The APM 1.2 (Advanced Power Management) (Adobe Acrobat format--195 Kbytes) specification defines a layer of software that supports power management in computers with power manageable hardware. This document, jointly authored by Intel and Microsoft, contains information for software developers to implement an APM BIOS or APM driver.

The Advanced Power Management (APM) Specification V1.2 defines the APM software interface. It contains information for software developers to implement an APM BIOS or APM Driver.

An APM BIOS is a layer of software that supports power management in computers with power manageable hardware. The APM specification defines the hardware independent software interface between system hardware and an operating system power management policy driver. It masks the details of the hardware, allowing higher-level software to use APM without any knowledge of the specific hardware interface.

The APM software interface specification defines one layer of a layered cooperative environment in which applications, operating systems, device drivers and the APM BIOS work together to reduce power consumption. APM extends the life of system batteries and thereby increases productivity and system availability. APM is also useful in environments and applications such as portables in docking stations, desktops on a network, and energy conscious power managed desktops.

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