3D Many-Core Microprocessor Power Management by Space-Time Multiplexing Based Demand-Supply Matching

A reconfigurable power switch network is proposed to perform a demand-supply matched power management between 3D-integrated microprocessor cores and power converters. The power switch network makes physical connections between cores and converters by 3D through-silicon-vias (TSVs). Space-time multiplexing is achieved by the configuration of power switch network and is realized by learning and classifying power-signature of workloads. As such, by classifying workloads based on magnitude and phase of power-signature, space-time multiplexing can be performed with the minimum number of converters allocated to cluster of cores. Furthermore, a demand-response based workload scheduling is performed to reduce peak-power and to balance workload. The proposed power management is verified by system models with physical design parameters and benched power traces of workloads. For a 64-core case, experiment results show 40.53 percent peak-power reduction and 2.50x balanced workload along with a 42.86 percent reduction in the required number of power converters compared to the work without using STM based power management.