Providing support for device states

• US 9,720,701 B2
• Filed: 09/10/2012
• Issued: 08/01/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/10/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Trethewey, James R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Huynh, Kim
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chang, Eric
• Application Number:
  US13/608,683
• Publication Number:
  US 20140075178A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,786 Days
• Field of Search: 713100
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3206 Monitoring of events, devices or parameters that trigger a change in power modality
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/448 Execution paradigms, e.g. implementations of programming paradigms

Abstract

A method of providing support for power-management of a device. The method may include gathering contextual data from a sensor communicatively coupled to a sensor controller. The method may also include receiving power-management data including an operational state of a main processor of the device. The method may also include modifying the operation of the device based on the contextual data and the power management data.

Claims

1. A sensor controller comprising:

a sensor controller processor to gather contextual data from a sensor; and

a computer-readable medium that stores instruction thereon that, when executed by the sensor controller processor, direct the sensor controller processor to;

receive power-management data comprising an operational state of a device communicatively coupled to the sensor controller, the power management data to be received from a sideband signal;

format the contextual data to remove vendor specific indicators; and

modify the operational state of the device based on the formatted contextual data and the power-management data, the formatted contextual data comprising a proximity of the device to a user, wherein the operational state comprises a power off state to describe when a main processor is completely powered off and cannot be awakened by the sensor controller, and wherein the sensor controller processor is to modify the operation of the sensor controller based on the power-management data by powering down the sensor when the main processor of the device is in the power off state.

2. The sensor controller of claim 1, wherein:

the sensor controller is to gather the contextual data and analyze the contextual data when the main processor is in a sleep state.

3. The sensor controller of claim 2, further comprising a real-time clock sensor configured to generate timestamp data, wherein the sensor controller processor is configured to associate the timestamp data with the analyzed contextual data.

4. The sensor controller of claim 3, further comprising a storage device communicatively coupled to the sensor controller to store the associated timestamp data and analyzed contextual data in response to the linear acceleration threshold being exceeded.

5. The sensor controller of claim 4, wherein the sensor controller is to provide the associated timestamp data and analyzed contextual data to the main processor.

6. A method comprising:

gathering, via a sensor controller processor, contextual data from a sensor communicatively coupled to a sensor controller;

receiving, via the sensor controller processor, power-management data comprising an operational state of a device communicatively coupled to the sensor controller, the power management data to be received from a bus-independent sideband general purpose input/output (GPIO) signal;

formatting, via the sensor controller processor, the contextual data to remove vendor specific indicators;

modifying, via the sensor controller processor, the operational state of the device based on the formatted contextual data and the power-management data, the formatted contextual data comprising a proximity of the device to a user, wherein the operational state comprises a power off state to describe when a main processor is completely powered off and cannot be awakened by the sensor controller, and wherein the sensor controller processor is to modify the operation of the sensor controller based on the power-management data by powering down the sensor when the main processor of the device is in the power off state.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising

analyzing the contextual data to determine when the contextual data indicates that a linear acceleration threshold has been met.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

gathering timestamp data from a real-time clock sensor configured to generate timestamp data; and

associating the timestamp data with the analyzed contextual data.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising storing the associated timestamp data and analyzed contextual data on a storage device communicatively coupled to the sensor controller in response to the linear acceleration threshold being exceeded.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising providing the associated timestamp data and analyzed contextual data to the main processor once the linear acceleration threshold has been exceeded.

11. At least one non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored therein that, in response to being executed on a computing device, cause the computing device to:

gather, via a sensor controller processor, contextual data from a sensor communicatively coupled to a computing device;

receive, via the sensor controller processor, power-management data comprising an operational state of a main processor communicatively coupled to the computing device, the power management data to be received from a bus-independent sideband general purpose input/output (GPIO) signal;

format, via the sensor controller processor, the contextual data to remove vendor specific indicators; and

modify, via the sensor controller processor, the operational state of the main processor based on the formatted contextual data and the power-management data, the formatted contextual data comprising a proximity of the computing device to a user, wherein the operational state comprises a power off state to describe when a main processor is completely powered off and cannot be awakened by the sensor controller, and wherein the sensor controller processor is to modify the operation of the sensor controller based on the power-management data by powering down the sensor when the main processor of the device is in the power off state.

12. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein:

the instructions further cause the computing device to analyze the contextual data to determine when the contextual data indicates that a linear acceleration has been exceeded.

13. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the instructions further cause the computing device to:

gather timestamp data from a real-time clock sensor configured to generate timestamp data; and

associate the timestamp data with the analyzed contextual data.

14. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the instructions further cause the computing device to store the associated timestamp data and analyzed contextual data on a storage device communicatively coupled to the computing device in response to the linear acceleration threshold being exceeded.

15. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the instructions further cause the computing device to provide the associated timestamp data and analyzed contextual data to the main processor once the linear acceleration threshold has been exceeded.

16. A system comprising:

a sensor controller communicatively coupled to a sensor to gather contextual data;

a sensor controller processor of the sensor controller;

a main processor of a device communicatively coupled to the sensor controller;

a non-transitory computer-readable medium of the sensor controller that stores instruction thereon that, when executed by the sensor controller processor, direct the sensor controller processor to;

receive power-management data comprising an operational state of the device communicatively coupled to the sensor controller, the power management data to be received from a bus-independent sideband general purpose input/output (GPIO) signal;

format the contextual data to remove vendor specific indicators, the vendor specific indicators; and

modify the operational state of the device based on the formatted contextual data and the power-management data, the formatted contextual data comprising a proximity of the system to a user, wherein the operational state comprises a power off state to describe when a main processor is completely powered off and cannot be awakened by the sensor controller, and wherein the sensor controller processor is to modify the operation of the sensor controller based on the power-management data by powering down the sensor when the main processor of the device is in the power off state.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein

the sensor controller is to gather the contextual data and analyze contextual data when the main processor is in a sleep state.

18. The system of claim 17, further comprising a real-time clock sensor to generate timestamp data, wherein the processor is to associate the timestamp data with the analyzed contextual data.

19. The system of claim 18, further comprising a storage device communicatively coupled to the sensor controller to store the associated timestamp data and the analyzed contextual data in response to a linear acceleration threshold being exceeded.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the sensor controller is to provide the associated timestamp data and the analyzed contextual data to the main processor once the linear acceleration threshold has been met.

21. The system of claim 16, wherein the sensor controller is a sensor controller hub having sensors communicatively coupled to the sensor controller hub, and the sensor controller hub being communicatively coupled to the main processor.