculation module, allowing for adaptive power management by comparing these estimates with predetermined thresholds.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Use of energy by moving object
If operational voltage is reduced to lower power consumption, then power consumption decreases, but propagation delays through transistors increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent dynamically adjusts operational voltage and threshold voltage parameters based on monitored power consumption levels and temperature conditions. By changing these electrical parameters in real-time, the system optimizes the balance between power consumption and propagation delay, allowing voltage reduction for power savings when acceptable, while maintaining performance when needed.
2Speed
If threshold voltage is reduced to maintain performance at lower operational voltage, then propagation delay is maintained, but total leakage power increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs dynamic threshold voltage adjustment based on real-time monitoring of power consumption and operational conditions. Rather than using fixed threshold voltages, the system adaptively modifies threshold levels to maintain required propagation delay performance while minimizing leakage power, switching between different threshold voltage levels based on workload and thermal conditions.
3Use of energy by moving object
If clock speed is reduced to lower power consumption, then power consumption decreases, but performance is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements periodic monitoring of power consumption events and dynamic adjustment of clock speed based on accumulated power event counts within monitoring windows. This allows the system to operate at higher clock speeds during low-power intervals while reducing clock speed when power consumption approaches limits, achieving an optimized balance between performance and power consumption over time.
4Adaptability or versatility
If new applications are executed that may exceed power limits, then application functionality is provided, but system shutdown may occur
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary power consumption analysis by monitoring and accumulating power events before executing new applications. The system pre-calculates expected power consumption based on application characteristics and current operational state, and proactively adjusts voltage, frequency, or functional block activation to ensure power limits will not be exceeded, thereby preventing shutdowns while maintaining application functionality.
5Measurement precision
If real-time power monitoring is implemented to accurately control power consumption, then power management effectiveness improves, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements self-service power monitoring where functional blocks monitor their own power consumption events and feed this information to accumulation blocks. The system uses readily available operational data (switching events, functional block activity) that already exist in the digital logic, combining these with pre-stored weight values to calculate power consumption without requiring extensive external sensing circuitry, thereby achieving accurate monitoring with minimal added complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
An integrated circuit comprising a plurality of functional blocks, each functional block being operative to cause one or more power consuming events, each power consuming event being associated with a respective weight. The integrated circuit also comprises at least one accumulation block for monitoring the functional blocks over a time window and generating a weighted count of the number of occurrences of each power consuming event within the time window; and a power calculation module for calculating a runtime power consumption estimate over the time window using the weighted count. The weighted count may comprise a sum of products of each one of the power consuming events by its respective weight. Calculating the runtime power consumption estimate may comprise averaging the weighted count over the time window to generate a dynamic power estimate, calculating a leakage power estimate over the time window, and summing the dynamic power estimate with the leakage power estimate. The integrated circuit may further comprise a power management module for adapting power consumption of the integrated circuit based on a comparison of the runtime power consumption estimate with one or more predetermined thresholds.