The present invention relates to systems and methods that manage a state
machine's wake state to facilitate power management. The systems and
methods comprise a state manager that can be employed to receive signals
transmitted to a state machine that has transitioned to a lower power
state. Thus, when a signal is transmitted to the state machine, the state
manager can initially receive the signal rather the state machine. The
state manager can interpret the signal and determine whether a low power
coprocessor can respond to the signal. If the low power coprocessor can
respond, then the coprocessor responds while the state machines remains
in the lower power state. The system and methods can be concurrently
employed by a plurality of state machines residing on similar and/or
disparate networks, buses, backplanes, etc. The foregoing facilitates
state machine power consumption reduction while maintaining timely
responses.