Multi-domain heterogeneous process-voltage-temperature tracking for integrated circuit power reduction

摘要

The systems and method described herein provide efficient (e.g., low power and low area) techniques to track performance in numerous supply domains with heterogeneous circuits that are used in a large system-on-a-chip integrated circuit (SoCs). The heterogeneous circuits can include circuits made with different devices, different cell libraries, and different hard macros that are in different power supply domains. Performance measurements from performance sensors (or process-voltage-temperature (PVT) sensors) that are spread about the SoC are collected and processed to determine voltage levels for each of the supply domains. A single controller can receive can determine voltage levels for a whole SoC. The performance sensors are connected to the controller by a scan chain. The techniques are flexible and can be easily adapted for use in SoCs with different power supply domains and types of circuits.

主权项

1. An integrated circuit, comprising:
a plurality of performance sensors configured to measure performance of circuitry in the integrated circuit, wherein at least one of the plurality of performance sensors is connected to each of a plurality of supply domains in the integrated circuit; and a core power reduction (CPR) controller module coupled to the plurality of performance sensors and configured to
collect performance measurements from the plurality of performance sensors by sequentially
receiving the performance measurement from each of the plurality of performance sensors, andassigning each of the performance measurements to one of a plurality of categories; andprocess the performance measurements to determine target voltage levels for each of the plurality of supply domains.