Search in: Word
Vietnamese keyboard: Off
Virtual keyboard: Show
Computing (FOLDOC) dictionary
Advanced Configuration and Power Interface
Jump to user comments
hardware, standard (ACPI) An open industry standard
developed by Intel, Microsoft, and Toshiba for
configuration and power management.
The key element of the standard is power management with two
important improvements. First, it puts the OS in control of
power management. In the currently existing APM model most
of the power management tasks are run by the BIOS, with
limited intervention from the OS. In ACPI, the BIOS is
responsible for the dirty details of communicating with
hardware equipment but the control is in the OS.
The other important feature is bringing power management
features now available in portable computers only to the
desktop as well as into servers. Extremely low consumption
states, i.e., in which only memory, or not even memory is
powered, but from which ordinary interrupts (real time clock,
keyboard, modem, etc.) can quickly wake the system, are today
available in portables only. The standard should make these
available for a wider range of systems.