Power management architecture for defining component power states under a global power state and applying a new component power state when a new component power state is greater than a registered power state floor

• Main Authors: Malueg, Michael D, Midkiff, Jeffrey D, Rosenfeld, Jeff D
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 30.05.2006

A method and power management infrastructure are disclosed that facilitate implementing application power requirements-derived device power state schemes, on a computing device comprising a plurality of component devices managed by device drivers that are capable of requesting lower power states without affecting other component device power states. The disclosed power management framework includes a set of global power state definitions specifying, for each global power state, default power states for the component devices. The infrastructure also includes a power manager. The power manager includes an application interface including a function for registering device-specific requirements associated with particular applications executing on the computing device. The power manager also includes a device power state set function facilitating issuing a device-specific command setting a power state of a specified component device. The power manager executes decision logic for detecting that the power state requirement for a device exceeds a current power state, and in response invokes the device power state set function to set the component device's power state to the required power state.