Some power-constrained applications can't afford to make use of [[#Deep-sleep mode (aka suspend)|deep-sleep mode]] when the system ''"has nothing to do''", because wake up process may take too long to complete. In such situations aggressive implementation of so-called idle mode can come to help.Basic assumption is that the system spends most of the time in a system an idle condition (that is there are no user applications ready to run nor interrupt requests to serve).

Two idle configurations have been tested, detailed in the following sections: generic idle and system idle. Nomenclature System idle is the same nomenclature used in the NXP official documentation (specifically processor's data sheet<ref name="IMX6ULIEC">Freescale Semiconductor, ''i.MX 6UltraLite Applications Processors for Industrial Products Data Sheet'', Rev. 1, 04/2016</ref>and ).