In one embodiment, the present invention includes a method for sending a first link handshake signal between a first subsystem and a power management unit (PMU) of a system on a chip (SoC) to request entry into a power saving state for the first subsystem, sending a second link handshake signal between the first subsystem and the PMU to acknowledge the request, and placing the first subsystem into the power saving state without further signaling between the PMU and the first subsystem. Other embodiments are described and claimed.