Intel has just been granted a patent by the USPTO, which it has had in filing since 2007. The patent is related to a technology that is an evolution of today's WoL (wake on LAN). In a network of at least three devices, where a device is requesting data from a second device that is turned off, there is a third device that will be capable of determining that state and switch on a computing device on demand. The technology can possibly wake computers up from "deep sleep" (powered down S5 state), which consumes much less power than a computer that's sleeping in S3 or S2 states.

Intel states that this feature the "powering on devices via intermediate computing device" feature, as described in the patent, not only applies to enterprise scenarios with large local networks, but also home and small-business scenarios where "devices coupled to a network may act as distributed media storage and playback with reduced power consumption when such devices are not in use." Details of how the proposed technology will be implemented still remain sketchy.