Method and apparatus for operating an electronic device in a low power mode with a low power mode application based on determined operating parameters

• US 8,046,617 B2
• Filed: 07/31/2008
• Issued: 10/25/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/18/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vulcan Portals Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Vulcan Portals Incorporated
• Inventors: Perrin, Stephen L., Fleck, Rod G., Kee, Martin J., Flynn, Rex Antony
• Primary Examiner(s): Suryawanshi; Suresh
• Application Number:
  US12/183,175
• Publication Number:
  US 20080288802A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,181 Days
• Field of Search: 713/324
• US Class Current: 713/324
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3203 Power management, i.e. event-based initiation of a power-saving mode

Abstract

An electronic device, such as a hand-held portable computer, is provided with capability to operate an application during a low power mode. During the low power mode, portions of hardware, software, services, and/or other components of the portable computer that are not necessary to the operation of the application is suspended or otherwise deactivated. As each task is performed by the application, the components that are no longer needed for subsequent tasks to be performed by the application are also deactivated and reactivated as needed. The deactivation can be performed in sequence from the highest-level components to the lowest-level components to ensure that components that are needed by other components are not prematurely deactivated. A specific set of events transitions the portable computer out of the low power mode.

Claims

1. A method usable for an electronic device, the method comprising:

monitoring for an event;

in response to detecting the event, determining operating parameters to operate a low power mode application during a low power mode of the electronic device,

wherein the low power mode application corresponds to, but is different from, a full power mode installed application that operates during a full power mode of the electronic device;

based on the determined operating parameters, selectively suspending or terminating applications and operating system tasks running on the electronic device,

wherein the suspending or terminating includes suspending or terminating the full power mode installed application;

activating the low power mode application;

based on the determined operating parameters, selectively deactivating elements of the electronic device and maintaining active at least one element of the electronic device that is usable in connection with operation of the low power mode application; and

operating the low power mode application in a reduced power state of the electronic device using at least the active element of the electronic device.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the electronic device includes a switch to indicate whether a lid of the electronic device is either open or closed, wherein monitoring for the event includes detecting a state of the switch that indicates whether the lid is closed.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the electronic device includes a low power display module, wherein monitoring for the event comprises detecting whether a request to transition to the reduced power state has been entered via the low power display module.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising if the event is detected:

determining whether there is a request to perform a task with the low power mode application while in the reduced power state; and

in response to determining that the request is absent, deactivating elements of the electronic device including the element that is usable in connection with operation of the application in the reduced power state.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein selectively deactivating elements of the electronic device includes selectively deactivating the elements according to a sequence based at least in part on which particular element uses a particular resource at a particular time.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein selectively deactivating elements includes:

communicating with an operating system kernel and specifying which elements to deactivate; and

deactivating the specified elements using the operating system kernel by deactivating drivers associated with the specified elements.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein selectively deactivating elements includes:

communicating with a basic input output system (BIOS) and specifying which hardware-related elements to deactivate; and

deactivating the specified hardware-related elements using the BIOS.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein selectively deactivating elements includes generating a suspend-until-resume message to suspend tasks, the method further comprising:

generating a resume message to resume a suspended task at a point where the task was suspended; and

exiting the reduced power state.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

performing a task using the low power mode application while the electronic device is in the reduced power state;

determining whether resources associated with the task are relevant to perform some other task using the low power mode application while the electronic device is in the reduced power state; and

if at least some of the resources are irrelevant to performing the other task, deactivating such resources.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising obtaining the operating parameters of the low power mode application, including any one or more of reading power management data from a storage unit, obtaining the power management data from the low power mode application, obtaining the power management data from fixed code, obtaining the power management data from variable code, and obtaining the power management data from a basic input output system (BIOS).

