Conserving power through work load estimation for a portable computing device using scheduled resource set transitions

摘要

A start time to begin transitioning resources to states indicated in the second resource state set is scheduled based upon an estimated amount of processing time to complete transitioning the resources. At a scheduled start time, a process starts in which the states of one or more resources are switched from states indicated by the first resource state set to states indicated by the second resource state set. Scheduling the process of transitioning resource states to begin at a time that allows the process to be completed just in time for the resource states to be immediately available to the processor upon entering the second application state helps minimize adverse effects of resource latency. This calculation for the time that the process should be completed just in time may be enhanced when system states and transitions between states are measured accurately and stored in memory of the portable computing device.

主权项

1. A method for managing availability of a plurality of shared processor resources in a portable computing device (“PCD”), comprising:
maintaining in a memory device a first resource state set corresponding to a first processor state of the PCD, a second resource state set corresponding to a second processor the PCD and a trigger set comprising one or more triggers associated with transitioning the PCD from the first processor state to the second processor state, wherein:
the first resource state set specifies a configuration for each of the plurality of shared processor resources when the PCD is operated in accordance with the first processor state; andthe second resource state set specifies a configuration for each of the plurality of shared processor resources when the PCD is operated in accordance with the second processor state; operating the PCD in accordance with the first processor state; recognizing, by a controller implemented in hardware, a trigger from the trigger set to transition the PCD from the first processor state to the second processor state; and transitioning, by the controller, the PCD from the first processor state to the second processor state, wherein transitioning the PCD from the first processor state to the second processor state comprises:
estimating a transition workload required to complete the transition from the first processor state to the second processor state, wherein the transition workload corresponds to an amount of transition workload processing time;scheduling a start time to begin transitioning the configurations of each of the plurality of shared processor resources from the configurations specified in the first resource state set to the configurations specified in the second resource state set, wherein the start time is based on the transition workload processing time; andat the scheduled start time, beginning a process of transitioning the configurations.