Patent ID: 7260732

Claim:
A method for regulating power consumption of a portable low-power computer device having associated hardware and software by regulating an internal power source of the device, comprising: (a) activating the device by applying an internal power supply voltage from the internal power source to the device; (b) regulating the power supply voltage based on a first power state of the device by using at least one of a plurality of voltage regulators to regulate the power supply voltage of the internal power source; (c) transitioning from the first power state to a second power state; (d) regulating the power supply voltage based on the second power state of the device by using at least one of the plurality of voltage regulators to regulate the power supply voltage of the internal power source; (e) determining an amount of power remaining in the internal power source; (f) enabling a system clock having an operating frequency in megahertz to a drive a processing section of a microprocessor of the device; and (g) generating a slow clock having an operating frequency in kilohertz to drive a real-time section of the microprocessor of the device, wherein the processing section of the microprocessor is disabled when the real-time section is enabled.