KR20060125102A - Computer system with power save capability and method for implementing power save mode in a computer system - Google Patents

Abstract

A computer system equipped with a power saving function and a power saving mode implementing method thereof are provided to minimize power consumption by adjusting an operation speed of a CPU according to temperature of the computer system in a power saving mode of the CPU. A microcomputer(170) obtains information for the current power saving mode of the CPU(100) from an OS(Operating System) of the computer system and controls CPU throttling according to the higher temperature between a value converting the power saving mode into the temperature and the current system temperature in case that a power management mode of the CPU is the power saving mode. In the case that the power management mode of the CPU is an optimal or maximum battery mode, the microcomputer performs CPU throttling. In the case that the power management mode of the CPU is not the power saving mode, the microcomputer does not perform CPU throttling.

Description

COMPUTER SYSTEM WITH POWER SAVE CAPABILITY AND METHOD FOR IMPLEMENTING POWER SAVE MODE IN A COMPUTER SYSTEM}

1 is a functional block diagram of a computer system having a power saving function according to an embodiment of the present invention;

2 is a detailed configuration diagram of a power control function of a computer system having a power saving function according to an embodiment of the present invention;

3 is a flowchart illustrating a power saving mode implementation method in a computer system according to an embodiment of the present invention;

4 is a flowchart illustrating a process of adjusting a throttling ratio of a system chip according to a power saving mode of a CPU by the method of the present invention.

* Description of the symbols for the main parts of the drawings *

100: CPU 101: video controller

102: North Bridge 103: main memory

104: I / O controller 105: South Bridge

106: hard disk (HDD) 107: keyboard controller

150: power control unit 170: microcomputer

210: operating system (OS) 220: application

230: CPU 240: system chip

250: micom

The present invention relates to a computer system having a power saving function and a method for implementing a power saving mode in a computer system, and more particularly, to save power that can reduce power consumption by adjusting the speed of the CPU according to the power management mode of the CPU of the computer system. It relates to such a computer system having a function and a power saving mode implementation method in the computer system.

Computer systems, especially portable computer systems, are commonly used for their portability and mobility. The use of portable computers is expected to increase more rapidly as new types of services that can be used while on the go, such as portable Internet and digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB) services, are provided. As such, the types of services available through the portable computers are diversified, and the entertainment contents are also rapidly increasing, so the number and times of use of the portable computers are increasing accordingly. Due to the increasing power consumption of portable computers, technologies for reducing the power consumption of portable computers are actively being developed.

One of the related arts is a method of minimizing power consumption by turning off a device that is not used according to a user's choice in a computer system having a main board mounted with a plurality of devices.

Other ways to reduce the power consumption of the computer are to check the activity of the system, suspend the processor if there is no system activity for a certain period of time, and re-execute the suspended processor if the user requests it. .

A low power consumption processor-related technology is Intel's SpeedStep technology. Speedstep's power-saving feature allows the CPU to support four modes, allowing the user to choose their own preferences and reducing power consumption by dynamically adjusting the processor voltage and core frequency for each mode.

CPUs that support speedstep have the following special registers: One register (IA32_PERT_STS) is a register that stores the state of the current CPU voltage and bus ratio, the maximum supportable value, and the minimum supportable value. The other register (IA32_PERF_CTL) is a register that sets the voltage and bus layout of the current CPU. The operating system (OS) changes these register settings, resulting in a power saving effect by actively adjusting the CPU speed according to user settings.

When the user changes the CPU mode, the operating system effectively adjusts the speed of the CPU according to the load of the CPU through the register. For example, if the user sets the CPU's optimal battery mode or maximum battery mode, the Dothan CPU sets the CPU's maximum speed to 800 Mhz and makes the CPU slower according to the state of the system through the above registers. do.

Various CPU power management modes are supported even for computers with CPUs that do not provide speedstep hardware power saving. However, in such a CPU, the speed of the CPU does not change even if the power saving mode such as the optimum battery mode or the maximum battery mode of the CPU is selected. However, only the power provided to the computer's CPU, hard disk, LCD, etc. is adjusted.

In the case of a low-cost CPU that does not support the registers described above, the speed step function is not supported. Therefore, even if the user sets the mode of the CPU to the power saving mode such as the optimum battery mode or the maximum battery mode, the speed of the CPU does not fall, there is a problem that can not obtain a substantial power saving effect.

The present invention is to overcome the problems of the prior art described above, an object of the present invention is to provide a power saving function that can minimize the power consumption of the computer system by adjusting the operating speed of the CPU according to the temperature of the system in the power saving mode of the CPU The present invention provides a computer system and a method for implementing a power saving mode in a computer system.

