Patent Document

FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    The present invention relates to a power management system and method, and, more particularly, to power management of computing systems.  
         BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION  
         [0002]    The computing industry has developed a common interface for enabling robust operating system directed motherboard system configuration and power management (OSPM) of entire computer systems. The common interface definition and functionality manifests itself in the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) specification. The current version of the ACPI is version 2, having a release date of Jul. 27, 2000, together with the ACPI Errata version 1.3, Nov. 27, 2000, both of which are incorporated herein by reference for all purposes.  
           [0003]    The ACPI specification defines a number of operating states for computer systems, such as, for example, desktop, mobile, workstations, servers and laptop computers. Currently, the ACPI specification defines five states, that is, states S 0 , S 1 , S 2 , S 3  and S 4 . Each of the five states represents a different state or degree of power consumption of an associated computer system. State S 0  represents the conventional operating state or working state in which the computer system is fully functional and is not in a power saving mode. The remaining states represent the system sleeping states in which the computer system has undertaken steps to reduce power consumption.  
           [0004]    Of particular interest are the S 3  and S 4  states. The ACPI specification defines the behaviour of the S 3  state such that less power is consumed within the S 3  state as compared to the S 2  state. In the S 3  state, the processor does not execute instructions and the processor context is not maintained. The dynamic RAM context is maintained and power resources are held in a state that is compatible with the S 3  state. Devices associated with the computer system are operable such that they are compatible with the S 3  state, that is, only devices that solely reference power resources are in the ON state (all other devices are in the off or D 3  state). Devices that are enabled to wake the system, and that can do so from their current state, can initiate a hardware event that causes the system to transition to the S 0  state.  
           [0005]    The ACPI specification defines the system behaviour in the S 4  state as follows. The S 4  state is logically lower than the S 3  state and is arranged to consume less power than the S 3  state. The processor does not execute instructions and the processor context is not maintained. RAM context is not maintained and power resources are in a state that is compatible with the S 4  state, that is, all power resources that supply system level power in the S 0 , S 1 , S 2  or S 3  states are in the OFF state. All devices are operable so as to be compatible with the current power resource states; that is, all devices are in the D 3  state when the system is in the S 4  state.  
           [0006]    A system, upon entering the S 3  state or in preparation for entering the S 3  state, saves, for example, the data necessary for resumption of the normal working state, S 0 , to RAM. Therefore, it can be appreciated that upon wake-up from the state S 3 , the data saved to RAM can be accessed and restored relative quickly. Therefore, the S 3  sleeping state is known as a low wake-up latency sleep state. However, the S 3  state suffers from a major inadequacy in the event of a power failure that adversely affects the RAM such that the content of the RAM is lost. Such a power failure prevents a reliable transition to the working system state, S 0 , and a re-boot of the computer system may be necessary. It can be appreciated that the data of applications and system context will be lost under such circumstances. Furthermore, a relatively long period of time will elapse during the re-boot before the computer system reaches the working state, S 0 .  
           [0007]    In contrast, the Operating System Directed Power Management software (OSPM) of the system, before entering the S 4  state, saves a significant amount of data to a non-volatile storage medium such as, for example, an HDD. Conventionally, data comprising the entire content of the RAM together with device register values are saved to a file, which is stored on the HDD This data is known as the system memory context.  
           [0008]    Upon wake-up from the S 4  state, the OSPM of the system is responsible for restoring the system context. Therefore, a system transition from the S 4  state to the S 0  state involves a significant amount of data recovery. The content of a file, “HIBERFIL.SYS”, containing the S 4  data, is retrieved from the HDD. This file is used to restore the system context to how it was at the time of entering the state S 4 . Due to the need to access a relatively slow storage device, system context restoration is a relatively lengthy process. Therefore, the S 4  state is considered to be the longest wake-latency sleeping state. Since a non-volatile storage medium is used to store the recovery data, the S 4  system state will allow recovery from a power failure. However, the time taken to effect such a recovery is unacceptably long.  
