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authorLinus Torvalds <torvalds@ppc970.osdl.org>2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700
committerLinus Torvalds <torvalds@ppc970.osdl.org>2005-04-16 15:20:36 -0700
commit1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 (patch)
tree0bba044c4ce775e45a88a51686b5d9f90697ea9d /Documentation/power/states.txt
Linux-2.6.12-rc2v2.6.12-rc2
Initial git repository build. I'm not bothering with the full history, even though we have it. We can create a separate "historical" git archive of that later if we want to, and in the meantime it's about 3.2GB when imported into git - space that would just make the early git days unnecessarily complicated, when we don't have a lot of good infrastructure for it. Let it rip!
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+
+System Power Management States
+
+
+The kernel supports three power management states generically, though
+each is dependent on platform support code to implement the low-level
+details for each state. This file describes each state, what they are
+commonly called, what ACPI state they map to, and what string to write
+to /sys/power/state to enter that state
+
+
+State: Standby / Power-On Suspend
+ACPI State: S1
+String: "standby"
+
+This state offers minimal, though real, power savings, while providing
+a very low-latency transition back to a working system. No operating
+state is lost (the CPU retains power), so the system easily starts up
+again where it left off.
+
+We try to put devices in a low-power state equivalent to D1, which
+also offers low power savings, but low resume latency. Not all devices
+support D1, and those that don't are left on.
+
+A transition from Standby to the On state should take about 1-2
+seconds.
+
+
+State: Suspend-to-RAM
+ACPI State: S3
+String: "mem"
+
+This state offers significant power savings as everything in the
+system is put into a low-power state, except for memory, which is
+placed in self-refresh mode to retain its contents.
+
+System and device state is saved and kept in memory. All devices are
+suspended and put into D3. In many cases, all peripheral buses lose
+power when entering STR, so devices must be able to handle the
+transition back to the On state.
+
+For at least ACPI, STR requires some minimal boot-strapping code to
+resume the system from STR. This may be true on other platforms.
+
+A transition from Suspend-to-RAM to the On state should take about
+3-5 seconds.
+
+
+State: Suspend-to-disk
+ACPI State: S4
+String: "disk"
+
+This state offers the greatest power savings, and can be used even in
+the absence of low-level platform support for power management. This
+state operates similarly to Suspend-to-RAM, but includes a final step
+of writing memory contents to disk. On resume, this is read and memory
+is restored to its pre-suspend state.
+
+STD can be handled by the firmware or the kernel. If it is handled by
+the firmware, it usually requires a dedicated partition that must be
+setup via another operating system for it to use. Despite the
+inconvenience, this method requires minimal work by the kernel, since
+the firmware will also handle restoring memory contents on resume.
+
+If the kernel is responsible for persistantly saving state, a mechanism
+called 'swsusp' (Swap Suspend) is used to write memory contents to
+free swap space. swsusp has some restrictive requirements, but should
+work in most cases. Some, albeit outdated, documentation can be found
+in Documentation/power/swsusp.txt.
+
+Once memory state is written to disk, the system may either enter a
+low-power state (like ACPI S4), or it may simply power down. Powering
+down offers greater savings, and allows this mechanism to work on any
+system. However, entering a real low-power state allows the user to
+trigger wake up events (e.g. pressing a key or opening a laptop lid).
+
+A transition from Suspend-to-Disk to the On state should take about 30
+seconds, though it's typically a bit more with the current
+implementation.