Managing power requirement changes by inserting dummy operations

摘要

The power requirements of a semiconductor device such as a processor are monitored. When a change in power consumption is detected, dummy instructions are inserted into the sequence being executed to smooth or limit the change. This prevents voltage spikes. The null instructions may be high current instructions if the power use is falling or low current instructions if the power use is rising. The power requirements may be calculated by estimating the power requirements of the instructions to be executed. It may take into account in the state of the processor. The estimate may be made over a number of cycles of the processor. It may use power fluctuation limits or a model of the power supply to determine when to insert no-operation instructions. A look-up table may be used to estimate the power requirements of each instruction.