Patent Application
20110004879
1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to a method and apparatus for eliminating wait for boot-up while simultaneously preventing increased power usage.
2. Background of the Invention
It is a common goal in most electronics to attempt to reduce power usage. It is also a common goal for the electronics that require boot-up to attempt to reduce the time needed to reach boot-up a device. In device, such as, computers, laptops, phones and calculators, maintaining information in memory utilizes too much power. Thus, memory is cleared and reloaded at boot-up. However, this solution results in a longer boot-up time. In order to shorten boot-up time, more information is maintained in memory. However, this solution consumes too much energy/power.
Therefore, there is a need for an improved method and apparatus for reducing boot-up time while simultaneously preventing increased power usage.
Embodiments of the present invention relate to a method and apparatus for eliminating wait for boot-up of an apparatus while simultaneously preventing increased power usage. The method includes predicting a boot-up schedule according to a determined usage schedule, and scheduling boot-up time according to the predicted boot-up schedule, wherein said boot-up schedule eliminates wait for boot-up while simultaneously preventing increased power usage.
So that the manner in which the above recited features of the present invention can be understood in detail, a more particular description of the invention, briefly summarized above, may be had by reference to embodiments, some of which are illustrated in the appended drawings. It is to be noted, however, that the appended drawings illustrate only typical embodiments of this invention and are therefore not to be considered limiting of its scope, for the invention may admit to other equally effective embodiments. In this application, a computer readable processor is any medium accessible by a computer for saving, writing, archiving, executing and/or accessing data. Furthermore, the method described herein may be coupled to a processing unit, wherein said processing unit is capable of performing the method.
The processor 102 may comprise one or more conventionally available microprocessors. The microprocessor may be an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC). The support circuits 104 are well known circuits used to promote functionality of the processor 102. Such circuits include, but are not limited to, a cache, power supplies, clock circuits, input/output (I/O) circuits and the like. The memory 106 may comprise random access memory, read only memory, removable disk memory, flash memory, and various combinations of these types of memory. The memory 106 is sometimes referred to main memory and may, in part, be used as cache memory or buffer memory. The memory 106 may store an operating system (OS), database software, and various forms of application software, such as, applications 108, usage module 110, boot-up module 112 and the like.
The applications 108 are any applications that are stored or utilized by the apparatus 100. The usage module 110 tracks and analyzes user's usage habits. For example, the usage module 110 will determine if the student regularly utilizes the apparatus 100 on Mondays through Fridays at ten (10) in the morning. The usage module 110 makes such usage data readily available for the boot-up module 112.
The boot-up module 112 utilizes the usage data from the usage module 110 to boot-up the apparatus prior to the predicted usage. For example, the usage module 110 determines that the apparatus 100 is usually utilized Monday through Friday at ten (10) in the morning. The boot-up module 112 initiates a boot-up of the apparatus 100 prior to the predicted usage, for example, at nine fifty-five (9:55) in the morning. As a result, the apparatus 100 is capable of reducing power usage while eliminating wait for boot-up of the apparatus 100.
It should be noted, the usage module 110 and boot-up module 112 may be combined into the same module. Further more, the prediction of the boot-up time may be done by either the usage module 110 or the boot-up module 112.
While the foregoing is directed to embodiments of the present invention, other and further embodiments of the invention may be devised without departing from the basic scope thereof, and the scope thereof is determined by the claims that follow.
