CN101526803A - Power saving system and power saving method - Google Patents

Abstract

A power saving system includes a system chip, at least one control unit and at least one switch. The system chip is coupled to the control unit, the switch is coupled between the control unit and the power supply and is turned on or off according to a General Purpose Input Output (GPIO) signal, when the switch is turned on, the control unit is turned on, and when no auxiliary device is coupled to the system chip through the connection port and the control unit, the control unit is turned off to save unnecessary power consumption.

Description

Power saving system and power saving method

technical field

The invention relates to a power-saving circuit, in particular to a power-saving circuit applied to a computer system.

Background technique

When the traditional computer system is turned on, all the auxiliary devices of the computer will be awakened, in other words, the corresponding control chips of all the auxiliary devices of the computer will also be activated to be in a working state.

However, users often do not use all the computer auxiliary equipment, or users only use part of the computer auxiliary equipment for a certain period of time, and these infrequently used computer auxiliary equipment and the corresponding control chips are always consumed The state of the power supply, which will cause the problem of excessive energy consumption in traditional computer systems.

Although, at present, the computer has five ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) states, for example: S0, S1, S3, S4 and S5 six states. However, only the state S0 is the state in which the computer system operates normally, and the rest of the states S1 to S5 are in the sleep state. Although the power is saved, the user cannot use the computer normally.

Contents of the invention

In view of this, the present invention provides a power saving method, which is used in an electronic system, the electronic system includes at least one control unit correspondingly connected to at least one auxiliary device, the method includes scanning whether the auxiliary device is coupled to the control unit, if the auxiliary The device is not coupled to the control unit, the electronic system shuts down the control unit, updates an auxiliary device state table, and continues to scan the next auxiliary device.

The present invention further provides a power saving system for judging whether it is coupled with an auxiliary device for energy saving control. The power saving system includes a system chip, a control unit and a switch. The system chip has a general-purpose input and output port, and the control unit is coupled to the system chip. When the system chip detects that the control unit and the auxiliary equipment are not coupled, the general-purpose input and output port sends a control signal to the switch to make the switch close. Control unit for energy saving control.

Description of drawings

FIG. 1 shows a flowchart of a power saving method according to an embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram of a power saving system according to another embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed ways

In order to make the above-mentioned and other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention more comprehensible, preferred embodiments are specifically listed below, and are described in detail in conjunction with the accompanying drawings as follows:

FIG. 1 shows a flowchart of a power saving method according to an embodiment of the invention. According to an embodiment of the present invention, when the electronic system is turned on to start all control units, or start a check mechanism, or any control unit changes from the off state to the start state (step S100), wherein the check mechanism can be pressed by a user Execute an application program to scan (ie detect) after pressing the control button. The checking mechanism can also be that a user selects a screen option and executes an application program to scan. Next, the application program (AP) will scan whether an auxiliary device is coupled to a corresponding control unit through a connection port (step S110), and determine whether the auxiliary device is connected to the control unit (step S120), if an auxiliary device is coupled to the corresponding Control unit, the corresponding control unit will be activated, if the auxiliary equipment is not coupled to the corresponding control unit, the application program will pass through the basic input and output system (BIOS, Basic Input Output System) and a general purpose input and output port (GPIO, General purposeInput/Output) Output a control signal to a switch, and the switch closes a power supply to the corresponding control unit to achieve energy saving (step S130), and the application program will also notify the operating system (OS, OperationSystem) to execute the auxiliary device management program (DM, Device Manger ) to update the auxiliary device state table (step S140), and then determine whether all auxiliary devices are scanned (step S150), if not all auxiliary devices have been scanned, return to step S110. According to another embodiment of the present invention, the electronic system may also use hardware to scan to determine whether an auxiliary device is coupled to the system, not necessarily the above-mentioned application program.

FIG. 2 shows a schematic diagram of a power saving system 300 according to another embodiment of the present invention. Power-saving system 300 includes a south bridge chip 310, a plurality of control units, such as local area network (LAN) control unit 320, card bus (CardBus) control unit 330, 1394 control unit 340, ESATA (External Serial ATA) control unit 350, A corresponding plurality of switches 322 , 332 , 342 and 352 , and a corresponding plurality of computer accessories 324 , 334 , 344 and 354 . As shown in Figure 2, the south bridge chip 310 can be coupled to the local area network (LAN) control unit 320 through the PCI bus, coupled to the card bus (Card Bus) control unit 330 through the PCI Express bus, coupled to the 1394 through the PCI or PCI Express bus The control unit 340 is coupled with the ESATA (External Serial ATA) control unit 350 by the PCI Express bus to connect. Each control unit 320, 330, 340 and 350 has a connection port (not shown in the figure) respectively, and is coupled with each auxiliary device 324, 334, 344 and 354 through the connection port, each control unit 320, 330, 340 and 350 is also connected to a power supply Vdd through switches 322, 332, 342 and 352, respectively.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, each switch 322, 332, 342, and 352 is coupled between a power supply Vdd and each control unit through an NMOS transistor, and is turned on or off according to a general input and output port signal, for example: switch 322 According to the general-purpose input and output signal GPIO1 is turned on or off, when the auxiliary device 324 is connected to the control unit 320 through the connection port, the general-purpose input and output signal GPIO1 is at a high potential, the NMOS transistor 322 is turned on, and the LAN control unit 320 receives the power supply Vdd and is activated. When starting up, the south bridge chip 310 starts to transmit and receive data with the LAN control unit 320 through the PCI interface. When the auxiliary device 324 is not coupled to the south bridge chip 310 through the connection port and the local area network (LAN) control unit 320, the application program (AP) will send a general input and output signal GPIO1 to close the switch 322, and the LAN control unit 320 will be closed to Save power consumption.

