System and method for conserving power in a medical device

#1. Field of Invention

#Aspects of the present invention relate to medical devices, and more particularly to apparatus and methods for conserving power in medical devices.

#2. Discussion of Related Art

#Various aspects of at least one example are discussed below with reference to the accompanying figures, which are not intended to be drawn to scale. The figures are included to provide an illustration and a further understanding of the various aspects and examples, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, but are not intended as a definition of the limits of the invention. The drawings, together with the remainder of the specification, serve to explain principles and operations of the described and claimed aspects and examples. In the figures, each identical or nearly identical component that is illustrated in various figures is represented by a like numeral. For purposes of clarity, not every component may be labeled in every figure. In the figures:

#FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of one example of a power conserving processor arrangement;

#FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of one example of a portable treatment controller;

#Aspects and examples relate to apparatus and processes for selectively executing instructions on particular processors within a processor arrangement. The manner in which the instructions are executed conserves electrical energy and isolates particular functionality to particular components. For instance, methods and apparatus in accord with some examples include a medical device having a critical purpose processor that is configured to execute one or more critical functions and a general purpose processor that is configured to execute the remainder of the functions of the medical device. In these examples, the critical purpose processor generally remains active while the general purpose processor generally remains inactive. This arrangement of processors results in lower power consumption by the medical device than would an arrangement including only the general purpose processor. Lower power consumption, in turn, results in decreased operating temperature which extends the life and reliability of the medical device.

#In addition, this arrangement of processors isolates execution of the critical functions to a particular set of components. In this way, the processor arrangement protects the ability of the medical device to reliably, precisely and effectively execute its critical functions without interference or instability caused by execution of or change to the non-critical functions of the device. Moreover, by including a general purpose processor that executes an RTOS, this arrangement provides a rich computing platform with standard system services such as file system management and communications for the remainder of the functions of the medical device.

#The examples of the methods and apparatuses discussed herein are not limited in application to the details of construction and the arrangement of components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the accompanying drawings. The methods and apparatuses are capable of implementation in other examples and of being practiced or of being carried out in various ways. Examples of specific implementations are provided herein for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to be limiting. In particular, acts, elements and features discussed in connection with any one or more examples are not intended to be excluded from a similar role in any other examples.