Compaq Armada 1700 White Paper page 4

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HITE APER
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A C
D V A N C E D O N F I G U R A T I O N A N D
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The Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) is part of the OnNow initiative, a
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comprehensive, system-wide approach to system and device power control. Compaq worked
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closely with Microsoft and Intel on the implementation of ACPI, and provided Microsoft with one
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of the first notebook test platforms with ACPI hardware, the Armada 4200. OnNow refers to a PC
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that is turned on but appears to be off, yet responds immediately to user or system requests.
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Delivering transparent power management and improved system integration to the PC, OnNow
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allows the operating system to respond to events and manage the power for the entire system and
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its devices. OnNow relies on the ACPI-defined hardware interface for power management and
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configuration control.
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Prior to ACPI, Compaq portable computers used the Advanced Power Management (APM)
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. . standard, which manages power using the computer BIOS (Basic Input/Output System). With
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ACPI, the operating system no longer communicates directly with the hardware via the BIOS, but
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. . rather with the ACPI-defined interface between the hardware and the operating system. This allows
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the operating system to determine the required power state for each device and turn off any
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components not in use in order to save valuable battery life.
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Windows 98 is the first operating system to take advantage of the ACPI interface with its OnNow
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technology. Windows NT 5.0 will also support ACPI, making the Windows NT 5.0 operating
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system inherently more effective for mobile users than Windows NT 4.0.
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A C P I C
A N D O M P A Q
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ACPI – the ultimate power management and configuration control technology for today's
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increasingly complex portable computers – will allow Compaq to deliver optimum mobile
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performance in conjunction with Microsoft Windows 98 and Microsoft Windows NT 5.0 The
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Armada 1700, 3500, 4200, 6500, 7400, and 7800 families are all ACPI hardware ready. All new
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Armada portable products announced in 1998 and beyond will also be ACPI hardware ready in
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anticipation of Windows 98 and Windows NT 5.0.
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C A
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O M P A Q R M A D A A N D
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Compaq is working closely with Microsoft to ensure optimum mobile support for Compaq Armada
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. . notebooks running Windows NT 5.0. This includes support for ACPI-compliant notebooks and
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those Armada notebooks introduced prior to the ACPI specification. While Windows NT 5.0 will
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provide additional features for ACPI-compliant notebooks, Compaq is working with Microsoft to
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ensure that mobile functionality for pre-ACPI (or APM) notebooks will be equivalent or superior
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. . to the support provided by Compaq for Windows NT 4.0.
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Power Management - Windows NT 5.0 will inherently support power management for
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ACPI-compliant systems. This includes support for hibernation, battery status and low battery
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alerts. For Armada notebooks that were introduced prior to the ACPI specification, Compaq is
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working to ensure that Compaq Armada power management capabilities are available to
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Windows NT 5.0 customers so that these systems will have power management support
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equivalent to what they experienced under Windows NT 4.0.
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PC Card and CardBus support – Windows NT 5.0 provides both PC Card and 32-bit
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CardBus support for ACPI-compliant portables.
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Plug and Play support – Plug and play support for PC Cards and docking stations will be
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provided by the new Windows NT 5.0 plug and play architecture. Device swapping is also
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provided for ACPI-compliant notebooks. This provides the ability to swap MultiBay devices
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such as CD-ROM, floppy drive and second batteries without having to power down the
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notebook.
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4
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O W E R
A N
R M A D A O T E B O O K S
W NT 5.0
I N D O W S
I - ACPI
N T E R F A C E