Another object of the present invention is to reduce the low speed power saving by reducing the speed of the CPU to less than half when the user selects the CPU power management mode as the optimal battery mode or the maximum battery mode in a CPU that does not support the speed step function. A computer system having a power saving function for enabling a mode and a method for implementing a power saving mode in such a computer system are provided.

One aspect of the present invention for achieving the above object is a computer system comprising a CPU having a temperature sensing circuit,

Get information about the current power saving mode of the CPU from the operating system of the computer system, and if the power management mode of the CPU is in the power saving mode, the CPU according to the higher value of the converted power saving mode into temperature and the temperature of the current system. A computer system having a microcomputer for throttling.

In the present invention, the microcomputer performs the CPU throttling when the power management mode of the CPU is the optimum battery mode or the maximum battery mode.

The microcomputer does not throttle the CPU when the power management mode of the CPU is not the power saving mode.

Another aspect of the present invention for achieving the above object is

Determining whether the power management mode of the CPU is a power saving mode;

Replacing the power saving mode with a temperature when the power management mode of the CPU is the power saving mode;

A second step of measuring a temperature of a current system when the power management mode of the CPU is a power saving mode;

And a third step of performing CPU throttling according to a higher temperature between the temperature value obtained by converting the power saving mode of the CPU and the temperature of the current system.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

In the present invention, the "sleep mode" refers to a power management mode in which the CPU speed is less than half of the maximum speed at which the CPU can operate. The name of each mode may vary depending on the manufacturer of the processor. For example, the mode may be determined as a maximum battery mode or an optimal battery mode.

In the present invention, "CPU throttling" is a process of adjusting the clock frequency and the operating voltage of the CPU according to the temperature range of the system. When the system temperature exceeds a predetermined threshold range, the CPU frequency and the operating voltage are operated by lowering the CPU. It means the process of slowing down.

The computer system having the power saving function of the present invention has a function of lowering the speed of the CPU when maximum performance is not required. The computer system of the present invention is characterized by including a microcomputer capable of throttling the system chip to adjust the speed of the CPU in accordance with the power management mode of the CPU.

In a power saving mode (e.g., a maximum battery mode or an optimal battery mode) that requires prolonging the operating time of a battery such as a portable computer even if the CPU operation speed decreases, the CPU is throttled by the system chip according to the temperature of the system. Lowering the speed of the power consumption reduces.

1 is a functional block diagram of a computer system having a power saving function according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 1, a computer system according to an embodiment of the present invention controls a CPU 100, a video controller 101, a main memory 103, and a main memory 103. North Bridge 102, I / O Controller 104, South Bridge 105, which is a collection of registers that manage the I / O functions of peripheral devices, and HDDs (HDDs) 106, a keyboard controller 107, and a microcomputer 170.

The CPU 100 controls and manages the entire computer system and performs calculation and logical operation of data. Hardware elements in the CPU 100 for performing such a task include an arithmetic logic unit (ALU), a control unit, a register, and a storage interface.

The video controller 101 controls data output to a display device such as a CRT or an LCD. The video controller 101 and the north bridge 102 may be connected by an accelerated graphic port (AGP).

The north bridge 102 controls a relatively high speed device such as a CPU, a main memory, a video controller, and the like. Devices directly controlled by the north bridge 102 include a memory controller, a host bridge, an AGP controller, and the like. The north bridge 102 and the south bridge 105 are connected by a PCI bus.

South Bridge 105 is a collection of registers that manage input and output functions of peripheral devices, and controls slow devices such as hard disks, keyboards, and mice. The south bridge 105 controls the data flow of peripheral devices such as PCI, IDE, and USB, or is in charge of power management.

An I / O controller 104 controls data input and output between a computer and a peripheral device. The main memory 103 creates a work space for smoothly running various programs.

The hard disk 106 stores various programs including an operating system (OS). System programs such as an operating system and various application programs may be stored in a separate memory called ROM. On the other hand, the operating system stored in the hard disk 106 is uploaded to the RAM of the memory by a system booting operation.

In the present invention, the power control unit 150 is connected to the operating system, the CPU, the system chip (specifically, South Bridge) and the microcomputer 170 of the computer system to operate. The power controller 150 controls the speed of the CPU by adjusting the throttling duty of the system chip according to the power management mode of the CPU under the control of the microcomputer 170.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating details of a component providing a power saving mode surrounding a microcomputer of a computer system having a power saving function according to an embodiment of the present invention. Although an application program is separately illustrated in FIG. 2, the application program 220 is a program stored in the microcomputer 250. The application 220 obtains information on whether the power management mode of the CPU set from the operating system (OS) 210 of the computer system is a power saving mode. The application 220 notifies the microcomputer 250 to always perform CPU throttling when the power management mode of the CPU is in the power saving mode, and notifies that the CPU throttling is not always necessary when the power management mode of the CPU is in the power saving mode. .

