Electrical computers and digital processing systems: support – Computer power control – Having power source monitoring
Reexamination Certificate
1998-12-22
2001-11-20
Etienne, Ario (Department: 2155)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: support
Computer power control
Having power source monitoring
C713S330000, C365S227000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06321341
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to an analysis of the power consumption of a computer.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Power management techniques are very important for computers, especially for portable computers. Since an operating period can be extended by reducing power consumption, various power management techniques have been developed. As a basic data for the development of the power management technique, the power consumed by a computer, or by components of a computer, must be measured. For this measurement, Intel Corp. has developed a power consumption measurement tool called the Intel Power Analyst* (* indicates that the term may be a trademark of the respective owner). This tool can display in real time the power consumed by each sub-system, such as a CPU, a memory component or a hard disk. Benchmarks for battery operation, such as SYSmark32* for Battery Life* (product of BAPCo) or BatteryMark* (product of Ziff-Davis Benchmark Operation), can display only the operating time for a battery.
While there are some conventional products that can measure the power consumed by the components of a computer and by an entire system, they cannot clearly delineate for development engineers the relationship between the power consumption and a signal, such as a STPCLK# (# indicates low active) that is a kind of interrupt signal to a Pentium* processor (a trademark of Intel Corp.), that is associated with the power consumption of a CPU or that of an entire system. If this relationship is clear, the technique for controlling the signal to reduce the power consumption can be more easily developed.
It is, therefore, one object of the present invention to obtain a clear relationship between the power consumption and a signal (hereinafter referred to as a power control signal), such as a STPCLK#, that is associated with the power consumption by a CPU or by an entire system.
It is another object of the present invention to measure and record the power control signal and the power consumption in order to obtain a clear relationship between the power control signal and the power consumption.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
These and other objectives are realized by the present invention for a power consumption analysis method comprising the steps of: detecting a change in a power control signal and storing the result of the detection in a storage device, wherein the power control signal represents a control instruction associated with the power consumption to a component of a computer; and periodically measuring either a first signal concerning the power consumption by a predetermined component of the computer or a second signal concerning the power consumption by the entire computer, or both the first and the second signals, and storing the result of the measurement in the storage device. The power control signals are, for example, a CPU internal clock control signal, a supply clock control signal to a CPU from the outside, an interrupt signal relative to a CPU (e.g., an SMI# signal for a Pentium processor (CPU system management interrupt signal)), a low power control signal to each component, etc. This signal may be provided not only along one signal line, but also along a plurality of signal lines. The computer components are internal computer parts, including a battery, but are also such externally connected components as a CD-ROM, an FD drive or a docking station. By acquiring the power control signals and data concerning the power consumption from the computer in this combination, important information can be assembled for the control to reduce the power consumption.
Specifically, the results of the detection and of the measurement, which are stored in the storage device, are employed to characterize the relationship between the power control signal (or a control instruction) and the power consumption. The following various forms can be used for characterization/visualization of the relationship: (1) the change in the power control signal and the change in the power consumption are displayed along the same time axis; (2) the change in the contents of the control instruction and the change in the power consumption are displayed along the same time axis; (3) the state of the computer or the state of the computer component is identified and displayed; (4) the ratio of each state of the power control signal and data (e.g., average of the power consumption) concerning the power consumption for a predetermined period of time are displayed; (5) a period (may include a frequency) of each state of the power control signal and data concerning the power consumption for a predetermined period of time are displayed; (6) the period and a value for each state of the power control signal for a predetermined period of time are displayed; (7) statistics are acquired for the length of the period of each state of the power control signal for a predetermined period of time, followed by identifying the state of the computer in accordance with the statistics, and displaying the results. These forms are only examples, and the first acquired data can be processed, as needed.
It should be noted that, for display, two waveforms may be displayed along the same axis; or, with the scales of the time axes being the same (the same type of time axis), two waveforms are displayed in the upper and lower portions of the display. The power consumption may be that at a specific time point, or may be an average during a predetermined period. The change in the power control signal represents a change from 0 to 1 and from 1 to 0 when only one signal line is employed. The change in the contents of the control instruction includes, for example, a change in CPU throttling duty (see U.S. Pat. No. 5,546,568 for the CPU throttling). The periods of the individual states of the power control signal include a sustained period of the state each time a signal state is changed.
It is also possible to produce an analysis apparatus that performs the process steps that have been described. The analysis apparatus includes a measurement device for detecting a change in a power control signal, which represents a control instruction associated with the power consumption and is output to a connected computer component, for measuring a signal concerning the power at a connected computer component, and for storing the detection result and the measurement result in a storage device. A processor for performing the previously described characterization process may be incorporated in the analysis apparatus, or the analysis apparatus may be connected to another computer and may transmit data to the computer to cause it to perform this process.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5546568 (1996-08-01), Bland et al.
patent: 5606511 (1997-02-01), Yach
patent: 5900026 (1999-05-01), Ryu
patent: 5928365 (1999-07-01), Yoshida
Inoue Tadanobu
Kamijo Noboru
Kurogi Shin
Cameron Douglas W.
Dougherty' Anne Vachon
Etienne Ario
International Business Machines Corp.
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