Method and system for minimizing power demands on portable computers and the like by refreshing selected dram cells

A system for conserving power in the operation of a personal computer having a certain amount of random access memory (RAM) therein defined by a certain number of rows of memory elements or cells located on a single RAM semiconductor chip, said system comprising:

• a. means for reading a computer program to ascertain how much RAM memory is required thereby, and
• b. means connected to said reading means for refreshing a selected fraction or subset of the total number of rows in a single RAM memory chip required by said computer program, but less than the total number of rows of elements or cells in one or ore of RAM memory chips n order to conserve power, and at a controlled refresh frequency corresponding to an operational power level sufficient to prevent any cell within any of said selected rows in said RAM memory chip from losing data stored therein.

A computer system operative for refreshing certain percentage of RAM memory capacity on a required use basis, and further operative for changing said percentage of RAM memory upon changing to a different software application, said system including, in combination:

• a. a central processing unit,
• b. a random access memory (RAM) stage comprising a RAM memory chip having a certain number of rows of memory elements or cells therein, and
• c. random access memory (RAM) control means connected between said central processing unit and said random access memory stage and responsive to input data signals received from said central processing unit for refreshing a selected fraction or subset of the total number of rows of memory elements or cells within said RAM stage, but less than the total number of rows of elements or cells in one or more RAM memory chips within said RAM storage in order to conserve power, as a function of memory storage capacity requirements for a software program used by said central processing unit.