Windows 7

Salah satu perbaikan yang dijanjikan Microsoft dengan Windows 7 adalah power management yang lebih “baik” dan pintar. Apa artinya?

Dari Microsoft

“Windows 7 helps decrease power consumption across the enterprise. The power management technologies in Windows 7 provide platform and processor efficiencies that reduce power consumption and can help lower energy costs. Windows 7 also can extend battery life for specific scenarios. Additionally, it provides diagnostic tools that enable original equipments manufacturers (OEMs), independent hardware vendors (IHVs), independent software vendors (ISVs), and IT pros to better manage and troubleshoot power management issues on computers and to extend the battery life for portable computers.”

Hmmm, mungkin blog post ini bisa lebih membantu.

Engineering Windows 7

“The first step in reducing idle power is optimizing the amount of processor, memory and disk utilization. Reducing processor utilization is the most important, because the processor has a wide range of power consumption. When truly idle, the processor power consumption can be as low as 100-300mW. But, when fully busy, the processor can consume up to 35W. This large range means that even small amounts of processor activity can have a significant impact on overall power consumption and battery life.

There are several areas of investment in Windows 7 that help reduce processor utilization and thereby enabling longer periods of time where the processor can enter into low power modes. One of these investments is in the area of services that are running on the platform and having those services only start when they are required referred to as “Trigger-Start”. While these services are efficient and have minimal impact by themselves, the additive effect of several services can add up. We are looking at smart ways to manage these services both within Windows but making our investments in this area extensible for others who are writing services to take advantage of this infrastructure. (Also note these are the same features that contribute to improvements in boot time as well).”

Chris Angelini, teman saya di Tom’s Hardware berhasil mendapat detil teknis apa saja yang dilakukan Windows 7.

“This changes with Windows 7 and a feature called ideal core. If a task’s needs are being addressed by one core, the operating system will let you stay there…”

“Core parking is a second optimization, based on the observation in previous operating systems that you might have four cores running background processes at 10% utilization each. The idea is to load all of those tasks onto one core and let the others idle if operating load levels allow for it…”

Chris bahkan berhasil melakukan pengujian awal dengan Windows 7 final. Hasilnya mungkin mengejutkan. Secara keseluruhan, konsumsi daya komputer menjalankan Windows 7 justru sedikit lebih tinggi.

Bila Anda ingin lebih tahu, tonton video dari Mark Russinovich, Technical Fellow dari Microsoft ini.