HETEROGENEOUS MULTIPROCESSOR DESIGN FOR POWER-EFFICIENT AND AREA-EFFICIENT COMPUTING

• Main Authors: PATEL RAHUL GAUTAM, HICOK GARY D, LONGNECKER MATTHEW RAYMOND
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 26.06.2014
• Subjects: CALCULATING; CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES IN INFORMATION ANDCOMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES [ICT], I.E. INFORMATION ANDCOMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES AIMING AT THE REDUCTION OF THIR OWNENERGY USE; COMPUTING; COUNTING; ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; PHYSICS; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS; TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINSTCLIMATE CHANGE

A technique for managing processor cores within a multi-core central processing unit (CPU) provides efficient power and resource utilization over a wide workload range. The CPU comprises at least one core designed for low power operation and at least one core designed for high performance operation. For low workloads, the low power core executes the workload. For certain higher workloads, the high performance core executes the workload. For certain other workloads, the low power core and the high performance core both share execution of the workload. This technique advantageously enables efficient processing over a wider range of workloads than conventional systems.