US 10394300

Patent Overview — US 10,394,300 B2

Title: Controlling operating voltage of a processor

Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US10394300/en (excerpted)

Bibliographic data (as supplied):

• Patent number: US10394300B2
• Application number: US15/966,397; publication US20180314307A1
• Inventors: Ryan D. Wells, Itai Feit, Doron Rajwan, Nadav Shulman, Zeev Offen, Inder M. Sodhi
• Original assignee: Intel Corp; current assignee listed as Daedalus Prime LLC
• Filing date: 2018-04-30; publication/grant date: 2019-08-27
• Priority date listed: 2013-03-11; anticipated expiration: 2033-03-11
• Status: Active (as listed; the source states legal status is an assumption, not a conclusion)

Purpose: Embodiments relate to power management of a system, and more particularly to operating voltage control in a processor. The stated problem is that voltage increases must precede low-power-state exits for ordering reasons (an extra awake core means higher worst-case current), so a large voltage increase under way can undesirably delay a low-power state exit. "Dynamic loadline handling" is described as optimizing operational voltages by dynamically adjusting an operating voltage based on the worst-case current draw for a particular configuration.

Plain-language scope (from the excerpt): Voltage transitions within a processor may be segmented into two or more segments, with a dispatcher or other control logic controllably causing such multi-phase voltage ramps. A first segment transitions to an interim or "safe" voltage level sufficient to cover all active agents (and at least one additional agent) running at a lower frequency; any additional voltage increase enabling a pending frequency increase is handled in a second segment, which can occur after a low-power state exit of the additional agent. The worst-case voltage ramp before a low-power state exit may thus be a worst-case load line adder (e.g., 50 mV) rather than a full-scale ramp.

What the excerpt does not establish: It provides only figures/definitions and a partial description — not the full claims, detailed description, or cited prior art. It does not establish claim scope, validity, enforceability, litigation outcome, or the accuracy of listed ownership or dates.