Method and apparatus for a computer power management function including selective sleep states
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A computer system having a power saving feature, comprising:
- a plurality of subsystems coupled together to provide a computer function, wherein each subsystem can be independently placed into a power saving mode with reduced power consumption;
a consumer device which provides a consumer-oriented function separately from the computer function, wherein the consumer device is coupled to one or more of the plurality of subsystems and shares usage of one or more of the subsystems with the computer function;
a power switch which removes power from all of the plurality of subsystems;
a user-accessible sleep button which causes a sleep signal to be generated indicating that a sleep mode is to be activated; and
a power management function which, in response to the sleep signal, determines whether the consumer device is active and, if the consumer device is active, places all of the plurality of subsystems except those necessary to operate the consumer device in a power saving mode and, if the consumer device is not active, additionally places additional subsystems which are normally necessary to operate the consumer device in a power saving mode.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The invention provides a power saving feature in a computer system such as a desktop computer using the Windows™ operating system. The computer system includes one or more "sleep" buttons which selectively reduce power consumption to subsystems based on the status of various consumer devices which share the subsystems with a computer function of the system. From the user'"'"'s perspective, each sleep button acts as a power switch for the computer but not for devices associated with the computer. Each sleep button transitions the computer from its normal power-on state to one or more power saving states depending on which consumer devices are active.
-
Citations
28 Claims
-
1. A computer system having a power saving feature, comprising:
-
a plurality of subsystems coupled together to provide a computer function, wherein each subsystem can be independently placed into a power saving mode with reduced power consumption; a consumer device which provides a consumer-oriented function separately from the computer function, wherein the consumer device is coupled to one or more of the plurality of subsystems and shares usage of one or more of the subsystems with the computer function; a power switch which removes power from all of the plurality of subsystems; a user-accessible sleep button which causes a sleep signal to be generated indicating that a sleep mode is to be activated; and a power management function which, in response to the sleep signal, determines whether the consumer device is active and, if the consumer device is active, places all of the plurality of subsystems except those necessary to operate the consumer device in a power saving mode and, if the consumer device is not active, additionally places additional subsystems which are normally necessary to operate the consumer device in a power saving mode. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
-
-
13. A method of implementing a power saving feature in a computer system, the computer system comprising a plurality of subsystems which collectively support a computer function, wherein each subsystem can be independently placed into a power saving mode to reduce power consumption;
- a consumer device which provides a consumer-oriented function separately from the computer function, wherein the consumer device is coupled to one or more of the plurality of subsystems and shares usage of one or more of the subsystems with the computer function;
a power switch which removes power from all of the plurality of subsystems; and
a user-accessible sleep button which causes a sleep signal to be generated indicating that a sleep mode is to be activated, the method comprising the steps of;(1) detecting activation of the sleep signal from the user-accessible sleep button; and (2) in response to step (1), determining whether the consumer device is active and, if the consumer device is active, placing all of the plurality of subsystems except those necessary to operate the consumer device in the power saving mode and, if the consumer device is not active, additionally placing all remaining subsystems in the power saving mode. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
- a consumer device which provides a consumer-oriented function separately from the computer function, wherein the consumer device is coupled to one or more of the plurality of subsystems and shares usage of one or more of the subsystems with the computer function;
-
19. A method for saving power in a computer system, comprising the steps of:
-
(1) detecting inactivity of one or more subsystems in the system over time; (2) responsive to detecting inactivity of the one or more of the subsystems, determining whether any of a plurality of consumer devices which are controlled by the computer system is active; (3) responsive to determining that one of the consumer devices is active, inhibiting power saving features for subsystems required to operate the active consumer device and implementing power saving features for subsystems not required to operate the active consumer device; and (4) responsive to determining that none of the consumer devices is active, implementing power saving features for subsystems normally required to operate one or more of the consumer devices. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
-
-
26. A computer system comprising:
-
a plurality of subsystems which collectively support a computer function, wherein each subsystem can be independently placed into a power saving mode to reduce power consumption; a consumer device which provides a consumer-oriented function separately from the computer function, wherein the consumer device is coupled to one or more of the plurality of subsystems and shares usage of one or more of the subsystems with the computer function; a power switch which removes power from all of the plurality of subsystems; and a user-accessible sleep button which causes a sleep signal to be generated indicating that a sleep mode is to be activated, wherein the computer system operates in an OFF state, ON APM ENABLED state, a SLEEP(-) state, and a SLEEP(+) state, wherein the OFF state is characterized by a total lack of power to all of the plurality of subsystems; wherein the ON APM ENABLED state is characterized by steps of initially providing full power to each of the plurality of subsystems and, upon detecting occurrence of either the sleep signal or inactivity from one or more of the plurality of subsystems, transitioning the system to the SLEEP(-) state; wherein the SLEEP(-) state is characterized by steps of placing those of the plurality of the subsystems which are not required to support an active consumer device into a power saving mode and inhibiting the power saving mode for those subsystems required to support any such active consumer device, and further characterized by steps of transitioning the system into the SLEEP(+) mode upon detecting occurrence of a hardware interrupt; and wherein the SLEEP(+) state is characterized by steps of determining which of the plurality of subsystems are required to perform a function corresponding to the hardware interrupt and, in response thereto, reactivating only those subsystems required to perform the function and, upon completion of the function, returning the system to the SLEEP(-) state. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28)
-
Specification