dynamic voltage scaling
Enable an AI agent to recognise dynamic voltage scaling, assess its operating constraints and effects, and determine which supply-voltage changes are permitted under changing workload or device conditions.
Bundle → Layer → Finding → Questions Filled
6 bundles · 11 layers · 17 findings · 27 questions
Voltage scaling identity Establishes what activity is being modelled and which electrical domain it affects.
Mechanism boundary
Records the operational meaning of dynamic voltage scaling in the implementation.
Runtime voltage selection
Establish whether an identifiable mechanism changes the supply-voltage target during operation and how its terminology relates to DVS, DVFS and adaptive voltage scaling.
- What runtime behaviour qualifies as dynamic voltage scaling in this implementation? definition
- Which observations distinguish target changes from static undervolting, frequency-only changes and uncommanded voltage variation? boundary
Electrical control domain
Identifies the supply being adjusted and all consumers constrained by its setting.
Shared rail membership
Record the controlled rail, its consumers and any coupling that prevents independent voltage selection.
- Which processors, memories, accelerators or other circuits share the adjusted voltage? boundary
- Which hardware documentation or inspected configuration establishes rail membership and control ownership? provenance
Permitted voltage envelope Represents supported settings and the conditions under which they are valid.
Supported operating points
Captures selectable voltages and their relationships to clocks and other component constraints.
Voltage-frequency permissions
Record discrete operating points or a validated selection rule, including limits imposed by every affected consumer.
- Which voltage targets or ranges are permitted at each relevant clock frequency? measurement
- What evidence authorises these combinations, and does it permit interpolation between listed points? provenance
Condition-dependent validity
Records where operating-point evidence applies and what may invalidate it.
Margins and device conditions
Associate voltage limits and margins with the implementation's stated temperature, variation, ageing and supply-delivery assumptions.
- For which device revisions, temperatures and lifetime assumptions has the operating envelope been validated? provenance
- What action is required when a monitored condition leaves that envelope or cannot be measured reliably? action
Voltage selection policy Explains how observations and obligations produce a proposed target.
Workload and service constraints
Relates voltage decisions to work that must be completed and constraints that must be preserved.
Decision objective and obligations
Record whether the controller seeks energy reduction, power limitation, thermal relief or another objective, together with binding performance requirements.
- What objective selects among permitted targets, and over what workload or time horizon is it evaluated? definition
- Which deadlines, latency bounds or throughput requirements must a proposed change preserve? measurement
Feedback and decision timing
Captures the observations and temporal rules used to select targets.
Controller inputs and stability
Record signal freshness, prediction assumptions, thresholds and mechanisms that limit excessive switching or conflicting requests.
- Which utilisation, queue, timing, power or temperature signals drive voltage selection, and how fresh must they be? measurement
- What hysteresis, minimum residence time or arbitration rule governs repeated or conflicting target requests? action
Voltage transition execution Represents the path from an authorised target request to a verified operating state.
Transition coordination
Captures the implementation-specific ordering of voltage, clock and dependent-component changes.
Validated transition procedure
Record the required sequence, intermediate-state constraints and authority responsible for applying the transition.
- What documented sequence coordinates voltage and clock changes for each transition direction? action
- Which intermediate settings, slew limits and shared-domain dependencies constrain that sequence? boundary
Completion and recovery
Distinguishes request acceptance, electrical settling and successful operation.
Target verification and fallback
Identify the evidence for completion, timeout conditions and a validated recovery route.
- What acknowledgement or measurement demonstrates that the target voltage has settled within its required tolerance? measurement
- Which recovery procedure applies to rejection, timeout, unexpected rail behaviour or a detected execution error? action
Scaling outcome evidence Assesses whether voltage scaling achieved its objective while preserving required operation.
Energy and performance accounting
Defines a fair comparison of scaling policies or operating choices.
Workload-normalised comparison
Compare equivalent completed work using explicit energy boundaries, execution time and transition overhead.
- What baseline, workload and measurement boundary support the energy comparison? measurement
- Does the accounting include transition energy, changed execution duration and regulator losses where they fall within that boundary? boundary
Correctness and evidence limits
Records observed failures and the limits of successful validation.
Validated results and detection coverage
Link outcome claims to validation workloads, error-detection coverage and the conditions actually tested.
- Which tests and runtime monitors support correctness and timing claims at the selected voltages? provenance
- Which workloads, device conditions or silent-error modes remain outside the evidence? boundary
Evidence and external alignment What the world already says about this thing, gathered so the model can be checked against it.
Reported evidence
Findings from the breadth pass, kept separate from the structural claims.
Check these first
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Which of these check these first hold for the sense of dynamic voltage scaling this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Kinds and varieties
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Which of these kinds and varieties hold for the sense of dynamic voltage scaling this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Identifiers and schemes
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Which of these identifiers and schemes hold for the sense of dynamic voltage scaling this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Real-world use
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of dynamic voltage scaling this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Typical measurements
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Which of these typical measurements hold for the sense of dynamic voltage scaling this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Failure modes and hazards
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of dynamic voltage scaling this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of dynamic voltage scaling this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Classifiers Filled
- Family
- Thing Registry
- Category
- Activities and processes
- Entry kind
- thing
- Plane
- ACT
- Domain
- ACT.ACT
What it is Filled
Dynamic voltage scaling is a power-management technique that changes an integrated circuit's supply voltage during operation to reduce energy consumption while maintaining the timing and functional requirements of its current workload.