           [0009]    Still further, since the RAM can, in some systems, be as large as 128 MB or greater, it will be appreciated that a significant amount of time will be taken to save the RAM image, that is, system memory context, to the HDD. Furthermore, as the resident RAM of a machine increases, the amount of power required to save that RAM image to the HDD or to read the RAM image from the HDD also increases. If the file containing the RAM image is fragmented, this will lead to further delays in reading the file from or writing the file to the HDD. Also, the number of disk head seek movements is relatively high when accessing a fragmented file.  
           [0010]    It is an object of the present invention at least to mitigate some of the problems of the prior art.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0011]    Accordingly, a first aspect of thc present invention provides a method for power management of a system, having a system context, comprising a first storage medium having a current system memory context, which includes data relating to the system context, and a second non-volatile storage medium; the first and second storage media having first and second data access times respectively such that the first data access time is less than the second data access time; the system being operable in a plurality of states, each state having an associated level of system power consumption; the method comprising the steps of: compressing data representing at least a portion of the current system memory context and outputting the compressed data for storage on the second storage medium to allow a transition to a first state of the plurality of states from a second state of the plurality of states; and placing the system in the second state; restoring the system context from the current system memory context stored within the first storage medium in response to detection of an event while the system is in the second state or, in the event that insufficient power was available to the system to maintain the second state, recovering the compressed data from the second storage medium; decompressing the recovered data and restoring the system memory context using the decompressed data.  
           [0012]    Advantageously, embodiments of the present invention enable a power management system to be realised in which the amount of data that needs to be saved to preserve a system context is reduced as compared to the prior art.  
           [0013]    Preferred embodiments restore the system context once the system memory context has been restored in response to detecting an appropriate event. The appropriate event may be, for example, detection of the actuation of an input device by the user.  
           [0014]    Furthermore, embodiments allow, in the absence of a power failure, a relatively fast wake-up time from a sleep state.  
           [0015]    A second aspect of the present invention provides a system, capable of having a system context, comprising a first storage medium having a current system memory context, which includes data relating to the system context, and a second non-volatile storage medium; the first and second storage media having first and second data access times respectively such that the first data access time is less than the second data access time; the system being operable in a plurality of states, each state having an associated level of system power consumption, the system further comprising: a codec to compress data representing at least a portion of the current system memory context; means to output the compressed data for storage on the second storage medium to allow a transition to a first state of the plurality of states from a second state of the plurality of states; and means to place the system in the second state; means to restore the system context from the current system memory context stored within the first storage medium in response to detection of an event while the system is in the second state or, in the event that insufficient power was available to the system to maintain the second state, means to recover the compressed data from the second storage medium; and means to restore the system memory context having decompressed the recovered compressed data using the codec.  
           [0016]    Preferably, the first state is a working state in which the power consumption of the system is greater than that of the second state. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0017]    Embodiments of the present invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:  
         [0018]    [0018]FIG. 1 shows schematically a power management environment according to an embodiment;  
         [0019]    [0019]FIG. 2 illustrates schematically ACPI states and state transitions for a known power management system;  
         [0020]    [0020]FIG. 3 depicts states and associated state transitions of a power management system according to a first embodiment;  
         [0021]    [0021]FIG. 4 shows a flowchart of a power-off or sleep process according to an embodiment;  
         [0022]    [0022]FIG. 5 shows an embodiment of parallel compression and storage of the data representing the system memory context; and  
         [0023]    [0023]FIG. 6 depicts a flowchart of a recovery process to restore the system memory context following a power failure that occurred during a reduced power consumption state according to an embodiment. 
     
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0024]    [0024]FIG. 1 illustrates schematically a power management environment  100  within which ACPI specification power management can be realised. The power management environment  100  comprises a client machine  102  having a system context  104 , a processor  105  and a RAM  106  having a RAM image  108 . The RAM image  108  comprises the content of the RAM  106 . In preparation for entering a reduced power consumption state, in which some or all of the devices (not shown) of the client machine  102  may be powered-down or placed in a reduced power consumption state, the device register values are transferred from the devices into RAM  106  to form part of the RAM image  108 . The device register values that are saved to RAM  106  are those values that would be lost in a reduced power consumption state. The RAM image  108 , together with the device register values, are known as the system memory context.  
