Low power mode for device power management

• US 7,437,575 B2
• Filed: 05/29/2003
• Issued: 10/14/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/29/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Walker, Andrew A., Dennis, Lowell Browning
• Primary Examiner(s): Perveen; Rehana
• Assistant Examiner(s): Stoynov; Stefan
• Application Number:
  US10/447,852
• Publication Number:
  US 20040243858A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,965 Days
• Field of Search: 713/320, 713/324, 713/300
• US Class Current: 713/300
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3203 Power management, i.e. event-based initiation of a power-saving mode

Abstract

An information handling system having PCI devices which comply with the Power Management Interface Specification have a low power mode that may be used to put Power Management Capability devices into a low power state when the information handling system enters into S4 or S5. A firmware or software low power mode program, retained in non-volatile memory of the information handling system, recognizes when the information handling system is entering S4 or S5. The low power mode program may clear the Power Management Event Enable or not in each of the Power Management Capable devices when the information handling system enters into S4 or S5.

Claims

1. An information handling system having a low power mode, said system comprising:

information handling equipment having at least one system low power mode;

at least one peripheral device coupled to said information handling equipment having low power mode capability;

a low power enable bit integral to said at least one peripheral device, wherein, when the low power enable bit is in a first logic state, said at least one peripheral device draws reduced power when said information handling equipment is in the at least one system low power mode; and

a non-volatile memory in said information handling equipment, said non-volatile memory having a low power mode bit that is set when the information handling system is currently in a low power mode;

a BIOS memory that includes software for setting the low power enable bit of the at least one peripheral device to a first logic level and thereby causing the at least one peripheral device to draw reduced power in response to the low power mode bit of the non-volatile memory being at a first logic level.

2. The information handling system according to claim 1, wherein the first logic level is a logic low.

3. The information handling system according to claim 1, wherein the first logic level is a logic high.

4. The information handling system according to claim 1, wherein the first logic state is a logic low.

5. The information handling system according to claim 1, wherein the first logic state is a logic high.

6. The information handling system according to claim 1, wherein said at least one device is PCI Bus Power Management Interface Specification compliant.

7. The information handling system according to claim 6, wherein the low power enable bit is a PME_En bit.

8. The information handling system according to claim 6, wherein said at least one device is a multi-function PCI device.

9. The information handling system according to claim 1, wherein said non-volatile memory is selected from the group consisting of battery backed-up complementary metal oxide silicon (CMOS) memory, non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM), and FLASH memory.

10. The information handling system according to claim 1, wherein said non-volatile memory is part of said information handling equipment'"'"'s basic input/output system (BIOS) ROM.

11. The information handling system according to claim 1, wherein the at least one system low power mode is selected from the group consisting of Advanced Configuration and Power interface (ACPI) specification S4 and S5 states.

12. The information handling system according to claim 1, wherein said information handling equipment is selected from the group consisting of computer, personal computer workstation, portable computer, computer server, print server, network router, network hub, network switch, storage area network disk array, RAID disk system, and telecommunications switch.