HIERARCHICAL POWER MANAGEMENT WITH HOT MODE

• US 20100174925A1
• Filed: 10/23/2009
• Published: 07/08/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/07/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Company (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Company (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: BARDE, Kaushik
• Granted Patent: US 8,185,766 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/300
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3203 Power management, i.e. event-based initiation of a power-saving mode

Abstract

Methods, systems, apparatuses and program products are disclosed for providing power/energy control.

HPM (Hierarchical Power Management) systems provide for and improve on the power management support beyond what is available in current PC notebooks and desktops.

Claims

1. A method of managing a computing platform comprising:

maintaining a first PMFSM (power management finite state machine);

virtualizing a first power state within the first PMFSM into a first operating system running in an unprivileged hypervisor domain;

maintaining a second PMFSM running in a privileged hypervisor domain and

providing a second power state within the second PMFSM into a second operating system running in the privileged hypervisor domain

wherein a PMFSM selected from the first and the second PMFSM provides a power management policy to provide mutually different first and second power states.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein:

the first PMFSM (power management finite state machine) provides S-states (Sleep states) that conform to an ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface).

3. The method of claim 2 wherein:

the first and the second PMFSMs (power management finite state machines) operate cooperatively so that the first PMFSM is in an ACPI S3 Sleep state while the second PMFSM is in a hotter state until a transition of the second PMFSM to the ACPI S3 Sleep state occurs.

4. The method of claim 1 further including:

providing a policy engine to cause the second PMFSM (power management finite state machine) to enforce a power management policy.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein:

the policy engine comprises a presentation mode criterion.

6. The method of claim 4 wherein:

the policy engine provides for a presentation mode, a power-optimized mode and a Windows active mode.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein

the first and the second PMFSMs (power management finite state machines) communicate with device drivers.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein

the first and the second PMFSMs (power management finite state machines) communicate with device drivers by a DBus.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein

the second PMFSM (power management finite state machine) provides for a state compatible with ACPI S3 (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface Sleep State 3) wherein a display is turned off, at least one wireless device is turned on and a state selected from a list consisting of an asleep state, a hibernated state and a shutdown state is virtualized into the unprivileged domain.

10. A computer program product comprising:

at least one computer-readable medium having instructions encoded therein, the instructions when executed by at least one processor cause said at least one processor to

operate to implement the method of claim 1.

11. A method comprising:

an act of modulating a signal onto an electro-magnetic carrier wave impressed into a tangible medium, or of demodulating the signal from the electro-magnetic carrier wave, the signal having instructions encoded therein, the instructions when executed by at least one processor causing said at least one processor to

operate to implement the method of claim 1.

12. An electronic device comprising:

a controller; and

a memory having instructions encoded therein, the instructions when executed by the controller cause said controller to

operate for power management by steps that implement the method of claim 1.