Plug-and-Play Port Freezing for Idle Peripheral Power Reduction

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Solution Overview

Problem

The increasing demand for minimizing greenhouse gas emissions from information handling systems, particularly due to idle peripheral devices, is addressed by identifying and throttling power to unused devices to reduce power consumption.

Innovation Solution

An idle plug and play port freezing system that identifies inactive peripheral devices and throttles power supply based on device type, communication status, and user interaction, using a hardware processor or controller to manage power distribution.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If power is continuously supplied to all connected peripheral devices, then device availability and responsiveness are maintained, but power consumption increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvedevice availabilityVSAvoidpower consumption

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSUse of energy by moving object

Solution Approach 1:

The patent implements dynamic power management by transitioning peripheral device ports between different power states (fully powered, throttled, frozen) based on real-time activity detection. The system continuously monitors for activity and adjusts power supply accordingly, making the power state dynamic rather than static. This resolves the contradiction by maintaining full power only when needed for availability while reducing power consumption during idle periods.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #15Dynamics

Solution Approach 2:

The system changes the power supply parameter (voltage/current level) to different states based on device activity. When a device is idle, the system transitions the port from a fully powered state to a throttled or frozen state with reduced or zero power supply. When activity is detected, the system restores full power. This parameter change approach allows the system to maintain reliability when needed while minimizing power consumption during idle periods.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #35Parameter changes

2Use of energy by moving object

If power is throttled to idle peripheral devices, then power consumption is reduced, but device responsiveness may be degraded

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvepower consumptionVSAvoiddevice responsiveness

Core Design Contradiction:

Use of energy by moving objectVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The system dynamically adjusts power supply based on detected activity, transitioning ports between throttled and fully powered states. When activity is detected on a throttled port, the system restores full power to maintain responsiveness. This dynamic approach ensures that power consumption is reduced during idle periods while device responsiveness is maintained when needed.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #15Dynamics

Solution Approach 2:

The system performs preliminary actions by detecting activity before significant degradation occurs. The activity detection mechanism monitors for signs of device usage and proactively restores power before responsiveness would be noticeably degraded. This preliminary detection and response ensures that power is restored in time to maintain device reliability.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

3Ease of operation

If all ports remain fully powered, then plug and play functionality is immediately available, but unnecessary power is consumed by unused devices

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveplug and play availabilityVSAvoidunnecessary power consumption

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of operationVSLoss of energy

Solution Approach 1:

The system implements dynamic power states for ports, transitioning between fully powered, throttled, and frozen states based on activity detection. Newly connected devices receive full power for immediate plug-and-play functionality. Once the system determines the device is idle through activity monitoring, the port transitions to throttled or frozen states to eliminate unnecessary power consumption while maintaining the ability to quickly restore full power when activity resumes.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #15Dynamics

Data Source

PatentUS12579095B2System and method for dynamically freezing information handling system ports to minimize power consumed by idle plug and play devices

Publication Date: 2026.03.17 DELL PROD LP

AI summary

An idle plug and play port freezing and carbon dioxide (CO2) minimizing system executing on an information handling system may comprise a plug and play device controller, processor, or embedded controller executing code instructions of the idle plug and play port freezing and CO2 minimizing system to receive a notification that a user presence is not detected and to identify a first peripheral device port operably connected to a first peripheral device from among a plurality of peripheral device ports, where the first peripheral device port has an associated first peripheral device communications profile that indicates a status of push notifications enablement with the first peripheral device, and to cease power supply to the first peripheral device port in the absence of a read/write session currently executing on the peripheral device port and no push notifications enabled to decrease power consumption and CO2 emissions.