The problems are software, not hardware.
Of course hardware is part of the problem too.
PC architecture does not allow, for example, that the network interface may feed any data directly to the harddisk. Every bit and byte must be input to the CPU and then output from there.
Otherwise we could allow the CPU some real good sleep while other devices remain a little active.
bigdog_00@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Isn’t this the idea of having a chipset (Northbridge/Southbridge) on the board, to handle some of these IO tasks?
Also, I recently saw the Cathode Ray Dude video on Dell’s Brain Slug, where down basically hijacked the system with a low-power ARM SBC. I almost wonder if something like this would be possible, it would obviously require a revision but it would theoretically allow for suspended downloads, invite notifications, etc. It would also be fairly expensive and complex though
NeoNachtwaechter@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Well, not in the way we are talking here. The bridges work on the CPU’s direct commands. When the CPU goes to sleep, they have nothing to do either.
Maybe a PC’s CPU can do some short time limited sleep like microcontrollers do, and maybe that would be useful for such scenario’s. But even then the main problem remains that the CPU wants to be in control of everything.