Power management device and method of north bridge

Abstract

A Northbridge power management device and method. The north bridge monitors the power state change of the processor, and then adjusts the working clock and the working voltage of the processor and the main memory according to the determined power state, so as to save power consumption.

Description

technical field [0001] The present invention relates to a power state management method, and particularly to a northbridge power state management method. Background technique [0002] Power management is an important topic in computer design, especially for mobile computing devices. The long battery life expected by design requires aggressive power management. Some units in a computer system with a high clock frequency, such as a central processing unit (CPU), a random access memory (RAM), and a chipset, generally consume more power than other units. These high clock operating units make power management play a critical role. [0003] The Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) specification 2.0 proposes a number of methods to change the power state of a computer device through operating system-directed configuration and power management (OSPM) The system and south bridge can be used to switch the computer device between S0, S1, S2, S3, S4, S5 states, and switch...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

However, in traditional computer systems, the power consumption of main memory and chipset is not properly managed according to the power state of the processor, and it is not defined in ACPI

[0016] Typically, the power state machine is built in the south bridge, however, the traditional north bridge between the CPU and the main memory cannot manage its power state

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