Model and Methods of Human-Centered Personal Computers Adaptive Power Control

Abstract

The problem of economical use of modern PCs’ electric energy is solved at all levels, starting with hardware. Power consumption of the computing platform can be structured by dividing it into two parts: static and dynamic, where last of them is defined by processor load. There are two main approaches in solving the problem of reducing the computers’ power consumption at the hardware and at the operating system levels:

• the dynamic change of the processor voltage and frequency;

• the advanced configuration’s interface and power management technology.

Only a few publications that take into account the user’s model when power saving PC’s control are known. Mostly, the terms «user’s model», «user’s behavior model» are used in works on ergonomics of the user’s interface, in search and advisory systems, in systems of user’s authentication, and also in tasks of identifying abnormal behavior of computing systems. Proposed solutions use models based on the measurement of the user’s motor activity with typical and most used devices for entering information: a keyboard and a manual manipulator «mouse». Also the existing models ignore the semantic and target components of the user’s behavior for which the elementary motor activity is carried out. Such components are manifested at the level of the operating system in the form of application’s starts/stops, switching of focus, etc., and they are also an integral part of the general model of user’s activity of the PC. The purpose of the article is to develop a model of user’s activity and the method of its identification in the system of PC’s power consumption. In addition the evaluation of the implementation of this model and methods in the system of the PC’s power consumption is of interest.