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Idle is a state that a computer processor is in when it is not being used by any program. Every program or task that runs on a computer system occupies a certain amount of processing time on the CPU. If the CPU has completed all tasks it is idle. Modern processors use idle time to save power.
However, the idle process does not use up computer resources (even when stated to be running at a high percent). Its CPU time "usage" is a measure of how much CPU time is not being used by other threads. In Windows 2000 and later the threads in the System Idle Process are also used to implement CPU power saving.
typical thermal power, which is measured under normal load (for instance, AMD's average CPU power) maximum thermal power, which is measured under a worst-case load; For example, the Pentium 4 2.8 GHz has a 68.4 W typical thermal power and 85 W maximum thermal power. When the CPU is idle, it will draw far less than the typical thermal power.
An idle computer has a load number of 0 (the idle process is not counted). Each process using or waiting for CPU (the ready queue or run queue) increments the load number by 1. Each process that terminates decrements it by 1. Most UNIX systems count only processes in the running (on CPU) or runnable (waiting for CPU) states.
APM defines five power states for the computer system: Full On: The computer is powered on, and no devices are in a power saving mode. APM Enabled: The computer is powered on, and APM is controlling device power management as needed. APM Standby: Most devices are in their low-power state, the CPU is slowed or stopped, and the system state is saved.
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For example, hardware timers send interrupts to the CPU at regular intervals. Most operating systems execute a HLT instruction when there is no immediate work to be done, putting the processor into an idle state. In Windows NT, for example, this instruction is run in the "System Idle Process". On x86 processors, the opcode of HLT is 0xF4.