Powering Down: Smart power management is all about doing more with the resources we have.

Power management is a topic of interest to everyone. In the beginning there was the desktop computer. It ran at a fixed speed and consumed less power than the monitor it was plugged into. Where computers were portable, their sheer size and weight meant that you were more likely to be limited by physical strength than battery life. It was not a great time for power management. Now consider the present. Laptops have increased in speed by more than 5,000 times. Battery capacity, sadly, has not. With hardware becoming increasingly mobile, however, users are demanding that battery life start matching the way they work. People want to work from cafes. Long-haul flights are now perceived as the ideal opportunity to finish a presentation. Two hours of battery life just isn’t going to cut it; users are looking for upwards of eight hours. What’s drawing that power, and more importantly, how can we manage it better?