Patent ID: 7574615

Claim:
A method for managing power consumption of a network interface with a disabled wake-up function, said network interface including a medium access control (MAC) and a physical layer (PHY), the MAC comprising a MAC receiving terminal and a MAC transmitting terminal, the PHY comprising a PHY receiving terminal and a PHY transmitting terminal, said network interface being coupled to a main system via a peripheral controller interface (PCI), said method comprising: cutting off a power and a clock signal supplied to said MAC receiving terminal, said MAC transmitting terminal, said PHY receiving terminal, and said PHY transmitting terminal via a main control circuit of the PCI when the network interface is switched from a normal mode to a power saving mode; and cutting off the power and the clock signal supplied to the PCI via the main system after the power and the clock signal supplied to the MAC receiving terminal, the MAC transmitting terminal, the PHY receiving terminal and the PHY transmitting terminal are cut off; wherein said MAC receiving terminal, said MAC transmitting terminal, said PHY receiving terminal, and said PHY transmitting terminal are controlled by a control mechanism of said PCI, the clock signal obtained by the network interface is also controlled by the control mechanism of said PCI, and when the power and the clock signal are cut off to said MAC receiving terminal, said MAC transmitting terminal, said PHY receiving terminal and said PHY transmitting terminal, the entire logic of the MAC and the PHY being placed in idle.