153results about How to "Significant power saving" patented technology

Redundancy in storage arrays is used to extend the life of disk drives and conserve power. In an exemplary storage array, a group of storage devices includes y storage devices. Data and redundant information is distributed across the y devices to provide m levels of redundancy. “Spun down devices” are provided by spinning down a set of one or more of up to m of the y storage devices. Meanwhile, data transfers to and from the group of storage devices continue to be serviced. After a predetermined time, the currently spun down disks can be spun up, and new spun down devices are provided by spinning down another set of one or more of m of the y storage devices. An array may include several groups of storage devices, each having its own value for y and m.

An apparatus and method for performing SIMD multiply-accumulate operations includes SIMD data processing circuitry responsive to control signals to perform data processing operations in parallel on multiple data elements. Instruction decoder circuitry is coupled to the SIMD data processing circuitry and is responsive to program instructions to generate the required control signals. The instruction decoder circuitry is responsive to a single instruction (referred to herein as a repeating multiply-accumulate instruction) having as input operands a first vector of input data elements, a second vector of coefficient data elements, and a scalar value indicative of a plurality of iterations required, to generate control signals to control the SIMD processing circuitry. In response to those control signals, the SIMD data processing circuitry performs the plurality of iterations of a multiply-accumulate process, each iteration involving performance of N multiply-accumulate operations in parallel in order to produce N multiply-accumulate data elements. For each iteration, the SIMD data processing circuitry determines N input data elements from said first vector and a single coefficient data element from the second vector to be multiplied with each of the N input data elements. The N multiply-accumulate data elements produced in a final iteration of the multiply-accumulate process are then used to produce N multiply-accumulate results. This mechanism provides a particularly energy efficient mechanism for performing SIMD multiply-accumulate operations, as for example are required for FIR filter processes.

A wireless device has at least a first radio system for a first SIM channel and a second radio system for a second SIM channel. A processing system is arranged to determine whether a first of the first and second radio systems is capable of providing service for both of the first and second SIM channels currently being serviced by the first and second radio systems respectively. Servicing of the second SIM channel is transferred from the second radio system to the first radio system if it is determined that the first radio system is capable of providing service for both of first and second SIM channels. At least a part of the second radio system is shut down to reduce the power consumed by the second radio system after servicing of the second SIM channel has been transferred.

A low-power column parallel ADC architecture for image sensors that reduces the power consumption by reducing the number of switchings of a comparator to digitize a row of pixel data. Two ramp reference signals are provided in accordance with the principles of this invention. A first ramp signal is provided to each comparator that is clocked with an associated first clock signal. In each column comparator, the first ramp signal is compared to the pixel data using clock1, wherein clock1 corresponds to N multiple of a second clock signal (clock2), with N>1. Only when the column comparator detects a first crossover with the first ramp signal, then the comparator switches at every clock cycle of the second clock, clock2, to compare and detect a second crossover point with the second reference signal. This arrangement can greatly reduce the number of switchings required to digitize a row of pixel data, thereby resulting in significant power saving.

The present invention provides GPS receivers capable of tracking very weak GPS signals particularly in an indoor environment without assistance from an external server or a network. In a preferred embodiment, a GPS receiver initially acquires and locks onto GPS satellite signals to compute receiver position outdoors. The GPS receiver then tracks at least one satellite signal indoors to maintain acquisition parameters for quick acquisition of GPS signals. To save power, the receiver automatically goes to the sleep state and periodically wakes up, i.e., powers up, to maintain the at least one satellite signal tracking. During the wakeup state, the receiver collects ephemeris data from the at least one satellite signal when the ephemeris data needs to be updated for quick acquisition of GPS signals.

A method and system of Passive Mode Tracking of an item, object or cargo associated with a wireless communication device through existing and future wireless networks is described. The method builds on the observation that for many applications, cargo tracking included, an exact GPS or comparable accuracy method of location is not always necessary, however, the progress or rough movement, is. Therefore it is possible to utilize the tracking units' geographical location based on the registration process of a wireless service and its associated networks to locate the tracking unit. This method improves the size, weight, power consumption and complexity of the tracking unit by removing work from the tracking unit and utilizing the information collected by the wireless system(s) and the network(s) it attaches to. The location of the tracking unit is determined by inquiring of the wireless network the location of the wireless communication device.

A system and method are provided for a system-on-chip (SoC) management module to monitor and dynamically control processor core operating voltages. An SoC is provided with a plurality of processor cores, a plurality of voltage regulators, an internal management module, and at least one temperature sensor. The management module compares monitored temperatures to threshold values, and in response generates voltage commands. The management module sends the voltage commands to the voltage regulators. Each voltage regulator adjusts the operating voltage supplied to a corresponding processor core in response to the voltage commands.

Systems and methods for providing a low power receiver device using fine grained time division are provided. In one embodiment, the receiver device comprises a tuner, a demodulator configured to demodulate at least one sampled signal, a payload processor configured to process at least one demodulated signal into an output format, and a time division control logic configured to generate a control signal to switch at least one component within the receiver device between modes to conserve power. The at least one component may be switched between an active mode, a standby mode, a power off mode, and a low power mode. In further embodiments, the at least one component may be switched between staggered modes.

There is described a method for detecting a lift condition from an illuminated surface portion of an optical motion sensing device. According to a first embodiment, two different “loss-of-focus” thresholds are used. A first threshold is used when the optical pointing device is not moving, and a second threshold greater than the first one is used when the optical pointing device is moving. The optical device further requires means for detecting whether it is moving or not. According to a second embodiment, a dynamical loss-of-focus threshold depending on an average number of motion features that the surface exhibits to the sensor of the optical pointing device is used.

