Re: [PATCH 2/2] Fix console handling during suspend/resume

[Jim Gettys <jg@laptop.org>]

On Mon, 2006-06-26 at 01:03 +0200, Pavel Machek wrote:
> Hi!
> 
> > We're building the OLPC machine in which the wireless hardware is alive
> > (and able to forward packets in the mesh) even with the machine STR.
> > Even our ATest hardware supports this for wireless.
> 
> > Similarly for the screen; it can be "alive" while the machine is STR.
> > The power savings are dramatic. the screen takes an ASIC we don't have
> > back yet, so that we won't have until the next batch of boards.  And
> > with the Geode's UMA, all we should have to do on the console is save
> > and restore the graphics registers, which should be very fast.
> 
> Actually, what you are doing is _not_ suspend-to-RAM. You are doing
> (trying to do?) very advanced kind of runtime power management on PC
> platform (that happens to use S3).

I suppose it is a matter of definitions...  However, the main CPU is in
fact going to be suspended to RAM; it's just that our wireless and
screen are able to run autonomously.

In our case, since our display's power consumption is so low, getting
the CPU and most of the logic powered off will double or triple our
battery life for many use cases.

> 
> I hope we'll be able to do the same on regular notebooks some day...
> 

So do we.

It is fun for Linux to be going first for once.

If you want a board to play with, let me know, Pavel (and others)...
This is not mythological hardware, but stuff I can ship out immediately.
(though the video has to wait until the next revision of the board:
we're doing an asic for that, and won't have that chip for several more
months).

                    Regards,
                       - Jim

-- 
Jim Gettys
One Laptop Per Child