3Com Corporation

Vu Thanh

Lomberto P Jimenez

Vladimir Paredes

A method and system for providing link detection to a PC Card for power management. Specifically, one embodiment of the present invention includes a method for reducing power consumption by a peripheral component coupled to a host computer. For instance, the method includes the step of detecting whether a peripheral component is coupled to an active communication link. The method also includes the step of determining whether a circuit of the peripheral component is within a first power consuming mode (e.g., high power consuming mode). Provided the peripheral component is not coupled to the active communication link and the circuit of the peripheral component is within the first power consuming mode, the method includes the step of causing the circuit to enter a second power consuming mode (e.g., a sleep mode). Furthermore, provided the peripheral component is coupled to the active communication link and the circuit of the peripheral component is not within the first power consuming mode, the method includes the step of causing the circuit to enter the first power consuming mode (e.g., high power consuming mode).

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Vu Thanh