In scope
- Identification of the circuit, supply rail and shared voltage domain subject to runtime adjustment
- Supported voltage settings and their dependence on frequency, operating conditions and validation evidence
- Policies that choose voltage changes from workload, timing, power or thermal observations
- Execution, acknowledgement and recovery of voltage transitions
- Evaluation of correctness, performance and energy effects against an explicit baseline
Out of scope
- Dynamic frequency scaling considered independently of supply-voltage changes
- Power gating and the lifecycle of switching an entire domain off or on
- Voltage-regulator circuit design and manufacture
- Static undervolting configuration without runtime voltage selection
- General workload scheduling except where it supplies constraints or signals for voltage decisions
- Whole-device thermal management beyond its constraints on the scaling activity
Why it exists Filled
Enable an AI agent to recognise dynamic voltage scaling, assess its operating constraints and effects, and determine which supply-voltage changes are permitted under changing workload or device conditions.
Distinguishing features Filled
- An instance must involve runtime selection or adjustment of a circuit's supply-voltage target; changing only clock frequency does not establish dynamic voltage scaling.
- A fixed undervolted setting alone does not establish dynamic scaling; the model must identify how voltage can change during operation.
- A voltage transition must be distinguishable from uncontrolled rail droop, measurement noise or regulator ripple.
- Switching a domain off is a neighbouring power-gating action; scaling concerns voltage selection for operation, with retention-only states explicitly classified at the boundary.
- When voltage and frequency are jointly controlled, the model identifies dynamic voltage scaling as the voltage component of the combined activity rather than treating DVS and DVFS as automatically interchangeable.
What robots and AI may and may not do Filled
Must not
- Push voltages outside safe operating ranges on hardware.
- Change power settings on systems the agent does not administer.
- Disable thermal or power protection to gain performance.
Only with a human decision
- Changing power management on safety-critical or shared systems.
May
- Explain how dynamic voltage scaling saves energy and its trade-offs.
- Adjust voltage settings on hardware the agent is authorized to manage, within the manufacturer's limits.
Moral aspects Filled
- Energy efficiency reduces costs and environmental impact.
- Unstable settings can cause data loss for users.
Who is affected
- Device users
- System operators
Owners Filled
Steward
Nobody owns the technique; the operator of a device answers for its settings.
Links to other meta-models Filled
parent
- Q7448229 - registry parent class
- Q7940752 - registry parent class
What else AI and robots need to interact with it Filled
Identity and identifiers required Filled
- Vercy registry: vr.tr.dynamic-voltage-scaling
- Wikidata: Q632037 (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q632037)
Direct properties not applicable Not applicable
- Controlled voltage domain: Supply rail, powered components and components sharing its voltage setting
- Scaling mechanism: Discrete operating-point selection, continuously adjustable target, feedback-driven adjustment, or implementation-defined
- Requested and observed supply voltage: V, with timestamp, measurement location and uncertainty
- Associated clock frequency: Hz per affected clock domain
- Validated operating envelope: Permitted voltage-frequency combinations linked to temperature, device variation, ageing assumptions and validation evidence
- Decision policy: Controller, input signals, objective, thresholds, hysteresis and decision interval
- Performance obligation: Deadline or latency in s, throughput in completed work/s, or an explicitly defined service constraint
- Transition state: Stable, requested, transitioning, settled, rejected, failed, or recovering
- Transition duration: s, with separately defined command, ramp, settling and coordination intervals where observable
- Energy per completed workload: J for a defined workload and measurement boundary
- Correctness and timing evidence: Validation results, runtime error observations, timing monitors and recovery records
Plane ACT: no invented physical properties.
Recognition optional Filled
- Not visible; observed through voltage and frequency readings in monitoring tools.
Capabilities and actions required Filled
- Classify an observed control action as voltage scaling, combined voltage-frequency scaling or a neighbouring mechanism.
- Enumerate permitted target voltages for the current frequency, domain membership and operating conditions.
- Propose or request an authorised voltage transition using the platform's validated coordination procedure.
- Check whether the requested target was reached and invoke a documented recovery action when it was not.
- Compare candidate policies using correctness, workload completion, energy and transition overhead.
- Identify unsupported operating points or missing evidence and withhold their use pending validation.
Hazards and failure modes required Filled
- Too low a voltage causes crashes and data corruption.
- Overvolting causes overheating and shortens hardware life.
Standards and interfaces required Filled
- The Advanced Configuration and Power Interface specification, issued by the UEFI Forum, defines operating-system power and performance management interfaces relevant to platforms that coordinate voltage changes with processor performance states.
Context of use required Filled
- Dynamic voltage scaling is used in processors and other integrated circuits whose workloads and power requirements change during operation.
- Device controllers and operating systems use it to manage energy consumption and heat while respecting supported operating conditions and performance requirements.
Sources Filled
- Wikidata item Q632037: dynamic voltage scaling - identity and sense of the item
- Wikipedia: Dynamic voltage scaling - general description of the item
Open questions
- Which authoritative sources should establish the registry definition and the relationship among DVS, DVFS and adaptive voltage scaling?
- Should this entry include runtime voltage adjustment of non-computational circuits, or should its scope remain computational voltage domains?
- Should transitions into retention-only voltage states count as DVS here or belong entirely to a neighbouring power-state model?
- How should intentionally error-tolerant voltage scaling be represented when detected errors and recovery are part of the operating policy?
- What minimum validation and telemetry evidence should an agent require before recommending or applying an operating point on a particular platform?
Machine files
Provenance
thing registry research (pass 2) · unreviewed
Built from: models/things/publications/thing-q632037/spec.json