AN APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR REDUCING POWER CONSUMPTION THROUGH BOTH VOLTAGE AND FREQUENCY SCALING

摘要

A power control circuit and corresponding technique for reducing power consumption by an electronic device and thereby increasing performance. The power control circuit comprises a controller, a clock generation circuit and a power supply circuit. The controller detects whether a condition exists to scale the voltage and frequency of the electronic device and in response, signals the clock generation circuit to perform frequency scaling on the electronic device and the power supply circuit to perform voltage scaling on the electronic device. The condition may include a situation where the temperature of the electronic device is detected to have exceeded a thermal band. The condition may also include a situation where the electronic device is detected to be idle for a selected percentage of its run time.