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Documentation / power / states.txt




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Based on kernel version 3.9. Page generated on 2013-05-02 23:12 EST.

1	
2	System Power Management States
3	
4	
5	The kernel supports three power management states generically, though
6	each is dependent on platform support code to implement the low-level
7	details for each state. This file describes each state, what they are
8	commonly called, what ACPI state they map to, and what string to write
9	to /sys/power/state to enter that state
10	
11	
12	State:		Standby / Power-On Suspend
13	ACPI State:	S1
14	String:		"standby"
15	
16	This state offers minimal, though real, power savings, while providing
17	a very low-latency transition back to a working system. No operating
18	state is lost (the CPU retains power), so the system easily starts up
19	again where it left off. 
20	
21	We try to put devices in a low-power state equivalent to D1, which
22	also offers low power savings, but low resume latency. Not all devices
23	support D1, and those that don't are left on. 
24	
25	A transition from Standby to the On state should take about 1-2
26	seconds. 
27	
28	
29	State:		Suspend-to-RAM
30	ACPI State:	S3
31	String:		"mem"
32	
33	This state offers significant power savings as everything in the
34	system is put into a low-power state, except for memory, which is
35	placed in self-refresh mode to retain its contents. 
36	
37	System and device state is saved and kept in memory. All devices are
38	suspended and put into D3. In many cases, all peripheral buses lose
39	power when entering STR, so devices must be able to handle the
40	transition back to the On state. 
41	
42	For at least ACPI, STR requires some minimal boot-strapping code to
43	resume the system from STR. This may be true on other platforms. 
44	
45	A transition from Suspend-to-RAM to the On state should take about
46	3-5 seconds. 
47	
48	
49	State:		Suspend-to-disk
50	ACPI State:	S4
51	String:		"disk"
52	
53	This state offers the greatest power savings, and can be used even in
54	the absence of low-level platform support for power management. This
55	state operates similarly to Suspend-to-RAM, but includes a final step
56	of writing memory contents to disk. On resume, this is read and memory
57	is restored to its pre-suspend state. 
58	
59	STD can be handled by the firmware or the kernel. If it is handled by
60	the firmware, it usually requires a dedicated partition that must be
61	setup via another operating system for it to use. Despite the
62	inconvenience, this method requires minimal work by the kernel, since
63	the firmware will also handle restoring memory contents on resume. 
64	
65	For suspend-to-disk, a mechanism called 'swsusp' (Swap Suspend) is used
66	to write memory contents to free swap space. swsusp has some restrictive
67	requirements, but should work in most cases. Some, albeit outdated,
68	documentation can be found in Documentation/power/swsusp.txt.
69	Alternatively, userspace can do most of the actual suspend to disk work,
70	see userland-swsusp.txt.
71	
72	Once memory state is written to disk, the system may either enter a
73	low-power state (like ACPI S4), or it may simply power down. Powering
74	down offers greater savings, and allows this mechanism to work on any
75	system. However, entering a real low-power state allows the user to
76	trigger wake up events (e.g. pressing a key or opening a laptop lid).
77	
78	A transition from Suspend-to-Disk to the On state should take about 30
79	seconds, though it's typically a bit more with the current
80	implementation. 
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