A SYSTEM TO REDUCE POWER CONSUMPTION

摘要

The present invention is an ARM coprocessor power reduction system and method that turns off a coprocessor clock when an ARM system is performing THUMB state instructions. For example, the ARM coprocessor power reduction system and method of the present invention tracks signals from the ARM core periphery to determine if the ARM core is attempting to facilitate ARM state or THUMB state operations. The present invention compares the THUMB bit indicator in signals associated with each stage of an ARM pipeline and determines if the instructions are THUMB state instructions. If the instructions are THUMB state instructions the ARM coprocessor power reduction system and method of the present invention turns off the coprocessor clock. Turning off the coprocessor clock prevents the coprocessor registers from switching and consuming power. If an instruction fetched into an ARM pipeline is an ARM state instruction the ARM coprocessor power reduction system and method of the present invention turns the coprocessor clock back on.