The CPU 230 has a built-in temperature sensing circuit for sensing the temperature of the system to measure the temperature, and the measured temperature data is transferred to the microcomputer 250. After receiving the information on the current CPU power saving mode by the application program 220, the microcomputer 250 converts the power saving mode information into temperature. For each power management mode of the CPU, a certain range of thermal zones is stored. The temperature range may be, for example, one range of 10 ° C to 20 ° C as one range, and a range of 21 ° C to 30 ° C as another range.

The application program 220 stored in the microcomputer 250 determines whether the CPU 230 provides a power saving function such as a speed step in which the CPU 230 adjusts the CPU speed according to the CPU mode. If the CPU is determined to be a computer that does not provide the CPU speed reduction function, the application program 220 receives information regarding the power management mode of the CPU from the operating system 210.

Information regarding the power management mode of the CPU may be selected and specified by the user through the user interface of the computer system. For example, if the user is using the notebook computer in a situation where he or she cannot connect to an AC power source, a power saving mode (eg, optimal battery mode or maximum battery mode) may be selected to extend the battery life.

The application accepts as an event in the window when the user changes the mode of the CPU. In general, the CPU's power management mode supports four modes: maximum performance mode, automatic mode, optimal battery mode, and maximum battery mode. This power management mode is not absolute and may vary depending on the manufacturer of the computer.

In optimal battery mode, the CPU runs at less than half the maximum speed. The maximum battery mode is the mode that can be selected when performing tasks that require the least amount of CPU processing or when trying to take down processing speed to save battery power. In full battery mode, the CPU runs at less than half the maximum speed, depending on the remaining battery charge.

The power management mode of the CPU can be managed automatically by the power management program of the computer system or manually operated by the user. For example, it can be configured to detect when the battery power is low and automatically put the computer into sleep mode. If the user manually sets the power management mode, the control panel program of the window installed in the computer system is run and the power management mode menu (BIOS) or the BIOS setup menu (BIOS) provided by the control panel program is provided. On the Set Up Menu, a specific power management mode is selected, and the control unit 220 sets the power management mode selected on the menu as the power management mode of the computer system, whereby the power management mode of the computer system is manually set. Can be set to the power management mode.

Next, a case in which the power management mode of the computer system is automatically set to an optimal power management mode suitable for the state of the current system is as follows. If the user wants to automatically set the power management mode of the computer system instead of manually setting the hardware or software manually, the power management mode setting menu (BIOS) or the BIOS setup menu (BIOS). On the Set Up Menu), you can select to automatically set the power management mode.

In the power saving mode, the microcomputer 250 obtains information about the current system temperature from the OS 210 and obtains information about the power saving mode of the CPU from the application 220. After converting the information on the power saving mode of the CPU into temperature, the higher temperature is selected by comparing the information with the temperature of the current system. According to this temperature, the stottle ratio of the system chip (South Bridge) is adjusted. When the throttling rate of the system chip is adjusted, the CPU speed is adjusted accordingly.

In the present invention, the throttling duty of the CPU means an operation speed per unit time of the CPU. For example, the CPU is 1/8, 1/4, 3/8 of the unit time. . . Or 8/8 speed. Southbridge's chipset supports CPU throttling rates in 12.5% increments, from 12.5% to 87.5%.

Therefore, the speed of the CPU is reduced by the throttling rate of the original full speed. The speed S 'of the new CPU is calculated by multiplying the maximum speed of the CPU by (100%-throttling ratio) as shown in Equation 1 below.

S '= S _max × (100%-TD)

Where _max is the maximum speed of the CPU,

             TD is the throttling duty.

As expressed by the above equation, the higher the throttling ratio of the CPU, the slower the CPU operates. It is preferable that a throttling ratio is high from a viewpoint of power saving. For example, assuming that the throttling rate is 50%, the CPU at 1 GHz operates at 0.5 Hz, and at 25%, operates at 0.7 GHz. In the present invention, the power saving function is realized by lowering the speed of the CPU by adjusting the throttling ratio of the system chip (preferably, South Bridge) instead of the register of the CPU.

CPU speed can be adjusted in several steps. For example, assuming that the adjustment is divided into five steps, the maximum speed, 87.5% speed, 75% speed, 67.5% speed, and 50% speed can be adjusted.

