Electrical computers and digital processing systems: support – Computer power control – Power conservation
Reexamination Certificate
1999-09-29
2003-12-02
Lee, Thomas (Department: 2185)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: support
Computer power control
Power conservation
C713S001000, C713S002000, C713S300000, C713S322000, C713S323000, C713S324000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06658576
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to the field of information communications and more particularly to energy-conserving information communication apparatuses (including computers) kept alive through the least amount of energy technologically possible for establishing instant communications, to an energy-conserving operating system operable between an energy-conserving and a main operating state, to in Internet service provider or Internet communication system for providing requested communications, and to the methods therefor, so as to allow the energy-conserving information communication apparatuses to stay connected via the Internet, yet without requiring to stay online as seen in the conventional practice.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A modern computer system is mostly equipped with a modem for sending and receiving facsimile information as well as for gaining access to the Internet. Thus far, however, it cannot replace a typical fax machine because of its inconvenience in usage and inefficiency in power consumption. Inconvenience in usage is directly associated with the booting process of computer from a power-off state to an operating state, which is time consuming. In contrast, any fax machine is readily operable for receiving or transmitting facsimile information. With respect to power consumption, a conventional fax machine requires roughly 10 watts of power in order to maintain its standby state for detecting an incoming call. Much higher power consumption is expected for maintaining a conventional computer system at a corresponding standby state, in which its power supply unit (including a cooling fan), motherboard (including expansion cards), hard-disk drive, CD drive, and monitor will all incur various degrees of energy waste and will also reduce mechanical/electronic life expectancy due to mechanical rotation.
Recently, a great deal of effort has been made to conserve power usage in information-processing apparatuses, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,491,721 and 5,588,054 dealing with modems, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,410,713 dealing with computer systems. The prior arts basically improve power utilization after AC power is converted to regulated DC power through utilizing a power management processor to place a computer system selectively between a normal state and a standby state. However, improvement of a modem or a power-supply unit alone can neither enable a whole computer to operate more power-efficiently nor resolve the inconvenience mentioned hereinabove.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,579,524 suggests a power supply system utilizing a command supply (i.e., switchable) to power both a fan and peripherals, which may not be desirable in view of U.S. Pat. No. 5,513,361 describing a fan controllable to dissipate heat discharged from its host CPU (central processing unit). Similar to other prior arts, U.S. Pat. No. 5,579,524 also defines that its standby state represents the lowest power consumption mode for a computer system, equivalent to turning the computer off, and thus a user should save work in progress, close applications, and exit to the system prompt. In accordance with the conventional practice, consequently, no previous task or activity is restorable or resumable once a computer system enters the conventional standby state. To the contrary, it is highly desirable to maintain an application software program active so as to allow a computer system to be instantaneously and remotely accessible for receiving facsimile information once an incoming call is detected and so as to enable a user to instantaneously continue his/her unfinished tasks or files without reloading the software and the files. These features are attainable for a conventional computer continuously maintained at a sleep mode, but at the cost of incurring substantial energy waste as well as mechanical/electronic failure.
While U.S. Pat. No. 5,579,524 deals with supplying main power selectively to a system board as a whole, U.S. Pat. No. 5,629,694 discloses a new keyboard with a power control key and suggests that its system board is divided into three zones energized respectively by battery power, standby power, and main power. The former affords neither power conserving nor instantaneous accessibility because its system board as a whole is energized and de-energized, respectively. On the other hand, the latter defines that the elements energized selectively by main power are standard sub-system (such as RAMs, ROMs, disc drives), expansion buses, etc. Removal of the main power will save energy, but will also totally vaporize all vital information stored in the RAMs. As a result, any conventional computer needs to go through the booting procedure in order to re-find all of the necessary addresses from a hard-disk drive for reloading previously loaded software programs back to the RAMs. Because the booting procedure is timeconsuming, no conventional computer is instantaneously accessible for establishing communication once entering the conventional standby state.
Also well known is that a conventional PC power supply can only be turned on or off manually for either supplying or not supplying power. If to be idled for a prolonged period of time, a computer should be manually turned off rather than placed into a sleep mode in accordance with the conventional practice utilized in the Microsoft's window operating system that is clearly embodied in a familiar screen display “It's now safe to turn off your computer.” Once turned off, however, it is simply inoperable. On the other hand, once turned on, it will continuously incur energy waste and shorten the life expectancy of a cooling fan even in the sleep mode.
It is the conventional practice from which communications between personal computers (PCs) and the Internet has thus evolved. However, the Internet allows only a PC to initiate a communication link to an Internet server for retrieving information therefrom or for transmitting e-mails therethrough, which is considered to be a passive mode of communications. Specifically, any e-mail has to send to a POP (post office protocol) server for storage and to idle therein for manual retrieval. In other words, the conventional practice does not allow anyone to be notified with the arrival of an e-mail unless he/she occurs to log onto the POP server. Likewise, even based on gateway software, the service of “instant message” offered by America Online Inc. is workable only for the PCs that are powered on and stayed online. The latter requires that a phone line be continuously occupied, which is impractical. Although communications between PCs may be achieved through a software program called Symantec PC anywhere, it is required that the conventional PCs be manually powered on for each use, which is also impractical and unacceptable as compared with the phone system. Another conventional example is U.S. Pat. No. 5,909,671 discloses a system for controlling data access in a computer network, in which a server is able to register “a virtual telephone call” from a subscriber telephone number to a service telephone number associated with the requested data stored in the server so as to bill the subscriber for his/her access at a preset charge. Because the data are stored in the server or the Internet, the virtual telephone call and utility of the prior patent are used only for establishing the charge, not for establishing communication with another client or PC. In essence, the conventional practice does not allow any power-off or even offline PCs to receive any information from the Internet, not mention to communicate directly with each other.
My allowed prior patent application (Ser. No. 09/026,032, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,089,175) discloses an energy-conserving power-supply system having keep-alive power and a control system for actuating the supply of either main DC power or AC power so as to maximize energy savings. My other patent application (Ser. No. 09/293,089, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,341,354) takes consideration of the shortcomings of the prior art mentioned hereinabove, providing a new ty
Lee Thomas
SmartPower Corporation
Trujillo James K.
LandOfFree
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