Method and apparatus for reducing power consumption in a portable electronic device

Abstract

A method and apparatus for reducing power consumption of a portable electronic device, such as a smartphone, other mobile phones, or other portable devices when in sleep mode. A small software agent, or a low power mode core, operates so that, while the electronic device is in sleep mode, the low power mode core may be kept alive. When implemented in a smartphone, for example, the low power mode core may react to an incoming call so that at least part of the external memory of the smartphone may be powered down. When there is an incoming call, the low power mode core may acknowledge the call and provide a user interface (UI) for answering the call before the operating system is resumed, so as to keep the same or similar phone usage experience as when the operating system is processing the incoming call. At the same time, the low power mode core may wake up the operating system. The same approach is applicable in monitoring devices, where the entire device need not be running.