System and method for adaptive information handling system power management

• US 7,689,850 B2
• Filed: 11/28/2006
• Issued: 03/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/28/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Cantwell, Thomas, Stedman, Roy W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee; Thomas
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chang; Eric
• Application Number:
  US11/563,817
• Publication Number:
  US 20080126815A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,218 Days
• Field of Search: 713/300, 713/323
• US Class Current: 713/323
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3203 Power management, i.e. event-based initiation of a power-saving mode
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3268 Power saving in hard disk drive
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/329 by task scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/50 in wire-line communication networks, e.g. low power modes or reduced link rate

Abstract

Information handling system power management in standby and hibernate states is adapted to reduce transition times for end user requests to resume to an operational state. During fast resume time periods, transitions to the hibernate state are limited so that recovery to an operational states has the reduced resume time associated with the standby state. The fast resume time periods are set by user preference or automatically set by monitoring end user interactions with the information handling system to predict fast resume times appropriate for the end user. In one embodiment, a power manager automatically transitions the information handling system from the hibernate state to a standby state a predetermined time period before a fast resume period begins.

Claims

1. An information handling system comprising:

plural processing components operable to process information;

a power manager running on the processing components, the power manager operable to transition selected of the processing components between an operational state and plural reduced power states according to default settings, the reduced power states including a standby state having operating system recovery information stored in random access memory and a hibernate state having operating system recovery information stored in persistent memory; and

a power usage table interfaced with the power manager, the power usage table having one or more fast resume time periods;

wherein the power manager is further operable to override default setting transitions from the standby state to the hibernate state during the fast resume time periods.

2. The information handling system of claim 1 wherein the standby state comprises the ACPI S3 state and the hibernate state comprises the ACPI S4 state.

3. The information handling system of claim 1 further comprising a power management interface operable to accept end user inputs to populate the power usage table with fast resume time periods.

4. The information handling system of claim 1 further comprising a power usage modeler interfaced with the power usage table, the power usage modeler operable to monitor end user interactions with the processing components to populate the power usage table with fast resume times.

5. The information handling system of claim 4 wherein the power usage modeler is further operable to apply monitored end user interactions to predict one or more non-resume periods and wherein the power manager is further operable to transition the processing components to the hibernate state during the non-resume periods.

6. The information handling system of claim 5 wherein the power manager is further operable to transition the processing components from the hibernate state to the standby state a predetermined amount of time before the end of a non-resume period.

7. The information handling system of claim 5 wherein the persistent memory used by the hibernate state is a hard disk drive.

8. A method for managing information handling system power usage, the method comprising:

determining one or more fast resume time periods;

powering down the information handling system to a standby state after a predetermined period of end user inactivity, the standby state having operating system recovery information stored in random access memory;

powering down the information handling system from the standby state to a hibernate state after a predetermined period of end user inactivity, the hibernate state having operating system recovery information stored in persistent memory; and

limiting the powering down of the information handling system from the standby state to the hibernate state during the fast resume time periods.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein determining one or more fast resume time periods further comprises:

receiving fast resume user preferences associated with the information handling system; and

associating the fast resume user preferences with the one or more fast resume time periods.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein determining one or more fast resume time periods further comprises:

monitoring user activity at the information handling system;

modeling the user activity to determine user fast resume preferences; and

associating the modeled user fast resume preferences with the one or more fast resume time periods.

11. The method of claim 8 further comprising:

powering up the information handling system from the hibernate state to the standby state a predetermined time before a fast resume time period occurs.

12. The method of claim 8 wherein the standby state comprises an ACPI S3 state and the hibernate state comprises ACPI S4 state.

13. The method of claim 8 wherein the persistent memory comprises a hard disk drive.

14. A system for managing information handling system power consumption, the system comprising:

a power manager operable to transition the information handling system between an operational state, a standby state having a standby resume time and a hibernate state having a hibernate resume time, the standby state resume time being less than the hibernate state resume time; and

a power usage table storing fast resume time periods;

wherein the power manager is further operable to limit transitions from the standby state to the hibernate state during the fast resume time periods.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein the standby state comprises an ACPI S3 state and the hibernate state comprises an ACPI S4 state.

16. The system of claim 14 wherein the power manager stores operating system recovery information in random access memory for the standby state and stores operating system recovery information in a hard disk drive for the hibernate state.

17. The system of claim 14 further comprising a power management interface operable to accept user preferences for the fast resume time periods.

18. The system of claim 14 further comprising a power usage modeler operable to monitor user activity at the information handling system to predict fast resume times for the user based on a likelihood that the user will input to the information handling system.

19. The system of claim 14 wherein the power manager is further operable to automatically transition the information handling system from the hibernate state to a standby state a predetermined time before a fast resume time period begins.

20. The system of claim 19 wherein the power manager is further operable to return the information handling system from the hibernate state to the standby state if user activity is not detected in a predetermined time period.