1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to a power management method for a portable computer system and related power supply device and portable computer system, and more particularly, to a power management method and related power supply device and portable computer system capable of extending utilization time.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Portable computer systems, such as notebook computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), etc, have advantages of small size, lightweight, portability, etc, which allow users to work outside offices, to access functions of the computer systems, and no longer to be bounded in front of desks.
In general, a portable computer system includes a rechargeable battery, utilized for providing operating power, to accomplish portable operations. Since power stored in the rechargeable battery is limited, when power stored in the rechargeable battery is exhausted, the user has to replace the battery or apply other power sources, to continue using the portable computer system. However, in some cases, such as when the user does not bring excess batteries or cannot find an available power source, the user cannot use the portable computer system anymore.
In order to improve the above-mentioned situation, the prior art provide a method to use an energy converter which converts light or mechanical energy to electricity, so as to provide power to the portable computer system. However, the energy converter can only provide a dynamic power source, which may be insufficient to drive the portable computer system or just sufficient for charging the battery, and reduces utilization convenience.
In such a case, the prior art further provides another method to use at least two rechargeable batteries as the power source of the portable computer system. The main concept of such method is to separate charging and discharging operations. That is, when a rechargeable battery provides power to the portable computer system, the other is being charged. Therefore, the user can access functions of the portable computer system while performing charging. However, if a charge current is smaller than a discharge current, the portable computer system eventually turns out to be unavailable. Therefore, an improvement for the above power supply architecture having multiple batteries is necessary.
It is therefore a primary objective of the claimed invention to provide a power management method for a portable computer system and related power supply device and portable computer system.
The present invention discloses a power management method for a portable computer system. The portable computer system comprises a plurality of power storage devices for storing power and outputting a discharge current to the portable computer system. The power management method comprises receiving a power, and generating a corresponding charge current, to charge a power storage device of the plurality of power storage devices, and comparing the discharge current and the charge current, and adjusting power consumption of the portable computer system accordingly.
The present invention further discloses a power supply device for a portable computer system, which comprises a plurality of power storage devices, for storing power and outputting a discharge current to the portable computer system, so as to drive the portable computer system, a charging device, for receiving a power, and generating a corresponding charge current, for charging a power storage device of the plurality of power storage devices, and a control device, for comparing the discharge current and the charge current, and adjusting power consumption of the portable computer system accordingly.
The present invention further discloses a portable computer system, which comprises a host, for performing operating functions, and a power supply device, comprising a plurality of power storage devices, for storing power and outputting a discharge current to the host, so as to drive the host, a charging device, for receiving a power, and generating a corresponding charge current, for charging a power storage device of the plurality of power storage devices, and a control device, for comparing the discharge current and the charge current, and adjusting power consumption of the host accordingly.
These and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment that is illustrated in the various figures and drawings.
Please refer to
In short, the power supply device 102 not only separates the charging and discharging operations, but also adjusts power consumption of the host 100 according to the comparison result of the charge current iCH and the discharge current iDIS. Preferably, when the discharge current iDIS is greater than the charge current iCH, the control device 108 can reduce power consumption of the host 100, to make the discharge current iDIS equal to or smaller than the charge current iCH. As a result, the present invention can make a charging speed equal to a discharging speed, to provide sufficient power for the host 100 successively, and ensure normal operations of the portable computer system 10. Note that, reducing power consumption of the host 100 is not limited in any specific way, and can be performed by reducing speaker volume, screen brightness, or an operating speed of a central processing unit (CPU), for example. Certainly, if the power PWR is sufficient, i.e. the discharge current iDIS is smaller than the charge current iCH, the present invention can recover previous configurations, to recover speaker volume, screen brightness, or CPU speed.
Therefore, if the power PWR is dynamic or with low current, such as power generated by a light or mechanical energy to electricity converter, the user can access functions of the portable computer system 10 while performing charging because the power storage devices performing dis-/charging in the power storage device set 104 are different. In addition, the control device 108 can adjust power consumption of the host 100 according to difference between the discharge current iDIS and the charge current ICH, to make dis-/charging speed the same or slow down discharging speed, so as to extend utilization time of the portable computer system 10.
The operations of the power supply device 102 can be summarized in a power management process 20, as shown in
Step 200: Start.
Step 202: A power storage device B_x of the power storage device set 104 outputs the discharge current iDIS to the host 100.
Step 204: The charging device 106 receives the power PWR, and generates the corresponding charge current ICH, for charging another power storage device B_y in the power storage device set 104.
Step 206: The control device 108 compares the discharge current iDIS and the charge current iCH, and adjusts power consumption of the host 100 accordingly.
Step 208: End.
The detailed description of the power management process 20 is narrated above, and not given here.
Note that, the portable computer system 10 shown in
In order to clearly describe the operations of the power supply device 102, adjusting CPU speed is taken as an example below. Please refer to
Note that,
To sum up, the present invention can improve power supply of a multi-battery system, and allow the user to access the functions of the portable computer system while performing charging. Meanwhile, the present invention can adjust power consumption of the portable computer system, to make the charging speed equal to the discharging speed or lower down the discharging speed, so as to extend utilization time.
Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerous modifications and alterations of the device and method may be made while retaining the teachings of the invention. Accordingly, the above disclosure should be construed as limited only by the metes and bounds of the appended claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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097140193 | Oct 2008 | TW | national |