11. A method usable for an electronic device, the method comprising:

determining operating parameters to operate a low power mode application during a low power mode of the electronic device,

wherein the low power mode application corresponds to, but is different from, a full power mode installed application that operates during a full power mode of the electronic device;

based on the determined operating parameters, selectively suspending or terminating applications and operating system tasks running on the electronic device,

wherein the suspending or terminating includes suspending or terminating the full power mode installed application;

activating the low power mode application;

reducing power supplied to elements of the electronic device that are at least substantially unnecessary for operation of the low power mode application during a low power mode of the electronic device;

providing power to other elements of the electronic device at an amount that supports operation of the low power mode application during the low power mode of the electronic device; and

selectively reducing power to at least some of these other elements after such other elements are used by the application in the low power mode.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the power to at least some of the other elements, after such other elements are used by the low power mode application in the low power mode, is reduced if such other elements are unused for subsequent operation of the low power mode application in the low power mode.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein reducing power to the elements of the electronic device includes initially reducing power to high-level components and then sequentially reducing power to low-level components whose operation is independent of operation of the high-level components.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising presenting at least some data associated with operation of the low power mode application in the low power mode in a low power display instead of in a main display screen.

15. An article of manufacture usable for an electronic device, the article of manufacture comprising:

a non-transitory machine-readable medium having instructions stored thereon to cause a processor to operate a low power mode application of the electronic device during a low power mode,

wherein the low power mode application corresponds to, but is different from, a full power mode installed application that operates during a full power mode of the electronic device, by;

obtaining data indicative of parameters to operate the low power mode application during the low power mode of the electronic device;

based on the determined operating parameters, selectively suspending or terminating applications and operating system tasks running on the electronic device,

wherein the suspending or terminating includes suspending or terminating the full power mode installed application;

activating the low power mode application;

using the obtained data to selectively deactivate elements of the electronic device during the low power mode;

maintaining at least one element that is usable by the low power mode application during the low power mode activated while such element is used by the application during the low power mode; and

deactivating such element otherwise during operation of the application in the low power mode.

16. The article of manufacture of claim 15 wherein the machine-readable medium further includes instructions stored thereon to substantially maintain the deactivated elements deactivated during the low power mode until a transition to a higher power mode.

17. The article of manufacture of claim 15 wherein the machine-readable medium further includes instructions thereon to selectively deactivate the elements in a sequence from highest-level elements to lowest-level elements, including instructions to initially reduce power to high-level components and sequentially reduce power to low-level components whose operation is independent of operation of respective higher-level elements.

18. The article of manufacture of claim 15 wherein the machine-readable medium further includes instructions stored thereon to present information obtained by the low power mode application during its operation in the low power mode in a low power display of the electronic device, instead of presenting such information on a main display screen.

19. The article of manufacture of claim 15 wherein the instructions to deactivate the elements include instructions to suspend operation of the elements and resume operation in response to a resume message.

20. A system usable for an electronic device, the system comprising:

a means for monitoring for an event;

a means for determining, in response to the event, operating parameters to operate a low power mode application during a low power mode of the electronic device,

wherein the low power mode application corresponds to, but is different from, a full power mode installed application that operates during a full power mode of the electronic device;

a means for selectively suspending or terminating applications and operating system tasks running on the electronic device based on the determined operating parameters,

wherein the suspending or terminating includes suspending or terminating the full power mode installed application;

a means for activating the low power mode application;

a means for selectively deactivating elements of the electronic device, based on the determined operating parameters, and for maintaining active at least one element of the electronic device that is used in connection with operation of the low power mode application; and

a means for operating the low power mode application in the reduced power state of the electronic device using at least the active element of the electronic device.

21. The system of claim 20 wherein the means for monitoring for the event includes either one or both of a means for determining if a lid of the electronic device is closed and a means for determining if a request to enter the reduced power state is provided via a rear display module.

22. The system of claim 20, further comprising a means for sequentially deactivating the elements of the electronic device based on operating dependencies between these elements.

23. The system of claim 20, further comprising:

a means for storing applications, program data, at least one operating system, and other information;

a means for presenting data;

a means for communicating with devices external to the electronic device;

a means for high-power and low-power processing; and

a means for providing user input.

