Patent ID: 7376851

Claim:
An apparatus for managing power in a computer system, the apparatus comprising: an operation system configured to set up a power mode of the computer system, wherein the power mode includes at least one of an operating mode or a reduced power mode; at least one device configured to perform specific functions and operations; at least one device driver configured to control operations of the device, wherein the device driver is configured to change a power mode of the device among the at least one of an operating mode or a reduced power mode; and a filter driver coupled to the operation system, wherein the filter driver is configured to generate a signal to cause the device driver to individually change the power mode of the device to operate in the reduced power mode when the computer system is in the operating mode, the filter driver generating said signal based on: a status of a queue for storing input/output request packets (IRPs) generated by one or more control circuits, at least one of which includes an input/output device manager; and a control procedure which includes: detecting that the device is in an idle state, after said detecting, determining an accumulated amount of time the device has been in the idle state, comparing the accumulated amount of time to a predetermined time, and based on a result of said comparison and the status of the queue, controlling the device to operate in the reduced power mode independently from the computer system continuing in the operating mode, wherein the filter driver monitors transceived packets between the operation system and the device driver and detects each device in the idle state.