POWER MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AND METHOD

• US 20090309541A1
• Filed: 08/20/2009
• Published: 12/17/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/27/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: WALRATH, Craig A.
• Granted Patent: US 7,834,585 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 320/107
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/26 Power supply means, e.g. regulation thereof for memories G11C
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3203 Power management, i.e. event-based initiation of a power-saving mode
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3212 Monitoring battery levels, e.g. power saving mode being initiated when battery voltage goes below a certain level
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3287 by switching off individual functional units in the computer system
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A power management system is configured to selectively control use of power-consuming applications that are executable by the processor based at least on a prioritization of the power-consuming applications to enable powering of the electronic device by a battery for at least a requested duration of time.

Claims

1-30. -30. (canceled)

31. A computer-readable medium that stores executable instructions that when executed by a processor cause the processor to perform a method, the method comprising:

determining a requested duration of time for powering an electronic device by a battery connected to the electronic device;

selectively controlling use of power-consuming applications that are executable by the processor based at least on a prioritization of the power-consuming applications to enable powering of the electronic device by the battery for at least the requested duration of time; and

monitoring the consumption of power by the electronic device.

32. The computer-readable medium of claim 31, further comprising instructions that when executed adjust a level of use of at least one of the power-consuming applications where adjusting the level of use comprises closing an application or placing an application in hibernation.

33. The computer-readable medium of claim 31, further comprising instructions that when executed:

in response to an application being initiated for execution, determine an affect of executing an application on the requested duration of time; and

prevent the application from executing based at least on the affect determined.

34. An electronic device, comprising:

a processor for at least executing power-consuming applications, where the power-consuming applications have an assigned priority;

a battery electrically connected for providing power to at least the processor;

a power management module to selectively control the processor to execute the power-consuming applications based at least on the assigned priority of the power-consuming applications to enable powering of the electronic device by the battery for at least a requested duration of time; and

a power monitor to monitor the consumption of power by the electronic device.

35. The electronic device of claim 34, where the power management module is configured to adjust a level of use of at least one of the power-consuming applications where adjusting the level of use comprises closing an application or placing an application in hibernation.

36. The electronic device of claim 34, where the power management module is configured to:

in response to an application being initiated for execution, determining an affect of executing the application on the requested duration of time; and

preventing the application from executing based at least on the affect determined.

37. The electronic device of claim 34, where the power management module is configured to dynamically adjust a priority level of at least one power-consuming application during execution.

38. The electronic device of claim 34, where the power management module is configured to dynamically control use of at least one executing power-consuming application in response to a change to the battery powering the electronic device.

39. The electronic device of claim 34, where the power management module is configured to dynamically adjust a priority level of at least one executing power-consuming application.

40. A method for managing power consumption in an electronic device, the method comprising:

assigning, by a processor in the electronic device, a priority to selected executable applications from a plurality of executable applications that when executed by the processor cause the processor to consume battery power;

executing, by the processor, one or more of the executable applications in the electronic device;

determining, by the processor, an estimated battery power duration based at least on analyzing the battery and power draw conditions from the executing applications; and

if the estimated battery power duration is below a requested duration of time, ceasing execution, by the processor, of one or more of the executing applications.

41. The method of claim 40, where ceasing execution of one or more of the executing applications includes ceasing execution of an executing application that has a lower priority than other executing applications.

42. The method of claim 40, further comprising receiving the requested duration of time for powering the electronic device from a user interface and storing the requested duration in a memory.