Sleep clock (power management)

Hello Group,

While reading some requirement specification I came across a term
called "sleep clock".
I know it it related to a power saving mechanism. I but I am not sure
how it works exactly. Is it some kind of gating mechanism where the
processor controlling the system power distribution, gives out a
signal to suggest to other peripherals on the PCB to go in power down
mode?

-Kaustubh

On Wed, 17 Dec 2008 05:10:43 -0800 (PST), "ksashtekar@gmail.com"
<ksashtekar@gmail.com> wrote:

>Hello Group,
>
>While reading some requirement specification I came across a term
>called "sleep clock".
>I know it it related to a power saving mechanism. I but I am not sure
>how it works exactly. Is it some kind of gating mechanism where the
>processor controlling the system power distribution, gives out a
>signal to suggest to other peripherals on the PCB to go in power down
>mode?

In most cases with which I am familiar, a "sleep clock" is a clock
source that is much slower than the main system clock and that can be
used, in company with a timer or RTC peripheral, to periodically bring
the CPU out of a low power mode. It is often a 32.768 KHz watch crystal.

-- 
Rich Webb     Norfolk, VA