Controlling sprinting for thermal capacity boosted systems

摘要

A method and apparatus are described for performing sprinting in a processor. An analyzer in the processor may monitor thermal capacity remaining in the processor while not sprinting. When the remaining thermal capacity is sufficient to support sprinting, the analyzer may perform sprinting of a new workload when a benefit derived by sprinting the new workload exceeds a threshold and does not cause the remaining thermal capacity in the processor to be exhausted. The analyzer may perform sprinting of the new workload in accordance with sprinting parameters determined for the new workload. The analyzer may continue to monitor the remaining thermal capacity while not sprinting when the benefit derived by sprinting the new workload does not exceed the threshold.

主权项

1. A method of performing sprinting in a processor, the method comprising:
monitoring thermal capacity remaining in the processor while not sprinting; determining whether or not the remaining thermal capacity is sufficient to support sprinting; when the remaining thermal capacity is determined to not be sufficient to support sprinting, returning to the monitoring of the thermal capacity remaining in the processor while not sprinting; when the remaining thermal capacity is determined to be sufficient to support sprinting, determining a benefit derived by sprinting a new workload based on one or more workload characteristics based on a type of resources and an amount of resources to be used for sprinting the new workload; determining whether or not the benefit derived by sprinting the new workload exceeds a threshold; when the benefit is determined to not exceed the threshold, returning to the monitoring of the thermal capacity remaining in the processor while not sprinting; when the benefit is determined to exceed the threshold, determining sprinting parameters, including when to sprint and how long to sprint, for the new workload; and performing sprinting of the new workload in accordance with the sprinting parameters.