International Business Machines Corporation

C William Frank

Neil A Katz

Richard F Pollitt

Leopoldo L Suarez

Francis James Canova, Jr

Shaun Astarabadi

A battery operated portable personal computer includes ambient temperature (46) and humidity (48) sensors, as well as two LCD's (52) to provide visual indication that the ambient temperature or humidity is out of range. If the ambient temperature drops below 3 degrees C., or if it rises above 52 degrees C., the computer enters a low power suspend mode wherein the computer is inoperable, but, upon switching from the suspend mode to the resume (operating) mode, the application program that was running at the time of the suspension is resumed at the same point that the suspension occurred. The LCD temperature indicator is activated when the ambient temperature drops below 3 degrees C., or rises above 46 degrees C. Thus, for high temperatures, the temperature indicator is activated 6 degrees before the computer is placed in the suspend mode. The ambient temperature is periodically monitored while in the suspend mode and, if the temperature rises above 6 degrees C., or drops below 44 degrees C., the computer switches from suspend to resume. Thus, hysteresis is provided to prevent the computer from oscillating between suspend and resume modes. If the humidity rises above 96% relative humidity, the computer enters the suspend mode and the LCD humidity indicator is activated. The ambient humidity is periodically monitored in the suspend mode and, if it drops below 87% relative humidity, the computer switches from suspend to resume mode.

Battery operated computer operation suspension in response to

A computer has two processors. A main processor operates under the control of an operating system and provides overall control of the computer for executing application programs. The main processor also assists in power management by executing certain interrupts and controlling a power control register to turn power on and off to various devices. A power management processor monitors ambient temperature and humidity, and battery conditions, and generates interrupts as a result of predetermined changes. Such processor also controls charging of the battery. Logic means are responsive to predetermined conditions to also generate interrupts.

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Irvine, CA, United States of America

C William Frank