Intel Corporation

Mark A Blake

David Wyatt

David I Poisner

Eric C Samson

Aditya Navale

William A Stevens, Jr

Leslie E Cline

Ariel Berkovits

Ying Cui

Joseph W Tsang

Vijay R Sar-Dessai

In one embodiment of the invention, an integrated device is described that employs a mechanism to control power consumption of a graphics memory controller hub (GMCH) through both voltage and frequency adjustment of clock signal received from a clock generator. The GMCH comprises a graphics core and a circuit to alter operational behavior, such as the frequency of a render clock signal supplied to the graphics core. The circuit is adapted to monitor idleness of the graphics core and reduce a frequency level of the render clock signal if the idleness exceeds a determined percentage of time.

Power management for an integrated graphics device

Methods and devices for power management of graphics or other computer subsystems are disclosed. In one embodiment, graphics software components are configurable in a manner that allows them to place the graphics subsystem is a 'safe' state prior to a suspend event, and back into a 'working' state after a resume event, without explicit support from an operating system (OS) power management driver. When operating in the absence of an OS-supplied driver, the graphics driver receives notification of power management events, and sends a message to a support application, which then causes the graphics to enter a quiescent state by taking exclusive ownership of the display and issuing standard device-independent OS graphics calls (for a power-down event) or to relinquish display ownership (for a power-up event). From within this quiescent state the graphics may be safely power managed without adverse effects to the graphics chips and without creating any instabilities in other graphics applications. These graphics software components detect the level of power management provided by the OS during system initialization, and self-configure such that an appropriate graphics power management scheme is in place for whatever level of power management is supplied&#x2014;or not supplied&#x2014;by the operating system.

Robust computer subsystem power management with or without explicit operating system support

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Mark A Blake