         [0025]    The client machine has a boot-time routine  110  that supports ACPI routines. For example, the client machine may have an ACPI compliant BIOS. The client machine has an operating system  112 , which is arranged to implement operating system directed power management (OSPM) using OSPM software  114 . The client machine may run various applications  116  and  118 . The boot-time routine  110  comprises a codec  110 ′ for compressing and decompressing data. The codec  110 ′ may be realised in the form of a software codec, a hardware codec, which may form part of the CPU or which may be a dedicated DSP, or a combination of both hardware and software.  
         [0026]    Additional hardware and software functionality is provided in the form of power management event detection logic  120 , which detects events in response to which the current power state of the client machine may change to another state. For example, the user may depress an ON button  122 , in which case the client machine may effect a transition from a current sleeping state to a working state. Alternatively, the user may instigate a software shutdown of the client machine  102  in response to which the OSPM software  114  may effect a transition from the current state to a sleeping state.  
         [0027]    The events that the power management event detection logic  120  may detect also include, for example, modem or other communication device related events, which signal to the power management event detection logic  120  that data is being received and the modem or communication device and the RAM should be suitably powered-up to allow reception of the data. The power management event detection logic  120  forwards notification of detected events to the wake-up and sleep logic  124 . The wake-up and sleep logic  124 , in conjunction with the OSPM software  114 , manages the preservation of the system memory context of the client machine  102  This, in turn, preserves the system context of the client machine  102 .  
         [0028]    The data representing the system memory context is compressed using the codec  110 ′. The compressed data  130  is stored on a non-volatile storage medium  132  such as, for example, an HDD. The compressed data  130  can be retrieved in response to a request from the client machine  102 . Once the requested data has been retrieved from the HDD  132 , the data is decompressed using the codec  110 ′. The OSPM software  114  uses the decompressed data to restore or establish the system memory context, which, in turn, can be used to restore the system context  104  of the client machine  102 .  
         [0029]    In preferred embodiments, the compressed data  130  may be a concatenation of a number of blocks of the data  128 , each of which represents a compressed portion of the system memory context. Alternatively, the data  130  may represent the whole of the system memory context that was compressed as a single block.  
         [0030]    Referring to FIG. 2, there is shown a state diagram  200  of known power management states. The state diagram has five states, that is, states S 0   202 , S 1   204 , S 2   206 , S 3   208  and S 4   210 . The five states are briefly described below.  
         [0031]    State S 0 ; While a client machine is in state S 0 , the client machine  102  is said to be in a working state. The behaviour of that state is defined such that a processor  212 , or, in a multi-processor system, the processors are, in one of a number of so-called processor states, C 0    214 , C 1    216 , C 2    218 , . . . , C N    220 , which each represent varying degrees of processor operation and associated power consumption. The processor maintains the dynamic RAM context. The operating system software  112  individually manages any devices  222 , such as first  224  and second  226  devices, connected to, or forming part of, the client machine. The devices can be in any one of four possible device states D 0 -D 3 , which, again, reflect varying degrees of power consumption. Any associated power resources are arranged to be in a state that is compatible with the device states.  
         [0032]    State S 1 : The S 1  state  204  is a low wake-up latency sleeping state. In this state, no system context is lost (CPU or chip set) and the system hardware of the client machine maintains all system context.  
         [0033]    State S 2 : The S 2  state  206  is also considered to be a low wake-up latency sleeping state. The S 2  state  206  is substantially similar to the S 1  state  204  but for the CPU and the system cache context being lost in the S 2  state, since, typically, the operating system is responsible for maintaining cache and processor context.  