24. An apparatus, comprising:

a low power mode application configured to operate during a low power mode of the apparatus and corresponding to but different from a full power mode installed application configured to operate during a full power mode of the apparatus;

at least one component configured to provide an indication of a request to transition to a low power mode;

a basic input output system (BIOS) having a low power mode subsystem configured to receive the indication from the component and to initiate transition into the low power mode; and

a low power mode service configured to be activated by the low power mode subsystem, and to alternatively receive the indication from the component to initiate the transition into the low power mode, the low power mode service further configured to;

determine operating parameters of the low power mode application during the low power mode;

based on the determined operating parameters, selectively suspend or terminate applications and operating system tasks running on the electronic device, wherein the suspending or terminating includes suspending or terminating the full power mode installed application;

activate the low power mode application; and

provide instructions to the low power mode subsystem to selectively deactivate elements based on the determined operating parameters.

25. The apparatus of claim 24, further comprising an operating system kernel to receive and respond to the instructions from the low power mode service to selectively deactivate elements that are substantially unused for operation of the application during the low power mode.

26. The apparatus of claim 24, further comprising a data store accessible by the low power mode service to store information indicative of the operating parameters.

27. The apparatus of claim 24 wherein the operating parameters can be provided to the low power mode service by the BIOS.

28. The apparatus of claim 24 wherein the operating parameters can be provided to the low power mode service by the low power mode application.

29. The apparatus of claim 24 wherein the operating parameters include information indicative of a sequence in which the elements are to be deactivated based on operating dependencies between such elements.

30. The apparatus of claim 24 wherein the low power mode service can selectively instruct deactivation of elements during the low power mode after use of such elements by the low power mode application for a particular task.

31. The apparatus of claim 24 wherein the instructions from the low power mode service to selectively deactivate include at least one suspend message to suspend at least one task that is irrelevant to operation of the low power mode application.

32. The apparatus of claim 24 wherein in response to a specific event, the low power mode service can generate a resume message to selectively resume at least some of the suspended tasks.

33. The apparatus of claim 24, further comprising a low power display module having a display screen on which data can be presented by the low power mode application during the low power mode.

34. A method usable for an electronic device capable of operating in a full power mode and a low power mode that can operate at least one application during the low power mode of the electronic device, the method comprising:

operating a media player application in a full power mode to access a plurality of media files in a storage location;

monitoring for an event representative of a transition to the low power mode from the full power mode;

in response to detecting the event, activating a low power media player application to operate during the low power mode, wherein the low power media player application is separate from the media player application;

transitioning the media player application to operate in lower power mode,

wherein the embedded mode consumes less power than the full power mode;

playing at least a portion of a first media file during the low power mode using a the media player application operating in the lower power mode;

while at least some of the first media file is playing during the low power mode, using a low power media player application to obtain copies of other media files stored in a persistent storage location, and storing the obtained copies in a volatile storage location; and

playing the copies stored in the volatile storage location using the media player application operating in the lower power mode.

35. The method of claim 34, further comprising substantially reducing a number of accesses to the persistent storage location by at least one of the media player application and the low power media player application, during the low power mode, as compared to the higher power mode.

36. The method of claim 34 wherein storing the obtained copies in the volatile storage location includes storing the copies in a cache inherently when the copies are read from the persistent storage location.

37. The method of claim 34, further comprising:

obtaining playlist information from the media player application during playing of some portion of the first media file; and

using the obtained playlist information to determine which media files to read from the persistent storage location and to store in the volatile storage location.

38. The method of claim 34, further comprising controlling operation of the media player application with the low power media player application.

39. The method of claim 34, further comprising:

receiving user-entered commands at a user interface on a low power display that is located on an outside surface of a lid of the portable electronic device, wherein the lid can be closed to cover a display screen on an inside surface of the lid to enable operation of the low power display located on the outside surface of the lid;

passing the received user-entered command from the user interface to the low power media player application; and

using the low power media player application to apply the user-entered commands to control operation of a playback function of the media player application during the low power mode, the media player application corresponding to but different from the second application, the media player application being enabled to otherwise operate in the higher power mode.