COMPUTATIONAL SPRINTING USING MULTIPLE CORES

摘要

A multi-core processing system that uses computational sprinting to generate high levels of computational output for short periods of time at power consumption levels that are not sustainable over longer periods of time due to thermal and/or other constraints. This is done using a number of processing cores that, when operated simultaneously, utilize available thermal capacity within the system to consume power and produce heat that is in excess of a thermal design power (TDP) of the system, but is tolerable because of the short period of operation. The system and/or method described herein may include thermal capacitors in the form of phase change materials (PCMs), may implement normal, sprint and/or cooling modes of operation, and may employ parallel sprinting, frequency sprinting, sprint pacing and/or sprint-and-rest techniques, to cite several possibilities.

主权项

1. A method of activating cores in a multi-core processing system, comprising the steps of:
processing one or more tasks while operating in a first mode by using a subset of a plurality of processing cores that are part of the multi-core processing system; operating in a second mode by using additional cores from the plurality of processing cores, the additional cores are operated in response to an increased computational requirement such that heat produced by the operating cores when running in the second mode is in excess of one or more thermal constraints of the system; and terminating the second mode of operation based at least in part on a thermal condition.