Powering down

The most reasonable approach to reducing the power consumption of processors is to realize that under normal usage patterns, processors will not run at 100% utilization all the time. Modern processors implement dynamic power management by allowing the operating system to trigger entry into a range of low-power states when there is nothing to be executed. Compressing the contents of the framebuffer can result in an additional reduction of power draw. The Linux kernel's laptop-mode offers an approach, in which writes are cached for a user-definable period of time if the disk is not spun up. The One Laptop Per Child is an effective example of power management, sharing more in common with the embedded world. A well rounded power management strategy requires integration of hardware, firmware, and software, as well as careful consideration of how to obtain maximum savings without making the user aware of any compromised functionality.