When the auxiliary equipment 334 is not coupled to the south bridge chip 310 through the connection port and the card bus (Card Bus) control unit 330, the application program (AP) will send the general input and output port signal GPIO2 to close the switch 332, and the card bus (Card Bus) Bus) control unit 330 will be turned off to save power consumption. Similarly, when the 1394 control unit 340 and the ESATA control unit 350 are not used by the user, that is, when there is no auxiliary equipment 344 and 354 coupled to the control units 340 and 350, the application program (AP) will send out the general-purpose input and output signal GPIO3 respectively. and GPIO4 turn off the switches 342 and 352, so the 1394 control unit 340 and the ESATA control unit 350 will be turned off to save power consumption. In addition, the switches 322, 332, 342 and 352 are not limited to use only NMOS transistors, and may also be other auxiliary devices with the same function.

That is to say, when an auxiliary device is coupled to the system chip through the connection port and the control unit, the control unit will be activated to avoid unnecessary waste of power, instead of turning on all auxiliary devices when the traditional computer system starts All control units are turned on, causing power waste. In addition, the computer system can scan all the auxiliary devices when it is turned on, or scan all the auxiliary devices when an event is triggered.

Although the present invention is disclosed above with preferred embodiments, it is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. Any person skilled in the art can make various equivalent changes or substitutions without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Therefore, the scope of protection of the present invention should be defined by the claims.

Claims (11)

1. a power-saving method is used for electronic system, and described electronic system comprises that at least one control module is connected respectively at least one utility appliance, it is characterized in that described power-saving method comprises:

Detect arbitrary described utility appliance and whether couple arbitrary described control module;

If arbitrary described utility appliance does not have and couples arbitrary described control module, described electronic system is closed described control module; And

Upgrade the auxiliary device status table, and continue to detect next utility appliance.

2. power-saving method according to claim 1 is characterized in that, detects arbitrary described utility appliance and whether couples arbitrary described control module, and be behind all control modules of starting up, to carry out.

3. power-saving method according to claim 1, it is characterized in that, detect arbitrary described utility appliance and whether couple before arbitrary described control module, also comprise the startup checking mechanism, will detect arbitrary described utility appliance with decision and whether couple arbitrary described control module.

4. power-saving method according to claim 3 is characterized in that, starts described checking mechanism, is after pressing control knob, and executive utility is to detect.

5. power-saving method according to claim 3 is characterized in that, starts described checking mechanism, is that executive utility is to detect after carrying out the selection of picture option.

6. whether power-saving method according to claim 1 is characterized in that, scan arbitrary described utility appliance and couple before arbitrary described control module, comprises that also arbitrary control module becomes starting state by closed condition.

7. power-saving method according to claim 1 is characterized in that described electronic system is closed described control module, is to use general input/output port to send control signal and gives switch, closes power supply with described switch and gives described control module.

8. power saving apparatus carries out Energy Saving Control in order to judge whether to couple with utility appliance, it is characterized in that described power saving apparatus comprises:

System on Chip/SoC has general input/output port;

Control module is coupled to described System on Chip/SoC; And

Switch, when described System on Chip/SoC detects described control module and described utility appliance and does not have coupling access status, described general input/output port is sent control signal and is given described switch, makes described switch close power supply and gives described control module, to carry out Energy Saving Control.

9. power saving apparatus according to claim 8 is characterized in that, when described utility appliance coupled described control module, the described control module of described utility appliance correspondence was activated.

10. power saving apparatus according to claim 8, it is characterized in that, described System on Chip/SoC detects described control module and described utility appliance does not have coupling access status, uses the application program of described System on Chip/SoC inside to carry out the coupling access status that detects described control module and described utility appliance.

11. power saving apparatus according to claim 8 is characterized in that, described System on Chip/SoC is a South Bridge chip.

Images