SYSTEM POWER CONSUMPTION CONTROL METHOD

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce the power consumption of a multiprocessor system consisting of CPUs. SOLUTION: When the multiprocessor system does not require large processing capacity, one or more CPUs 101 to 106 are stopped or suspended to reduce the total power consumption of the system without lowering the needed processing capacity of the system. For this purpose, circuits 113 to 118 which stop or suspend the CPUs 101 to 106 that the system is equipped with are provided one to one, and a multitask operating system monitors the use quantities of the respective CPUs 101 to 106 and stops or suspends a CPU which is small in use quantity. Thus, the processing capacity that the system requires on the whole is secured and then the total power consumption of the system is reduced.