The present invention relates to a geolocation system and method for a multi-path environment. The geolocation system comprises one or more emitters (201a . . . 201n), one or more sensors (202a . . . 202n) comprising at least one processor. A first processor (204) estimates angle of arrival (AOA) and time of arrival (TOA) from the signals received from said one or more emitters (201a . . . 201n). A second processor (205) determines clusters based on the (AOA) and (TOA) data. The system also comprises a central node (207) in communication with at least one sensor (202a . . . 202n) and configured to estimate geolocation of one or more emitters (201a . . . 201n) wherein, said second processor (205) clusters data for the one or more emitters (201a . . . 201n) by executing a non-parametric Bayesian technique and said central node (207) utilizes hybrid angle of arrival-time difference of arrival (AOA-TDOA) technique to determine geolocation of each of the emitters (201a . . . 201n).

The invention provides a canal hearing device and method in which the device is implemented with a mode of operation that provides acoustic transparency as well as a power-saving function, particularly useful to permit the user to wear the device in the ear canal during periods of sleep or inactivity without substantial loss of normal unaided response. The transparent mode has an in-situ acoustic transfer function that compensates for the insertion loss caused by the presence of a hearing device in the ear canal. While the device is in this transparent mode, its acoustic transfer function gives the user a perception of unaided hearing, as though the device were removed, when it is actually being worn continuously in the ear canal. Current drain of the device is significantly reduced as the transparent mode serves to shut off or reduce bias currents of at least one circuit element within the device circuitry. The invention is particularly useful in canal hearing devices adapted for extended wear in the ear canal for periods longer than one month without removal.

A content-based information retrieval architecture is herein disclosed that can achieve correct and predictable high speed lookups while taking advantage of inexpensive conventional memory components.

A device to measure a passive intermodulation (PIM) creating component is provided that uses minimal average power. For a PIM measurement, two separate signals F1 and F2 are generated to simulate signals, such as from two different types of cell phone operating bands being transmitted in the same area or two different transmit frequencies within one cell phone operating band. PIMs are measured to assure interference is not created on one of the cell phone bands. Minimal power is used by connecting pulse width modulators (PWM) to provide DC power to the high power amplifiers (HPA) creating the signals F1 and F2. By controlling the duty cycle of the PWM to limit ON time of the HPAs to approximately 10%, significant average power savings occur. Size is also reduced with reduced power consumption because heat sinks and other cooling components are not required.

A radio frequency (RF) receiver utilizing dynamic power management for administration of power consumption. The RF receiver includes an RF antenna, an RF full band filter, an RF amplifier, an RF sub-band filter, a first local oscillator, an RF mixer, a first IF amplifier, an IF wide band filter, a second local oscillator, an IF mixer, two secondary IF amplifiers, an IF narrow band filter, a digital signal processing subsystem, three power sensors, and a control logic subsystem. Based on its location in the system, each power sensor has a unique threshold setting that is set just below a total RF power level where desired signal degradation might occur. The control logic subsystem utilizes outputs of the power sensors to detect a total RF power present due to interfering signals plus a desired signal within an entire bandwidth present at each stage and dynamically manages power by adjusting bias of each stage accordingly via its bias control outputs.

The present invention relates to the field of wireless communication systems and in particular to an apparatus and a method for detecting preambles according to IEEE 802.11a/b/g wireless LAN standards and its application to an 802.11 multimode receiver. The proposed apparatus is capable of detecting 802.11a/b/g preambles by using two auxiliary low-resolution ADCs (down to 1 bit) coupled with a preamble detector. The purpose of this apparatus which is located within the RF section of the receiver upstream of the baseband section, is to offload or discharge the baseband functions by performing a signal discrimination and waking up the baseband functions only if the received signal is determined to embed either an 802.11a/g or 802.11b preamble. This results in significant power savings in a multimode 802.11 receiver since the baseband circuitry does not need to be woken up every time a “false” signal is received

Computer-implemented methods for power management of network interface devices are disclosed. Such methods may include dividing a time period into a plurality of time slots, determining an amount of data received by the network interface device during a first of the time slots, and determining whether the amount of data received exceeds a predefined threshold. If the amount of data received exceeds the predefined threshold, then the network interface device is caused to be awake during a subsequent time slot. The network interface device is caused to go to sleep during the subsequent time slot unless the amount of data received exceeds the predefined threshold. A number of the time slots may be defined as wakeup time slots during which the network interface device is awake. The number of time slots during the time period in which one or more packets were received by the network interface device may be compared to the number of wakeup time slots during the time period. Based on the comparison, the number of wakeup time slots may be adjusted for a subsequent time period.

A light system for growing plants indoors comprising three light sources each having a different range of wavelengths, power being applied to each light source at an intensity, combination and sequence determined by the growing properties of the plants.

A data processor operable to process data said data processor comprising: a set associative cache divided into a plurality of cache ways and operable to store data processed by said data processor; a buffer operable to store a table comprising a plurality of mappings of pages of virtual addresses to pages of physical addresses for said data processor; a data store comprising a plurality of data entries each operable to store data for identifying an address of a memory location for each of a plurality of recent cache accesses, each of said plurality of data entries comprising a page index indicating a page in an address space, offset data indicating a location within said page and cache way data identifying a cache way of a cache storage location accessed by said cache access; wherein said data processor is operable in response to a cache access request comprising a virtual address indicating a memory location to access said table and said data store to determine whether said cache access request is to one of said plurality of recently accessed cache storage locations and if so to identify a cache way of said cache storage location from data stored in both said data store and said table.