         [0034]    State S 3 : The S 3  state  208  is a low wake-up latency sleeping state where all system context is lost but for system memory context. The CPU, cache and chip set context are lost in this state. However, the system hardware maintains memory context and restores some CPU and L 2  configuration context. The S 3  state  208  was described greater in detail above.  
         [0035]    State S 4 : The S 4  state  210  is the lowest power, longest wake-up latency sleeping state supported by ACPI. To reduce power consumption, preferably to a minimum, it is assumed that the hardware platform has powered-off all devices but platform context is maintained. The S 4  state  210  has been described in greater detail above.  
         [0036]    [0036]FIG. 3 shows a state transition diagram  300  for a power management system according to an embodiment. It can be seen that the state transition diagram  300  comprises a working system state S 0   302 . Preferably, conventional states S 1   304  and S 2   306  are also supported. The states S 0 -S 2 , in preferred embodiments, are substantially identical in operation and realisation to the corresponding states described above in relation to FIG. 2 and as defined in current ACPI specifications.  
         [0037]    Additionally, the state diagram  300  illustrates a new state, that is, a Safe S 3 /Quick S 4  state  308  (SS 3 /QS 4 ). The behaviour of the client machine  102  in the SS 3 /QS 4  can be characterised by the actions of saving, in a compressed form, substantially the same data, or at least a portion of that data, to the non-volatile storage medium  132  as that saved in the conventional S 4  state while concurrently maintaining in memory the same data as that maintained in the conventional S 3  state. Furthermore, in the SS 3 /QS 4  state only the RAM remains in a powered state while all other aspects of the system adopt substantially the same powered state of the conventional S 3  state. The compressed data is saved in a file that may be called “SYS_CONTEXT.SYS” or in a dedicated, reserved, storage area of the HDD  132 . Alternatively, embodiments may provide a dedicated disk partition (not shown) for storage of the data representing the system memory context. Preferably, such a dedicated partition would not be accessible by the user.  
         [0038]    Therefore, if a power failure occurs while the client machine is in the SS 3 /QS 4  state  308 , loading and decompressing the SYS_CONTEXT.SYS file can restore the system memory context, which can be used to restore the system context. In contrast to the known power management state S 3 , if a power failure occurs, the system context at the time of power failure is recoverable.  
         [0039]    Compressing the data representing the system memory context also bcars the additional benefit that the time taken to retrieve the SYS_CONTEXT.SYS file from the HDD  132  is reduced since the file contains fewer bytes than the system memory context from which it was derived. Having a smaller file to retrieve from the HDD will also result in reduced power consumption when reading the data from the HDD as compared to reading an uncompressed file representing the system memory context. The same applies in respect of writing the compressed data to the HDD  132 .  
         [0040]    In preferred embodiments, the SYS_CONTEXT.SYS file is arranged to bc stored on the HDD  132  in an unfragmented form. When the file is stored in an unfragmented form, the number of disk head seek operations will be reduced as compared to writing or reading a fragmented SYS_CONTEXT.SYS file. This leads to further power saving during the read and write operations. Furthermore, the storage and retrieval of such an unfragmented file will be quicker than the storage and retrieval of a fragmented file containing the data representing the system memory context or the compressed system memory context. This may advantageously reduce the so-called “time to application” constraint that may be imposed by operating system vendors. The “time to application” is the time taken between a user instigating a boot of the client machine or recovery from a sleep state and the operating system having been loaded so that the user can instigate the loading and execution of an application.  
         [0041]    It will be appreciated that the type of compression or encoding used will have some bearing upon the degree of data reduction realised. In a simple case, using, for example, run-length encoding, strings of bytes or bits of the same value are replaced, where conducive to data reduction, by a value representing the number of bits or bytes in a string and an indication of the value of the bits or bytes in the string. In the case of compressing bits, it is possible to store an indication of the value of the first bit, that is, a zero or one, followed by successive values representing the number of zeros or ones in successive strings. Each new value represents a toggling between the strings of zeros and ones.  