Next, a method for implementing a power saving mode in a computer system according to another aspect of the present invention will be described. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a power saving mode implementation method in a computer system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

When the computer system implements the power saving mode by the method of the present invention, first, it is determined whether the CPU has a function of adjusting the CPU speed according to the power management mode (S301). If it is determined that the CPU provides a CPU speed control function such as speed step, the microcomputer notifies that the throttling is not necessary (S307). This keeps the computer's throttling rate at 0%, allowing the CPU to run at its original speed.

On the other hand, when the CPU of the computer system is a CPU that does not provide a CPU speed adjustment function such as a speed step, power management mode information of the CPU is obtained (S303). Information regarding the power management mode can be obtained from the operating system of the computer system. The power management mode of the CPU can be changed automatically or by user selection.

On the basis of the read power management mode information of the read CPU, it is determined whether the power management mode of the CPU is a power saving mode such as an optimal battery mode or a maximum battery mode (S305), and in the case of the power saving mode, the microcomputer is informed that the CPU is in the power saving mode (S307). ). On the other hand, when it is not in the power saving mode, it notifies the microcomputer that the power management mode of the CPU is not the power saving mode (S309).

If the CPU of the computer system does not provide the speed control function and the CPU power management mode is the power saving mode, the CPU speed is adjusted by throttling according to the system temperature. Next, a specific method of performing CPU throttling in each power saving mode will be described.

4 is a flowchart illustrating a process of adjusting a throttling ratio of a system chip according to a power management mode of a CPU according to an embodiment of the present invention.

When the power management mode of the CPU is the power saving mode, data about the current system temperature is received from the CPU (S401). On the other hand, data relating to the power management mode of the CPU is obtained from the operating system of the computer system, and the power management mode information is converted into temperature (S403).

It is determined whether the value A in which the power saving mode of the CPU is converted into temperature is larger than the temperature B of the current system obtained in the previous step (S405). If the value (A) of the CPU's power saving mode in terms of temperature is greater than the temperature (B) of the current system obtained in the previous step, the value (A) of the CPU's power saving mode in terms of the temperature range ( thermal mode), and CPU throttling is performed accordingly.

On the other hand, if the value A of converting the power saving mode of the CPU into temperature is not larger than the temperature B of the current system obtained in the previous step, the temperature B of the current system is set as the system temperature range. CPU throttling is performed accordingly.

While specific embodiments of the present invention have been described above by way of example, these are for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to limit the protection scope of the present invention. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various substitutions, modifications, and changes can be made without departing from the technical spirit of the present invention. For example, the computer system having the power saving function of the present invention and a method for implementing the power saving mode in such a computer system can be applied to a desktop computer in addition to a portable computer such as a notebook computer, and other kinds of portable information having a microprocessor in addition to the computer. It can also be applied to equipment.

According to the present invention, when the CPU power management mode is a power saving mode, power consumption can be reduced by lowering the CPU speed by adjusting the throttling ratio of the system chipset. Therefore, the present invention can provide an effect of extending the use time of the battery, especially for a portable computer.

In addition, a computer system having a power saving function and a method for implementing a power saving mode according to the present invention may be implemented when the user selects a CPU power saving mode even in a low cost CPU that does not support a function of reducing power consumption by reducing the CPU speed according to the CPU power management mode. It can be slowed down to provide power savings.

Claims (6)

A computer system comprising a CPU having a temperature sensing circuit, Get information about the current power saving mode of the CPU from the operating system of the computer system, and if the power management mode of the CPU is in the power saving mode, the CPU according to the higher value of the converted power saving mode into temperature and the temperature of the current system. A computer system comprising a microcomputer for throttling. The computer system according to claim 1, wherein the microcomputer performs CPU throttling when the power management mode of the CPU is an optimum battery mode or a maximum battery mode. The computer system according to claim 1, wherein the microcomputer does not perform CPU throttling when the power management mode of the CPU is not a power saving mode. Determining whether the power management mode of the CPU is a power saving mode; Replacing the power saving mode with a temperature when the power management mode of the CPU is the power saving mode; A second step of measuring a temperature of a current system when the power management mode of the CPU is a power saving mode; And a third step of CPU throttling according to a higher temperature between the temperature value obtained by converting the power saving mode of the CPU and the temperature of the current system. 5. The method of claim 4, wherein the first step is a step of determining a power saving mode when the power management mode of the CPU is an optimum battery mode or a maximum battery mode. 5. The method of claim 4, wherein the method does not perform CPU throttling when the power management mode of the CPU is not the power saving mode.

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