Intel Corporation
REAL-TIME POWER METER FOR OPTIMIZING PROCESSOR POWER MANAGEMENT

Abstract:

A scheme is provided for a processor to measure or estimate the dynamic capacitance (Cdyn) associated with an executing application and take a proportional throttling action. Proportional throttling has significantly less impact on performance and hence presents an opportunity to get back the lost bins and proportionally clip power if it exceeds a specification threshold. The ability to infer a magnitude of power excursion of a power virus event (and hence, the real Cdyn) above a set power threshold limit enables the processor to proportionally adjust the processor operating frequency to bring it back under the limit. With this scheme, the processor distinguishes a small power excursion versus a large one and reacts proportionally, yielding better performance.