         [0042]    It will be appreciated that the present invention is not limited to any particular type of compression. Embodiments can be realised in which any form of loss-less compression can be used to reduce the amount of data needed to support system context restoration.  
         [0043]    It will be appreciated that saving the data to a remotely accessible HDD may be desirable in the case of, for example, a thin client, which uses remotely accessible non-volatile storage. Therefore, the time taken to recover from a power failure when using network drives is reduced as compared to using an uncompressed SYS_CONTEXT.SYS file in such a situation. Still further, the reduced file size will also reduce network traffic when writing or reading the SYS_CONTEXT.SYS file.  
         [0044]    In the absence of a power failure, the system context, when waking from the SS 3 /QS 4  state, can be restored within a relatively short period of time. The relatively short period of time may be, for example, 5 seconds, that is, within a time scale that is comparable to the wake-up time for a conventional S 3  state. However, the embodiments provide the additional security of also being recoverable from a power failure, unlike the conventional S 3  state.  
         [0045]    Preferably, once the system context or system memory context has been restored following a power failure, the system enters or resumes the SS 3 /QS 4  state. However, it will be appreciated that embodiments can be realised such that any one of the states could be entered upon recovery.  
         [0046]    Referring to FIG. 4, there is shown schematically a flowchart  400  of an OFF process, that is, a process for notionally switching off the client machine that utilises the SS 3 /QS 4  state. Upon detection of a power-off event by the power management event detection logic  120  at step  402 , the OSPM software  114 , firstly, co-ordinates the compression of the data representing the system memory context, at step  404 , and, secondly, saves the compressed system memory context to the HDD  132  in the above mentioned file at step  406 . As will be appreciated from FIG. 5, the compression and storage processes, described in greater details later, are performed in parallel in a pipeline manner according to preferred embodiments. In step  408 , the client machine adopts the same power saving configuration as the conventional S 3  state. At step  410 , the client machine has power for the RAM and the front panel power LED (not shown) is switched off.  
         [0047]    [0047]FIG. 5 shows schematically the processing  500  that is undertaken by the processor  105  and the HDD  132  in preparation for entering the SS 3 /QS 4  state  308 . At some point in time  502 , the client machine  102  is instructed to enter the reduced power saving state SS 3 /QS 4 . The processor  105 , using the codec  110 ′, compresses a first block  504  of the RAM image  108 . The block of RAM may be any desired size. However, preferred embodiments use 64 k blocks of RAM. The first compressed block  506  of the RAM image  108  is output for storage on the HDD  132 . While the first compressed block  506  of the RAM image  108  is being written to the HDD  132 , the processor  105  fetches and compresses a second 64 k block  508  of the RAM image  108 . The second compressed block  510  of the RAM image  108  is written to the HDD  132 . The remaining blocks  512  to  516  of the RAM image  108  are each compressed in turn and the corresponding compressed blocks  518  to  522  of the RAM image  108  are output to the HDD. This pipeline processing of fetching and compressing blocks of the RAM image  108  and writing the compressed blocks of the RAM image to the HDD  132  is continued until the whole, or at least a portion, of the RAM image  108  has been processed, that is, until the whole or at least useful portions of the RAM image  108  have been saved in a compressed form.  
         [0048]    Once the RAM image  108  has been compressed and saved to the HDD  132 , the client machine  102  adopts the SS 3 /QS 4  state  308  at time  524 . If the client machine comprises a power LED located on the front panel, which is often conventional, to show that the client machine  102  is powered-up when the LED is on and powered-down when the LED is off, the power to the LED is switched-off at  526  Current systems also include a power LED on the motherboard to provide an indication that power is still being supplied to the client machine when the case has been removed. However, the state of such a motherboard LED should not be affected for safety reasons by embodiments of the present invention.  
