Closed-loop control for performance tuning
View Patent ↗The present invention relates to a method and circuit arrangement for controlling performance of an integrated circuit in response to a monitored performance indicator, wherein power supply of the integrated circuit is controlled based on said performance indicator. At least one of a noise level of the controlled power supply and a clock frequency generated in said integrated circuit is monitored and a respective control signal is fed back to the controlling function if the checking result is not within a predetermined range. Thereby, an simple and easily extendable automatic adaptation to process variations can be achieved.
1. A circuit arrangement for controlling performance of an integrated circuit in response to a monitored performance indicator, said circuit arrangement comprising:
a performance control unit configured to receive said performance indicator and configured to independently control power supply to electrically isolated circuit regions of said integrated circuit based on said performance indicator; and
a monitoring unit configured to check at least a noise level of the controlled power supply, and signal a respective control signal to said performance control means if the checking result is not within a predetermined range, wherein said monitoring unit comprises a power-supply-noise monitor unit configured to check if the noise on the power supply voltage exceeds a predetermined maximum value, wherein said performance control unit is coupled to a voltage control unit configured to control said power supply, wherein said voltage control unit comprises a variable resistor unit and having at least two isolated circuit regions, further comprising a shift register unit coupled to said variable resistor unit and to a clock generator unit configured to supply an adjusted clock signal to said isolated circuit regions wherein said shift register unit is configured to be controlled based on a binary control signal supplied from said performance control unit and wherein said binary control signal defines a binary value shifted into said shift register unit so as to either increase or decrease the performance of said integrated circuit.
2. The circuit arrangement according to claim 1 , wherein said monitoring unit further comprises a clock comparing unit configured to compare a first clock pulse with a reference pulse which is synchronous to a clock pulse of a predetermined delay.
3. The circuit arrangement according to claim 2 , wherein said monitoring unit further comprises a delay unit configured to delay said first clock pulse by a predetermined time period associated with a worst case path delay.
4. The circuit arrangement according to claim 1 wherein said performance control unit comprises a finite state machine configured to store information about the current system state and configured to control transition to a state corresponding to said received performance indicator.
5. The circuit arrangement according to claim 4 , wherein said performance control unit comprises a suppression unit configured to suppress a state transition in response to the receipt of said respective control signal.
6. The circuit arrangement according to claim 1 , wherein said performance control unit is configured to operate at nominal power supply and said monitoring unit is configured to operate at said controlled power supply.
7. The circuit arrangement according to claim 6 , further comprising a shifting unit configured to shift the level of said respective control signal and configured to supply the level-shifted control signal to said performance monitoring unit.
8. The circuit arrangement according to claim 1 , wherein said performance control unit is arranged to control a back-bias voltage of said integrated circuit.
9. The circuit arrangement according to claim 1 having at least two isolated circuit regions wherein said performance control unit is configured to control a bypass means to skip at least one register means of a processing pipeline of said at least two isolated circuit regions.
10. The circuit arrangement according to claim 1 , wherein bit values of said shift register unit are used to individually bypass delay sections of said clock generator unit.
11. The circuit arrangement according to claim 1 , wherein said performance control unit is configured to select a predetermined profile mode from a plurality of profile modes, each profile mode defining a predetermined relationship between a set of performance parameters of said integrated circuit.
12. The circuit arrangement according to claim 11 , wherein said performance parameters comprise a clock frequency, a power supply voltage and a threshold voltage.
13. The circuit arrangement according to claim 11 , wherein said predetermined profile mode and said performance parameters are stored in a look-up table.
14. The circuit arrangement according to claim 11 , wherein said plurality of profile modes comprise a profile mode in which said power supply voltage and said clock frequency are maintained at a fixed relationship.
15. A method of controlling performance of an integrated circuit in response to a monitored performance indicator, said method comprising:
independently controlling, by a performance control unit, a power supply to electrically isolated circuit regions of said integrated circuit based on said performance indicator,
checking at least a noise level of the controlled power supply, and
feeding back a respective control signal to said controlling step if the checking result is not within a predetermined range,
wherein independently controlling the power supply comprises supplying an adjusted clock signal to at least two isolated circuit regions and controlling a shift register unit coupled to a variable resistor unit based on a binary control signal supplied from the performance control unit, and wherein said binary control signal defines a binary value shifted into said shift register unit so as to either increase or decrease the performance of the integrated circuit.
16. The method according to claim 15 , wherein independently controlling further comprises controlling a back-bias voltage of said integrated circuit.
17. The method according to claim 15 , wherein independently controlling further comprises controlling a bypass means to skip at least one register means of a processing pipeline of at least two isolated circuit regions of said integrated circuit.
18. The method according to claim 15 , wherein checking comprises comparing a first clock pulse with a reference pulse which is synchronous to a clock pulse of a predetermined delay and delaying the first clock pulse by a predetermined time period associated with a worst case path delay.
19. The method according to claim 15 , further comprising storing information about the current system state and controlling a transition to a state corresponding to said received performance indicator.
20. The method according to claim 19 , further comprising suppressing a state transition in response to the receipt of said respective control signal.