System and method for monitoring and controlling a power-manageable resource based upon activities of a plurality of devices
First Claim
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1. A method comprising:
- monitoring one or more power-manageable devices coupled to a power-manageable resource, wherein said monitoring includes determining whether all of said one or more power-manageable devices are inactive; and
powering down said power-manageable resource if all of said power-manageable devices are inactive;
wherein said power-manageable resource comprises a timeslot bus, and wherein each frame transmitted over said timeslot bus includes a plurality of status bits, wherein each of said status bits corresponds to one of said one or more devices and indicates whether a corresponding device is inactive.
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Abstract
A system and method for monitoring and controlling a power-manageable resource. In one embodiment, a power manageable resource, such as a bus in a computer system, may be shareable among a number of power-manageable devices. A resource monitor may also be coupled to the power-manageable resource. The resource monitor may be configured to monitor the devices coupled to the power manageable resource. More specifically, the functions of the resource monitor may include monitoring the active/inactive state of each of the attached devices. The resource monitor may be configured to cause the sharable resource to be powered down if it is determined that all the attached devices are in an inactive state.
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Citations
24 Claims
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1. A method comprising:
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monitoring one or more power-manageable devices coupled to a power-manageable resource, wherein said monitoring includes determining whether all of said one or more power-manageable devices are inactive; and
powering down said power-manageable resource if all of said power-manageable devices are inactive;
wherein said power-manageable resource comprises a timeslot bus, and wherein each frame transmitted over said timeslot bus includes a plurality of status bits, wherein each of said status bits corresponds to one of said one or more devices and indicates whether a corresponding device is inactive. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A system comprising:
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a sharable resource, wherein control of said shareable resource includes power-management operations, and wherein said sharable resource is a bus, wherein said bus comprises a timeslot bus configured for transmitting frames, and wherein each of said frames includes a plurality of status bits, wherein each of said status bits corresponds to one of said one or more devices, and wherein each of said status bits indicates whether a corresponding device is inactive;
one or more devices coupled to said shareable resource, wherein each of said devices is configured to use said sharable resource, and wherein control of said one or more devices includes power management operations; and
a resource monitor, wherein said resource monitor is configured to monitor said one or more devices to determine whether all of said devices are inactive, and wherein said resource monitor is configured to cause the powering down of said sharable resource if each of said one or more devices is inactive, wherein said resource monitor includes a logic circuit coupled to said bus, and wherein said logic circuit is configured to examine data transmitted across said bus to determine whether each of said devices is inactive. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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22. A method comprising:
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monitoring one or more power-manageable devices coupled to a power-manageable resource, wherein said monitoring includes determining whether all of said one or more power-manageable devices are inactive; and
powering down said power-manageable resource if all of said power-manageable devices are inactive, wherein said power-manageable resource comprises a packet bus configured to periodically transmit one or more idle frames, wherein each of said one or more idle frames includes a status word, and wherein each status word includes a plurality of status bits, wherein each of said status bits corresponds to one of said one or more devices to determine whether a corresponding device is inactive.
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23. A method comprising:
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monitoring one or more power-manageable devices coupled to a power-manageable resource, wherein said monitoring includes determining whether all of said one or more power-manageable devices are inactive; and
powering down said power-manageable resource if all of said power-manageable devices are inactive, wherein said resource comprises a packet bus, wherein each of said power-manageable devices is configured to transmit an activate packet responsive to becoming active and a deactivate packet responsive to becoming deactivated, and wherein said monitoring each of said one or more power-manageable devices comprises monitoring said active packet and said deactivate packet for each of said power-manageable devices.
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24. A method comprising:
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monitoring one or more power-manageable devices coupled to a power-manageable resource, wherein said monitoring includes determining whether all of said one or more power-manageable devices are inactive; and
powering down said power-manageable resource if all of said power-manageable devices are inactive, wherein each of said power-manageable devices includes one or more registers configured to store active/inactive data, wherein each of said one or more registers corresponds to one of said power-manageable devices, and wherein said data in one of said registers is updated responsive to a corresponding power-manageable device becoming active or inactive, and wherein said monitoring of said one or more power-manageable devices comprises monitoring said one or more registers.
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Specification