US Patent 7412615 Information processing equipment and power consumption control method

Information processing equipment is so constructed that the power consumption of a disk drive for hard disks, optical disks, or the like can be reliably and sufficiently reduced. The host CPU (120) of an information processing unit (100) forms a command for changing the power consumption mode of a HDD (200) based on the state of control on the HDD (200). The host CPU supplies the command to the HDD (200) through a media controller (106). When the HDD (200) accepts the command, it changes its power consumption mode according to the instruction from the information processing unit. Thus, the information processing unit can control the power consumption mode of the HDD (200) based on the state of control on the HDD (200).