Method and apparatus for reducing power consumption in a portable electronic device

摘要

A method and apparatus for reducing power consumption of a portable electronic device, such as a smartphone, or other portable devices when in sleep mode. A low power mode core stay alive while the electronic device is in sleep mode. When implemented in a smartphone, for example, the low power mode core may react to an incoming call so that at least part of the external memory of the smartphone may be powered down. The low power mode core may acknowledge the incoming call and provide a user interface for answering the call before the operating system is resumed, so as to keep the same or similar phone usage experience as the operating system is processing the incoming call. At the same time, the low power mode core may wake up the operating system. The same approach is applicable in monitoring devices, where the entire device need not be running.

主权项

1. A device configured to enter into a low power mode, the device comprising:
an operating system configured to be powered down while the device is in the low power mode; and a memory configured to store, in a first area of the memory, information that is accessible by the operating system to (i) process an event according to a first usage experience, wherein the first area of the memory is also configured to be powered down while the device is in the low power mode, wherein the memory is further configured to store, in a second area of the memory, a low power mode core that is configured to operate while the device is in the low power mode, wherein the low power mode core comprises
a resource collecting module configured to, prior to the device entering in the low power mode, collect the information that is accessible by the operating system to process the event, anda user interface handling module configured to, in response to the event occurring while (i) the device is in the low power mode and (ii) the operating system is powered down, provide a user interface to process the event according to a second usage experience, wherein the user interface is provided based on the information collected by the resource collecting module prior to the device entering in the low power mode, and wherein the second usage experience is the same as or similar to the first usage experience as if the operating system were processing the event.