System, Apparatus And Method For Dynamic Power State Scaling Of A Voltage Regulator For A Processor

Abstract

In one embodiment, a processor includes: at least one core to execute a workload; a voltage regulator to provide an operating voltage to the at least one core; and a power controller coupled to the voltage regulator. The power controller may control the voltage regulator to provide the operating voltage, and may have a voltage regulator control circuit to select one of a plurality of power state profiles based at least in part on a classification of the workload, and to cause an update to a power state of the voltage regulator according to the selected power state profile. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A processor comprising:
 at least one core to execute a workload;   a power controller coupled to the at least one core, wherein the power controller is to control a voltage regulator to output an operating voltage, the power controller to select one of a plurality of power state profiles at which the voltage regulator is to operate, based at least in part on a classification of the workload; and   a configuration storage coupled to the power controller, the configuration storage to store the plurality of power state profiles, wherein each of the plurality of power state profiles includes a plurality of cutoff thresholds, each of the plurality of cutoff thresholds to identify a consumption level at which an update to a power state of the voltage regulator is to occur.   
     
     
         2 . The processor of  claim 1 , wherein the power controller is to select the one of the plurality of power state profiles further based on an active power source that is to provide power to a platform including the processor. 
     
     
         3 . The processor of  claim 2 , wherein the power controller is to select the one of the plurality of power state profiles further based on a user preference between performance and power consumption. 
     
     
         4 . The processor of  claim 1 , wherein the power controller is to communicate a message regarding the selected power state profile to the voltage regulator. 
     
     
         5 . The processor of  claim 4 , wherein the voltage regulator is to update the power state of the voltage regulator according to the selected power state profile when a current consumption of the processor exceeds a first cutoff threshold included in the selected power state profile. 
     
     
         6 . The processor of  claim 1 , wherein the processor is to receive the plurality of power state profiles via a firmware and store the plurality of power state profiles in the configuration storage. 
     
     
         7 . The processor of  claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of power state profiles comprises a heterogeneous set of cutoff thresholds. 
     
     
         8 . The processor of  claim 1 , wherein the power controller is to determine a current consumption level of the processor and send a power state update command to the voltage regulator to cause the update to the power state of the voltage regulator, when the current consumption level exceeds a first cutoff threshold of the plurality of cutoff thresholds of the selected power state profile. 
     
     
         9 . The processor of  claim 8 , wherein the voltage regulator comprises a configuration circuit to update the power state of the voltage regulator from a first power state to a second power state based on the power state update command. 
     
     
         10 . The processor of  claim 9 , wherein the voltage regulator is to operate in a discontinuous conduction mode in the first power state and to operate in a continuous conduction mode in the second power state. 
     
     
         11 . The processor of  claim 1 , further comprising a workload classifier to classify the workload using machine learning. 
     
     
         12 . The processor of  claim 11 , wherein the workload classifier is to predict a next workload to be executed on the at least one core and send a classification update to the power controller. 
     
     
         13 . The processor of  claim 12 , wherein based at least in part on the classification update, the power controller is to select a second one of the plurality of power state profiles and send an update message to the voltage regulator. 
     
     
         14 . The processor of  claim 1 , wherein the voltage regulator comprises an integrated voltage regulator. 
     
     
         15 . The processor of  claim 14 , wherein the integrated voltage regulator comprises a multi-phase regulator. 
     
     
         16 . A method comprising:
 receiving, in a workload classifier, workload metric information of a workload executing on a processor;   classifying the workload to be a first workload type based at least in part on the workload metric information; and   sending a message to a power controller of the processor to identify the workload to be of the first workload type, wherein in response to the message, the power controller is to:
 select a first power state profile from a plurality of power state profiles; and 
 cause an update to a power state of a voltage regulator from a first power state to a second power state when a current consumption level of the processor exceeds a first cutoff threshold included in the first power state profile. 
   
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , further comprising predicting, in the workload classifier, a next workload to be executed on the processor and sending a classification update to the power controller based on the predicting. 
     
     
         18 . A system comprising:
 a voltage regulator to provide a regulated voltage to a processor, the voltage regulator comprising a configuration circuit to dynamically update the voltage regulator from a first power state to a second power state;   the processor comprising:
 one or more cores; 
 a power controller coupled to the one or more cores to control a power consumption of the one or more cores, wherein the power controller is to select a power state profile from a plurality of power state profiles based at least in part on a consumption level and a classification of a workload in execution on the processor, wherein the voltage regulator is to be dynamically updated from the first power state to the second power state based at least in part on the selected power state profile; and 
 a configuration storage to store the plurality of power state profiles, wherein each of the plurality of power state profiles includes a plurality of cutoff thresholds, each of the plurality of cutoff thresholds to identify a consumption level at which an update to the power state of the voltage regulator is to occur; and 
   a memory coupled to the processor.   
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 18 , further comprising a workload classifier to classify the workload using machine learning and to send an indication of the workload to the power controller. 
     
     
         20 . The system of  claim 18 , wherein the voltage regulator comprises an integrated voltage regulator.