HIERARCHICAL POWER MANAGEMENT APPARATUS AND METHOD

Hierarchical Power Management (HPM) architecture considers the limits of scaling on a power management controller, the autonomy at each die, and provides a unified view of the package to a platform. At a simplest level, HPM architecture has a supervisor and one or more supervisee power management units (PMUs) that communicate via at least two different communication fabrics. Each PMU can behave as a supervisor for a number of supervisee PMUs in a particular domain. HPM addresses these needs for products that comprise a collection of dice with varying levels of power and thermal management capabilities and needs. HPM serves as a unified mechanism than can span collection of dice of varying capability and function, which together form a traditional system-on-chip (SOC). HPM provides a basis for managing power and thermals across a diverse set of dice.