Patent ID: 7707447

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; at least one device configured to perform specific functions and operations; at least one device driver configured to control one or more operations of the device; and a control driver coupled to the operation system, wherein the control driver is configured to individually control a power mode of the device independent from a power mode of one or more other devices in communication with the computer system, and wherein the control driver: generates a signal to cause the device driver to individually change the power mode of the device to operate in a power down mode when the computer system is in an operating mode based on a status of a suspend flag value indicative of whether a received input/output request packet (IRP) is a power IRP, and controls the device to operate in the power down mode independently from the computer system which continues in the operating mode.