         [0049]    [0049]FIG. 6 shows a flowchart  600  of a process to recover from a power failure while the client machine  102  was in the SS 3 /QS 4  state. A power return event is detected by the power management event detection logic  120  at step  602  which causes the client machine to retrieve the previously stored data  130  representing the compressed system memory context from the HDD  132  at step  604 . The retrieved data  130  is decompressed using the codec  110 ′. The decompressed data is used to restore the system memory context at step  606 . Again, in preferred embodiments, steps  604  and  606  are performed in a pipeline parallel manner, that is, the processing is the converse of that shown in FIG. 5. At step  608 , the power configuration of the client machine  102  is arranged by the OSPM software  114  to adopt substantially the same power configuration as in the conventional S 3  state. In step  610 , the front panel LED is placed in the off state.  
         [0050]    It will be appreciated that the processing for then entering the working state, having restored the client machine to the SS 3 /QS 4  state, is the same as that described with reference to FIG. 4. This arrangement, that is placing the client machine in a the state that it was in immediately prior to a power failure is convenient for the user. It is also thought that it will be less disconcerting for the user as compared to restoring the client machine to the working system state.  
         [0051]    A transition from the conventional S 3  state to the working state, that is, state S 0 , takes approximately 5 seconds as does the transition to the S 0  state from the SS 3 /QS 4  state, which are both significantly quicker than the current 2040 second wake-up time for an S 4  to S 0  transition. However, the SS 3 /QS 4  state has the additional advantage of allowing a consistent or safe recovery from a power failure while the client machine  102  was in the power saving state SS 3 /QS 4 .  
         [0052]    Although the above embodiments show a lack of support for S 3  and S 4  states, it will be appreciated that embodiments can be realised in which the S 3  and S 4  states are supported in addition to the states described. The states S 3   310  and S 4   312  are shown in FIG. 3 as being optionally supported by the dotted line. Furthermore, embodiments can be realised that have only three states, which are the working state, S 0 , the SS 3 /QS 4  state and a mechanical off state. Alternatively, embodiments can be realised which have only two states; namely, the working state S 0  and the SS 3 /QS 4  state.  
         [0053]    Furthermore, even though the above embodiments have been described in terms of having a number of system states, the present invention is not limited to such system states. Embodiments can be realised in which other states such as, for example, Legacy states, mechanical-off states G 3  and soft-off S 5  states are also supported.  
         [0054]    Although the above embodiments use an HDD as the non-volatile storage means, it will be appreciated that other forms of non-volatile storage may be used. For example, a flash-memory may be used to store the data to allow recovery from a power failure. Still further, remotely accessible non-volatile storage may be used in addition or instead of the locally accessible HDD for storing the compressed data representing the system memory context.  
         [0055]    It will be appreciated that the decision to save the data representing the system memory context in compressed or uncompressed form may be influenced by the anticipated time taken to perform the compression and subsequent decompression. Within embodiments, it may be more effective, in some circumstances, to store the data representing the system memory context in native form. Such circumstances include, for example, a situation in which the system memory context data is relatively small and the compression and decompression times would increase, rather than decrease, the time taken to store and recover the data representing the system memory context.  
         [0056]    The reader&#39;s attention is directed to all papers and documents which are filed concurrently with or previous to this specification in connection with this application and which are open to public inspection with this specification, and the contents of all such papers and documents are incorporated herein by reference.  
         [0057]    All of the features disclosed in this specification (including any accompanying claims, abstract and drawings), and/or all of the steps of any method or process so disclosed, may be combined in any combination, except combinations where at least some of such features and/or steps are mutually exclusive.  
         [0058]    Each feature disclosed in this specification (including any accompanying claims, abstract and drawings), may be replaced by alternative features serving the same, equivalent or similar purpose, unless expressly stated otherwise. Thus, unless expressly stated otherwise, each feature disclosed is one example only of a generic series of equivalent or similar features.  
         [0059]    The invention is not restricted to the details of any foregoing embodiments. The invention extends to any novel one, or any novel combination, of the features disclosed in this specification (including any accompanying claims, abstract and drawings), or to any novel one, or any novel combination, of the steps of any method or process so disclosed.

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