Technological advancements for electronic devices having components such as microprocessors, data buses, memory, and associated electronic circuitry have warranted careful design considerations in terms of power consumption. Historically, microprocessor speeds have doubled every eighteen months to two years necessitating information to be communicated between devices at increased data rates.
However, power consumption of electronic components associated with processing and transmitting information at such high speeds has also increased. For example, power consumption of capacitive components, such as modes of a data bus, may be calculated based on the response of such components to changes in frequency. For example, capacitive reactance may be found by:
                    Xc        =                  1                      ω            ⁢                                                  ⁢            C                                              (                  Equation          ⁢                                          ⁢          1                )            
Where ω is 2 π times the frequency ƒ of a signal and C is the DC capacitive value for the component. The average current for a capacitor can be found by:
                    1        =                  V          Xc                                    (                  Equation          ⁢                                          ⁢          2                )            
Where V is the average voltage of the signal provided. Plugging these values into a power equation results in:P=IV   (Equation 3)
As such, average power consumption for a capacitor increases proportionally as the frequency of the signal increases. For example, if a system's frequency is doubled, the power consumed by the capacitor also doubles, resulting in increased power consumption.
Some current solutions for efficiently managing power consumption include providing sleep states for electronic devices such as laptop computers, desktop systems and/or monitors. For example, a laptop computer benefits from reduced power consumption by reducing its operating frequency and/or operating voltage based on whether it is connected to a persistent power source, such as a wall plug, or a degenerative power source, such as a rechargeable power unit. Other applications for managing power consumption include providing reduced power states including powering down peripheral components such as video monitors, printers, etc. to conserve energy consumption. For example, such conventional energy conserving applications may include a mode of operation in which all unnecessary components are shut down or placed in a sleep mode and may include shutting down the video monitor and disk drive. Once awakened, the computer returns to an operating state.
As conservation of power, and battery life, remain desirable, other systems and methods for reducing power consumption will continue to be useful.