System and method for determining power consumption
A system and method is provided to measure the power consumption of circuits whereby, in one aspect, a processor's temperature is maintained so that its power consumption is measured at the point the processor throttles.
1. A system for applying cooling to a first processor, the system comprising:
a second processor configured to:
supply power to the first processor, whereby an amount of power applied to the processor changes over time;
regulate an amount of cooling applied to the first processor so as to cause the first processor to periodically decrease and increase a clock speed of the first processor;
determine an amount of power to the first processor when a length of time associated with the decreased clock speed and a length of time associated with the increased clock speed reach a predetermined characteristic; and
apply cooling to the first processor based on the determined amount of power to the first processor.
2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the characteristic comprises the length of time associated with the decreased clock speed being relatively equal to the length of time associated with the increased clock speed.
3. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a fan configured to regulate the cooling.
4. The system of claim 3 , wherein the second processor is further configured to fan speed based on said lengths of time.
5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the second processor is further configured to apply the cooling to the first processor by operating a fan to cool the first processor.
6. The system of claim 1 , further comprising the first processor.
7. A system of determining the power consumption of a first processor having a clock speed, the system comprising:
a second processor configured to:
supply power to the first processor, whereby the amount of power applied to the first processor changes over time;
regulate the amount of external cooling applied to the first processor so as to cause the first processor to periodically decrease and increase a clock speed of the first processor; and
determine the amount of power to the first processor when a length of time associated with a decreased clock speed and a length of time associated with an increased clock speed reach a predetermined characteristic.
8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the characteristic comprises the length of time associated with the decreased clock speed being relatively equal to the length of time associated with the increased clock speed.
9. The system of claim 7 , further comprising a fan configured to regulate the cooling.
10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the second processor is further configured to fan speed based on said lengths of time.