Patent ID: 7539647

Claim:
A method of enforcing a metering policy defining rules for metering in a pay-per-use computer comprising: a power source and a hardware module that includes a power monitoring circuit, a timer, and a tamper-resistant memory, the method comprising: storing in the tamper-resistant memory a metering account, a metering function, and a metering policy; monitoring the power source by the power monitoring circuit and debiting, by the metering function, the metering account based on the monitoring and the metering policy; determining at the hardware module that the computer is in a standby state or an off state and, based on the metering policy, sending a signal to the metering function to cease debiting the metering account; in response to the signal, stopping the metering function and the monitoring by the power monitoring circuit and starting an interval using the timer in accordance with the metering policy; determining at the hardware module, in accordance with the metering policy, that the interval has ended and re-monitoring the power source by the power monitoring circuit; and based on the re-monitoring, debiting the account by the metering function.