Dynamic power consumption control for a computer or other electronic apparatus

• US 6,574,740 B1
• Filed: 12/07/1999
• Issued: 06/03/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 12/07/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Lenovo PC International Limited (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Odaohhara, Shigefumi, Naitoh, Arimasa
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, Thomas
• Assistant Examiner(s): Barqadle, Yasin
• Application Number:
  US09/455,661
• Time in Patent Office: 1,274 Days
• Field of Search: 713/1, 713/330, 713/320, 713/340, 713/323, 320/115
• US Class Current: 713/323
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/32 Means for saving power
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3265 Power saving in display device
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

Disclosed is a method and apparatus for controlling power consumption of the PC, which is provided with base loads comprising a plurality of components, as well as a CPU including operation modes of “throttling” and “clock-down”. Actual power consumption 103 of the CPU in a certain operation mode varies heavily or widely within a range of maximum power consumption of the CPU. A variation of actual power consumption 101 of the base loads is relatively gentle or mild. Predicted maximum power consumption (Pmax) of the PC is obtained from actual power consumption of the base loads and maximum power consumption in the current operation mode of the CPU. Reference power vales 121, 123, 125 are set up such that they are compared with the Pmax for changing an operation mode to another operation mode. When the Pmax exceeds a reference power vale, the operation mode of the CPU is changed for controlling actual power consumption of the PC.

Claims

1. A method of controlling power consumption of a computer, which is provided with base loads comprising a plurality of components, and a CPU including a plurality of operation modes associated with power consumption thereof, the method comprising the steps of:

obtaining predicted maximum power consumption of said computer from actual power consumption of said base loads and maximum power consumption in a current operation mode of said CPU;

providing reference power;

comparing said predicted maximum power consumption with said reference power; and

changing the operation mode of said CPU in response to said comparing step.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the operation modes of said CPU includes either one of operation modes or a combination of plural operation modes selected from the group consisting of a throttling mode, a clock-down mode, a standby mode and a suspend mode.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of adjusting brightness of a display device of said computer in response to said comparing step.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of changing the operation mode of said CPU, when a sum of the actual power consumption of said base loads and the actual power consumption of said CPU exceeds the reference power of said computer.

5. A method of controlling power consumption of a computer, which is provided with base loads comprising a plurality of components, a display device with its brightness being adjustable, and a CPU including a plurality of operation modes associated with power consumption thereof, the method comprising the steps of:

obtaining predicted maximum power consumption of said computer from actual power consumption of said base loads, maximum power consumption associated with the brightness of said display device, and maximum power consumption in a current operation mode of said CPU;

providing reference power;

comparing said predicted maximum power consumption with said reference power; and

changing the operation mode of said CPU in response to said comparing step.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the operation modes of said CPU includes either one of operation modes or a combination of plural operation modes selected from the group consisting of a throttling mode, a clock-down mode, a standby mode and a suspend mode.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising the step of adjusting the brightness of said display device in response to said comparing step.

8. The method of claim 5, further comprising the step of changing the operation mode of said CPU and/or the brightness of said display device, when a sum of the actual power consumption of said base loads, the actual power consumption of said display device, and the actual power consumption of said CPU exceeds the reference power of said computer.

9. A computer that is provided with base loads comprising a plurality of components, and a CPU including a plurality of operation modes associated with power consumption thereof, comprising:

means for obtaining predicted maximum power consumption of said computer from actual power consumption of said base loads and maximum power consumption in a current operation mode of said CPU;

means for providing reference power;

means for comparing said predicted maximum power consumption with said reference power; and

means for changing the operation mode of said CPU in response to said comparing means.

10. The computer of claim 9, wherein the operation modes of said CPU includes either one of operation modes or a combination of plural operation modes selected from the group consisting of a throttling mode, a clock-down mode, a standby mode and a suspend mode.

11. The computer of claim 9, further comprising means for adjusting brightness of a display device of said computer in response to said comparing means.

12. The computer of claim 9, further comprising means for changing the operation mode of said CPU, when a sum of the actual power consumption of said base loads and the actual power consumption of said CPU exceeds the reference power of said computer.

13. A computer that is provided with base loads comprising a plurality of components, a display device with its brightness being adjustable, and a CPU including a plurality of operation modes associated with power consumption thereof, comprising:

means for obtaining predicted maximum power consumption of said computer from actual power consumption of said base loads, the maximum power consumption associated with the brightness of said display device, and maximum power consumption in a current operation mode of said CPU;

means for providing reference power;

means for comparing said predicted maximum power consumption with said reference power; and

means for changing the operation mode of said CPU in response to said comparing means.

14. The computer of claim 13, wherein the operation modes of said CPU includes either one of operation modes or a combination of plural operation modes selected from the group consisting of a throttling mode, a clock-down mode, a standby mode and a suspend mode.

15. The computer of claim 13, further comprising means for adjusting the brightness of said display device in response to said comparing means.

16. The computer of claim 13, further comprising means for changing the operation mode of said CPU and/or the brightness of said display device, when a sum of the actual power consumption of said base loads, the actual power consumption of said display device, and the actual power consumption of said CPU exceeds the reference power of said computer.

17. A computer that is provided with base loads comprising a plurality of components, and a CPU including a plurality of operation modes associated with power consumption thereof, comprising:

a power controller for calculating predicted maximum power consumption of said computer from actual power consumption of said base loads, and maximum power consumption in a current operation mode of said CPU, and for comparing it with reference power to generate a signal for changing the operation mode of said CPU; and

a device for receiving the signal from said power controller to change the operation mode of said CPU.