Portable computer with low power consumption of a card bus controller thereof
AssigneeMitac Technology Corp.
InventorCheng-Liang Huang
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present invention provides a computer including a processor for controlling operation of the computer, a card bus slot connected with the processor for connecting to a PCMCIA card, a power supply for providing the PCMCIA card inserted into the card bus slot with electric power, a card bus controller connected with the processor for controlling the power supply and the PCMCIA card inserted into the card bus slot, and a detection circuit connected with the card bus slot for detecting whether the PCMCIA card is inserted into the card bus slot.
Claims8
A computer comprising:
- a processor for controlling operation of the computer;
- a card bus slot connected with the processor for connecting to a PCMCIA card;
- a power supply for providing the PCMCIA card inserted into the card bus slot with electric power;
- a card bus controller connected with the processor for controlling the power supply and the PCMCIA card inserted into the card bus slot;
- a detection circuit connected with the card bus slot for detecting whether the PCMCIA card is inserted into the card bus slot;
- wherein when the detection circuit detects that the PCMCIA card has been inserted into the card bus slot, the card bus controller is turned on for making the power supply start to provide the PCMCIA card with electric power, and
- provides the PCMCIA card with corresponding services according to a specification of the PCMCIA card for making the PCMCIA card operate correctly, and when the detection circuit detects that there is no PCMCIA card inserted into the card bus slot, the card bus controller is turned off for lowering power consumption.
A method for lowering power consumption of a computer, the computer comprising:
- a processor for controlling operation of the computer;
- a card bus slot connected with the processor for connecting to a PCMCIA card;
- a power supply for providing the PCMCIA card inserted into the card bus slot with electric power;
- a card bus controller connected with the processor for controlling the power supply and the PCMCIA card inserted into the card bus slot;
- the method comprising:
- detecting whether the PCMCIA card has been inserted into the card bus slot;
- turning on the card bus controller for making the power supply start providing the PCMCIA card with electric power, and providing the PCMCIA card with corresponding services according to a specification of the PCMCIA card for making the PCMCIA card operate correctly when detecting an insertion of the PCMCIA card;
- and
- turning off the card bus controller for lowering power consumption when there is no PCMCIA card inserted into the card bus slot.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.