Aktive Stromverbrauchsreduktion zur Anwendung bei PC-I/O-Steckkarten

A system for controlling the power consumption of an add-in PC card operating within a host computer. The host computer includes a power supply that provides all power used by the PC card. The PC card includes communication registers required for communication between the host computer and the PC card. The PC card also includes a microcontroller connected to an I/O subsystem and a multi-pin I/O connector. A first side of the multi-pin I/O connector is connected to the I/O subsystem and a second side is connected to a source of I/O signals external to the host computer. An external register module is connected to the microcontroller and communicates with the host computer. The external register module contains the communication registers. A status detector located on the PC card detects whether the I/O subsystem is processing I/O information, and supplies a status signal indicative thereof. A power management module is also located on the PC card and is connected to the status connector. The power management module receives the status signal from the status detector and supplies one or more predetermined power levels as a result of the status signal.