Fan control system for a computer system based on a time variable rate of current

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10130007-B2
Application number	US-201514748573-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 24, 2015
Priority date	Jun 25, 2014
Publication date	Nov 13, 2018
Grant date	Nov 13, 2018

Abstract

A fan control system includes a fan and a target device. The fan control system includes a controller to control the rotation speed of the fan. The controller controls the rotation speed according to a time-variable rate of current consumed by the target device. Particularly, when the time-variable rate of current exceeds a threshold, the controller controls the fan to operate at a maximum rotation speed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A fan control system comprising:
a computer system including a fan and at least one target device;
a fan control system in communication with the fan, the control system comprising a controller to control a rotation speed of the fan, wherein the controller adjusts the rotation speed of the fan according to a time-variable rate of current consumed by the target device and an operation state of the target device; and
a detecting circuit connected to the target device and adapted to detect the time-variable rate of current and send an indicative signal to the controller in response to the time-variable rate of current detected,
wherein the computer system further comprises an operating system, and the detecting circuit provides the indicative signal to the operating system,
wherein the controller controllably drives the fan to operate at a maximum rotation speed when the operation state is a first predetermined state and the time-variable rate of current exceeds a first predetermined value; and
wherein the operating system executes a predetermined operation when the operation state is a second predetermined state and the time-variable rate of current exceeds a second predetermined value; and

wherein the first predetermined state comprises a first power state (PS) mode at least partially defined with a first current consumed by the target device and at least one second PS mode at least partially defined with at least one second current consumed by the target device, wherein the first current is greater than the second current.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the target device includes at least two heterogeneous target devices.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the indicative signal is provided in form of an interrupt signal to the controller.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the detecting circuit comprises a differentiator based on an operation amplifier.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the differentiator detects the time-variable rate of current.

6. The system of claim 1 , further comprising the controller to controllably drive the fan with a Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) signal.

7. The system of claim 6 , further comprising the controller to controllably drive the fan with PWM signals of different duty cycles.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first PS mode defines the first predetermined value as a threshold value for the time-variable rate of current, the threshold variable associated with driving the fan to operate at a maximum rotation speed, and the second PS mode defines the second predetermined value as a reference value for the time-variable rate of current, the reference value associated with the predetermined operation of waking at least one core of a multi-core processor to absorb at least a portion of an increase in the second current.

9. The fan control system of claim 1 , further comprising the controller to determine a surge of current consumption and mitigate heat accumulation and associated decrease in service life of at least a portion of the computer system.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Chen Jenseng J S
• Chen Jung-Tai
• Chen Tsung-Yu
• Kung Edward Yu-Chen
• Lin Tzongli
• Smith Bruce A

Classifications

• G05B15/02

  electric · CPC title

• Y02D10/16

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• H05K7/20209 Primary

  Thermal management, e.g. fan control · CPC title

• G06F1/206

  comprising thermal management · CPC title

• Y02D10/00

  Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management · CPC title