Technologies for managing power of an embedded controller during a low-power state

• US 9,904,349 B2
• Filed: 03/27/2015
• Issued: 02/27/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/27/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Dutta, Pronay, Ganesan, Krishna Kumar
• Primary Examiner(s): Chen, Xuxing
• Application Number:
  US14/671,721
• Publication Number:
  US 20160282929A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,068 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3203 Power management, i.e. event-based initiation of a power-saving mode
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3206 Monitoring of events, devices or parameters that trigger a change in power modality
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3209 Monitoring remote activity, e.g. over telephone lines or network connections
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3212 Monitoring battery levels, e.g. power saving mode being initiated when battery voltage goes below a certain level
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3228 Monitoring task completion, e.g. by use of idle timers, stop commands or wait commands
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3287 by switching off individual functional units in the computer system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3293 by switching to a less power-consuming processor, e.g. sub-CPU
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4418 Suspend and resume; Hibernate and awake
• 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

Technologies for managing the power usage of components of a computing device, while the components and the computing device are in a low-power state, such as a connected standby state. An embedded controller includes a wake-up timer designed to wake up the embedded controller during a low-power state to allow the embedded controller to perform its tasks. A power control system is configured to dynamically alter the timing cycle of the wake-up timer of the embodied controller based on operation data received. The dynamically altered timing cycle is designed to conserve power, but maintain functionality of the embedded controller.

Claims

1. A computing device for managing power during a connected standby state, the computing device comprising:

one or more electrical components to enter a low-power state;

an embedded controller to perform one or more tasks of the computing device; and

a power control module to;

determine whether the computing device is in a connected standby state,

initiate a wake-up cycle to periodically wake-up the one or more electrical components of the computing device in response to a determination that the computing device is in the connected standby state,

wake-up the embedded controller to allow the embedded controller to perform the one or more tasks,

receive, in response to the wake-up of the embedded controller, operation data from the embedded controller related to the one or more tasks to be performed by the embedded controller,

generate timing cycle data for the embedded controller, wherein the timing cycle data defines a wake-up period for the embedded controller, and

send the timing cycle data to the embedded controller to set a wake-up timing cycle of the embedded controller based on the timing cycle data.

2. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the power control module is to send a wake-up command to the embedded controller in response to a determination that the wake-up cycle has been initiated.

3. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the power control module is to receive thermal data indicative of an operating temperature of a processor of the computing device.

4. The computing device of claim 3, wherein the power control module is to determine the wake-up period for the embedded controller based on the thermal data.

5. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the power control module is to receive battery life data indicative of an amount of power available for use in a battery of the computing device.

6. The computing device of claim 5, wherein the power control module is to determine the wake-up period for the embedded controller based on the battery life data.

7. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the wake-up period defined by the timing cycle data is less than the period of the wake-up cycle initiated by the power control module.

8. A method for managing power of components during a connected standby state, the method comprising:

determining, by a power control module of a computing device, whether the computing device is in a connected standby state;

initiating, by the power control module, a first wake-up timing cycle to periodically wake-up components of the computing device in response to determining that the computing device is in the connected standby state;

waking-up, by the power control module and during the first wake-up timing cycle, an embedded controller of the computing device to allow the embedded controller to perform one or more tasks;

receiving, by the power control module and in response to waking-up the embedded controller, operation data from the embedded controller related to the one or more tasks to be performed by the embedded controller;

generating, by the power control module, timing cycle data for the embedded controller, wherein the timing cycle data defines a wake-up period for the embedded controller;

sending the timing cycle data to the embedded controller to set a second wake-up timing cycle of the embedded controller based on the timing cycle data; and

setting, by the embedded controller, the second wake-up timing cycle for the embedded controller different from the first wake-up timing cycle based on the timing cycle data received from the power control module.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein waking-up the embedded controller comprises sending, by the power control module, a wake-up command to the embedded controller in response to determining that the first wake-up timing cycle has been initiated.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein receiving operation data from the embedded controller comprises receiving, by the power control module, thermal data indicative of an operating temperature of a processor of the computing device.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein generating timing cycle data comprises determining, by the power control module, the wake-up period for the embedded controller based on the thermal data.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein receiving operation data from the embedded controller comprises receiving, by the power control module, battery life data indicative of an amount of power available for use in a battery of the computing device.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein generating timing cycle data comprises determining, by the power control module, the wake-up period for the embedded controller based on the battery life data.

14. The method of claim 8, wherein the wake-up period defined by the timing cycle data is less than the period of the first wake-up timing cycle initiated by the power control module.

15. One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media comprising a plurality of instructions that in response to being executed cause a computing device to:

determine whether the computing device is in a connected standby state;

initiate a wake-up cycle to periodically wake-up components of the computing device in response to determining that the computing device is in the connected standby state;

wake-up, during the wake-up cycle, an embedded controller of the computing device to allow the embedded controller to perform one or more tasks;

receive, in response to waking-up the embedded controller, operation data from the embedded controller related to the one or more tasks to be performed by the embedded controller;

generate timing cycle data for the embedded controller, wherein the timing cycle data defines a wake-up period for the embedded controller; and

send the timing cycle data to the embedded controller to set a wake-up timing cycle of the embedded controller based on the timing cycle data.

16. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 15, wherein to wake-up the embedded controller comprises to send a wake-up command to the embedded controller in response to determining that the wake-up cycle has been initiated.

17. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 15, wherein to receive operation data from the embedded controller comprises to receive thermal data indicative of an operating temperature of a processor of the computing device.

18. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 17, wherein to generate timing cycle data comprises to determine the wake-up period for the embedded controller based on the thermal data.

19. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 15, wherein to receive operation data from the embedded controller comprises to receive battery life data indicative of an amount of power available for use in a battery of the computing device.

20. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 19, wherein to generate timing cycle data comprises to determine the wake-up period for the embedded controller based on the battery life data.

21. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 15, wherein the wake-up period defined by the timing cycle data is less than the period of the wake-up cycle initiated by the power control module.

22. A method for managing power of an embedded controller of a computing device during a low-power state, the method comprising:

receiving, by the embedded controller, a wake-up command from a power control module of the computing device, the wake-up command being generated based on a wake-up cycle of the power control module;

transmitting, by the embedded controller and in response to the wake-up command, operation data to the power control module, wherein the operation data relates to one or more tasks to be performed by the embedded controller;

receiving, by the embedded controller, timing cycle data from the power control module in response to the operation data; and

setting, by the embedded controller, a wake-up timing cycle of the embedded controller based on the timing cycle data received from the power control module.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein transmitting operation data comprises transmitting, by the embedded controller, thermal data indicative of an operating temperature of a processor of the computing device.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein transmitting operation data comprises transmitting, by the embedded controller, battery life data indicative of an amount of power available for use in a battery of the computing device.

25. The method of claim 22, wherein a period of the wake-up cycle of the power control module is different from a period of the wake-up timing cycle of the embedded controller.