Fluid-cooled computer system with proactive cooling control using power consumption trend analysis

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10180665-B2
Application number	US-201113234563-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 16, 2011
Priority date	Sep 16, 2011
Publication date	Jan 15, 2019
Grant date	Jan 15, 2019

Abstract

A fluid-cooled computer system includes a plurality of heat-generating components and a cooling system configured for supplying a cooling fluid at a controlled cooling fluid flow rate to cool the heat-generating components. A temperature-based cooling control circuit includes a temperature sensor configured for sensing a temperature of the heat-generating components and control logic for increasing a cooling fluid flow rate in response to the temperature exceeding a temperature threshold. A power-based cooling control circuit is configured for identifying and quantifying an increasing power consumption trend over a target time interval and, during a period that the temperature of the electronic device does not exceed the temperature threshold, increasing a cooling fluid flow rate to the electronic device in response to the magnitude of the increasing power consumption trend exceeding a power threshold. In one option, the fluid-cooled computer system is a server and the heat-generating components include a processor.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A fluid-cooled computer system, comprising:
a plurality of heat-generating components;
a cooling system configured for supplying a cooling fluid at a controlled cooling fluid flow rate to cool the heat-generating components;
a temperature-based cooling control circuit including a temperature sensor configured for sensing a temperature of the heat-generating components and control logic for increasing a cooling fluid flow rate in response to the temperature exceeding a temperature threshold; and
a power-based cooling control circuit including control logic for identifying and quantifying an increasing power consumption trend of the heat-generating components over a target time interval and, during a period that the temperature of the heat-generating components does not exceed the next higher temperature threshold, increasing a cooling fluid flow rate to the heat-generating components in response to the magnitude of the increasing power consumption trend exceeding a power threshold, wherein the increasing power consumption trend over the target time interval is quantified as a ratio of (P 2 −P 1 )/P 1 , wherein P 1 is a measure of power consumption over the target time interval and P 2 is a measure of power consumption over a shorter time interval.

2. The fluid-cooled computer system of claim 1 , wherein the heat-generating components are included in a server.

3. The fluid-cooled computer system of claim 2 , further comprising:
a system management controller included on a motherboard of the server, the system management controller including the control logic for identifying and quantifying an increasing power consumption trend over a target time interval and the control logic for increasing a cooling fluid flow rate to the heat-generating components in response to the magnitude of the increasing power consumption trend exceeding a power threshold during a period that the temperature does not exceed the temperature threshold.

4. The fluid-cooled computer system of claim 1 , further comprising:
one or more cooling fans, wherein the control logic for increasing a cooling fluid flow rate comprises control logic for increasing a fan speed of the one or more cooling fans.

5. The fluid-cooled computer system of claim 1 , further comprising:
a liquid coolant heat exchanger in thermal communication with the one or more heat-generating components, wherein the control logic for increasing a cooling fluid flow rate comprises control logic for increasing a liquid coolant circulation rate through the heat exchanger.

6. The fluid-cooled computer system of claim 1 , where P 1 is a moving average power consumption over the target time interval and P 2 is a moving average power consumption over the shorter time interval.

7. A method, comprising:
monitoring a temperature of an electronic device;
increasing a cooling fluid flow rate to the electronic device in response to the temperature exceeding a temperature threshold;
monitoring a power consumption of the electronic device;
identifying an increasing power consumption trend over a target time interval for the electronic device;
quantifying the increasing power consumption trend over the target time interval as a ratio of (P 2 −P 1 )/P 1 , wherein P 1 is a measure of power consumption over the target time interval and P 2 is a measure of power consumption over a shorter time interval; and
during a period that the temperature of the electronic device does not exceed the temperature threshold, increasing a cooling fluid flow rate to the electronic device in response to the magnitude of the increasing power consumption trend exceeding a power threshold.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:
dynamically varying the cooling fluid flow rate in relation to the magnitude of the power consumption trend for the electronic device.

9. The method of claim 7 ,
where P 1 is a moving average power consumption over the target time interval and P 2 is a moving average power consumption over the shorter time interval.

10. The method of claim 7 , wherein the shorter time interval is less than half of the target time interval.

11. The method of claim 7 , wherein the target time interval has a fixed length of between 5 and 30 seconds.

12. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:
maintaining a present cooling fluid flow rate where the power consumption trend includes power consumption spikes of less than a predefined duration.

13. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:
overriding a current value of the cooling fluid flow rate that was previously selected in response to the magnitude of the increasing power consumption trend, and adjusting the cooling fluid flow rate to a predefined maximum value in response to the temperature exceeding the temperature threshold.

14. The method of claim 7 , wherein the step of increasing the cooling fluid flow rate comprises one or both of increasing a fan speed and increasing a liquid coolant circulation rate.

15. A method, comprising:
monitoring a temperature of an electronic device;
increasing a cooling fluid flow rate to the electronic device in response to an increase in the temperature of the electronic device;
monitoring power consumption of the electronic device;
detecting an increasing power consumption trend for the electronic device;
quantifying the power consumption trend as the ratio of (P 2 −P 1 )/P 1 , where P 1 is a measure of power consumption over a first time interval and P 2 is a measure of power consumption over a second time interval that is shorter than the first time interval; and
increasing a cooling fluid flow rate to the electronic device in response to the magnitude of the increasing power consumption trend exceeding a power threshold.

16. The method of claim 15 , further comprising:
dynamically varying the cooling fluid flow rate in relation to the magnitude of the power consumption trend.

17. The method of claim 15 ,
where P 1 is a moving average power consumption over a first time interval and P 2 is a moving average power consumption over a second time interval that is shorter than the first time interval.

18. The method of claim 15 , wherein the cooling fluid flow rate is increased by one or both of increasing a fan speed and increasing a liquid coolant circulation rate.

Assignees

• Brey Thomas M
• Kamath Vinod
• Matteson Jason A
• Lenovo Entpr Solutions Singapore Pte Ltd

Inventors

• Brey Thomas M
• Kamath Vinod
• Matteson Jason A

Classifications

• G05D23/1917

  using digital means · CPC title

• G06F2200/201

  Cooling arrangements using cooling fluid · CPC title

• G06F1/206

  comprising thermal management · CPC title

• H05K7/20836 Primary

  Thermal management, e.g. server temperature control · CPC title

• Y02D10/16

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic