Building the Power Efficient PC: A Developer's Guide to ACPI Power Management

Here is the first comprehensive hardware and software engineering guide for designing power-managed PCs. Written by PC experts, this book provides developers and integrators with practical knowledge and design techniques for building PCs that address the increasing demand for energy conservation.

With power management, a PC can have lower overall power utilization, automated off-hours maintenance, and an improved end-user experience. Recent regulations and labeling programs mandate tighter restrictions on platform power consumption. PC hardware developers, software programmers, and system integrators must work together to build systems that meet the new power management guidelines.

Instead of rehashing specifications, Building the Power-Efficient PC clearly explains how a properly designed system functions during power state transitions and shows you in detail how those transitions can be implemented in the hardware and software. Topics include:

• Background and history of PC power management
• Key power management concepts
• Control flow through power states
• Design considerations for desktop and mobile hardware
• Drivers for Microsoft Windows and Linux
• Specific techniques for application software
• Testing and validation