| US 7,490,256 B2 | ||
| Identifying a target processor idle state | ||
| Allen Marshall, Woodinville, Wash. (US); Andrew J Ritz, Sammamish, Wash. (US); and Todd L Carpenter, Monroe, Wash. (US) | ||
| Assigned to Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Wash. (US) | ||
| Filed on Apr. 04, 2006, as Appl. No. 11/397,782. | ||
| Prior Publication US 2007/0234088 A1, Oct. 04, 2007 | ||
| Int. Cl. G06F 1/32 (2006.01) | ||
| U.S. Cl. 713—321 [713/323] | 20 Claims |
| 1. In a computer that includes a processor and a software system for managing a power consumption of the processor, a computer-implemented
method of identifying a target idle state for the processor, the method comprising:
(a) collecting data from a plurality of data sources, wherein the plurality of data sources:
(i) measures activities that have occurred or will occur on the computer; and
(ii) describes attributes of the hardware on the computer;
(b) using the collected data to calculate a target idle state that minimizes the power consumption, wherein:
using the collected data comprises using a metric to identify the target idle state,
using the metric to identify the target idle state includes assigning a significance to each of factors used to calculate
the target idle state, and
at least one first factor among the factors is assigned a greater significance than another factor; and
(c) changing the idle state of the processor to the target idle state without requiring the processor to proceed linearly
between idle states.
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