The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Apr. 01, 1997
Filed:
Jun. 19, 1996
John J Pearce, Del Valle, TX (US);
Jim Walker, Cedar Park, TX (US);
Charles P Zeller, Austin, TX (US);
Craig S Jones, Austin, TX (US);
Dell USA, L.P., Austin, TX (US);
Abstract
A system for reducing the amount of power consumed by a battery operated computer device is disclosed. A microcontroller continuously monitors the activity of at least one I/O device and sets an activity state variable (ASV) associated with the I/O device accordingly. Upon each the expiration of a preselected time period, the microcontroller examines the state of the ASV to determine whether the I/O device was active during the expired time period. If so, the I/O device is caused to operate in a full power mode; otherwise, the I/O device is caused to operate in a reduced power consumption mode. In one embodiment, the I/O device is capable of operating in more than one reduced power consumption mode, in which case, responsive to a determination that the I/O device was not active during the expired time period, the I/O device is caused to operate in the next lowest power consumption mode. In an alternative embodiment, the frequency with which timer interrupts are generated is automatically adjusted after the expiration of each time period.