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A technique to adjust a processor's operating voltage dynamically while preventing a user from placing the processor into a harmful operating voltage state in relation to the core/bus frequency ratio of the processor. More particularly, embodiments of the invention relate to a technique to control t

A technique to adjust a processor's operating voltage dynamically while preventing a user from placing the processor into a harmful operating voltage state in relation to the core/bus frequency ratio of the processor. More particularly, embodiments of the invention relate to a technique to control the operating voltage of the processor as a function of the processor's bus and/or core clock frequency.

대표청구항 ▼

1. An apparatus comprising: a processor including: a core;a memory controller;an interface; andlogic to detect a change in a core/bus ratio between a core clock frequency and a bus clock frequency, and responsive to the change to calculate an operating voltage according to a linear equation, a varia

1. An apparatus comprising: a processor including: a core;a memory controller;an interface; andlogic to detect a change in a core/bus ratio between a core clock frequency and a bus clock frequency, and responsive to the change to calculate an operating voltage according to a linear equation, a variable of which is the core/bus ratio, wherein a user is prevented from adjusting the operating voltage independently of the core clock frequency and/or the bus clock frequency. 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein a slope of the linear equation is dependent upon a ratio of the difference between a maximum and minimum allowed core/bus ratio of the processor and the difference between a maximum and minimum allowed operating voltage of the processor. 3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the logic is to calculate the operating voltage of the processor automatically a plurality of times and the processor is able to function at each operating voltage without the processor being rebooted. 4. The apparatus of claim 3, further comprising micro-architectural instructions stored within the processor to cause calculation of the operating voltage in response to the detection of the change. 5. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the logic is to provide the calculated operating voltage to a power supply controller without writing of the calculated operating voltage to a machine specific register. 6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the logic is to determine whether a requested core/bus ratio is within an allowable range and, if not, to signal a fault condition. 7. A processor comprising: first logic to determine a core/bus ratio between a frequency at which a core clock is to be set and a frequency at which a bus coupled to the processor is to be set;second logic to calculate an operating voltage for the processor in response to the determination of the core/bus ratio and to prevent a user from adjusting the operating voltage, the second logic to calculate the operating voltage according to a linear equation having a slope based upon an operating voltage range and a core/bus ratio range;a controller to control a power supply, wherein the controller is to be configured with the calculated operating voltage. 8. The processor of claim 7, wherein the second logic is to calculate the operating voltage of the processor a plurality of times and the processor is able to function at each operating voltage without the processor being rebooted. 9. The processor of claim 8, wherein the second logic is to execute micro-architectural instructions stored within the processor to cause the operating voltage to be adjusted in response to the determination of the core/bus ratio. 10. The processor of claim 7, wherein the controller is to program the power supply with the operating voltage without using a user-available machine register. 11. The processor of claim 7, wherein the slope is dependent upon a ratio of the difference between a maximum and minimum allowed core/bus ratio and the difference between a maximum and minimum allowed operating voltage. 12. The processor of claim 7, further comprising logic to determine whether a requested core/bus ratio is within an allowable range and, if not, to signal a fault condition. 13. A system comprising: a processor to automatically calculate an operating voltage for the processor responsive to a change in a ratio between a bus/core frequency according to a sum of a minimum allowable operating voltage and a product of the ratio and a first value corresponding to a quotient of an operating voltage range and a ratio range;a variable power supply to provide the operating voltage to the processor responsive to the calculation. 14. The system of claim 13, wherein the processor is to program the variable power supply with the operating voltage without writing of an operating voltage value to a machine register of the processor. 15. The system of claim 14, wherein an operating system or a basic input/output system is to write a value of the ratio to the machine register and is not to write the operating voltage value to the machine register. 16. The system of claim 13, wherein a value of the operating voltage is not exposed to a user of the system. 17. The system of claim 14, wherein the processor further includes a memory controller. 18. The system of claim 14, wherein the processor further includes an interface logic.