Systems and methods of adaptive thermal control for information handling systems

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9785208-B2
Application number	US-201514664317-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 20, 2015
Priority date	Mar 20, 2015
Publication date	Oct 10, 2017
Grant date	Oct 10, 2017

Abstract

Systems and methods of adaptive thermal control are provided for information handling system platforms that may be implemented to automate and scale fan control settings by making the fan control settings relative to a reported component thermal control parameter value from a component of an information handling system platform, such as a CPU or other heat generating component. In one example, bounds for system use of vendor or component manufacturer-reported thermal control parameter values may be set for system cooling so as to confine use of these values within information handling system platform limits characterized by a manufacturer of an information handling system platform.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An information handling system, comprising:
a chassis enclosure;
at least one heat-generating component to be cooled that is contained within the chassis enclosure that consumes electrical power for operation, the heat-generating component including its own internal memory register storing at least one component thermal control parameter that includes a component fan control target setpoint temperature value for the heat-generating component;
at least one temperature sensor configured to sense and report an operating temperature of the heat generating component;
one or more variable speed cooling fans configured to provide different flow rates of cooling air within the chassis enclosure to cool the heat generating component;
system persistent storage separate from the heat-generating component to be cooled and that is separate from the internal memory register of the heat-generating component, the persistent storage including system thermal control parameter information stored thereon, the system thermal control parameter information defining a relationship between different values of closed loop controller gains stored on the system persistent storage as a function of different component fan control target setpoint temperature values retrieved from the internal memory register of the heat generating component; and
at least one processing device separate from the heat generating component, and that is coupled to receive values of real time sensed component temperature from the temperature sensor, and to implement a closed loop process controller to provide control signals to control a fan speed of each of the cooling fans to cool the heat-generating component based on the received values of real time sensed component temperature;
where the processing device is coupled to retrieve the component fan control target setpoint temperature value stored in the internal memory register of the heat-generating component, and is further coupled to access the system thermal control parameter information stored on the system persistent storage;
where the processing device is configured to determine a value of at least one closed loop controller gain for the closed loop process controller based on the component fan control target setpoint temperature value that is retrieved from the internal memory register of the heat-generating component and the relationship between different values of closed loop controller gains as a function of different component fan control target setpoint temperature values that is retrieved from the system persistent storage that is separate from the internal memory register of the heat-generating component;
where the processing device is configured to use the at least one determined closed loop controller gain in the closed loop process controller to further provide the control signals based on the component fan control target setpoint temperature value that is retrieved from the internal memory register of the heat-generating component and a selected fan control target setpoint temperature value to control a fan speed of each of the cooling fans to cool the heat-generating component; and
where the at least one closed loop controller gain comprises at least one of proportional gain (K p ), integral gain (K i ), derivative gain (Kd), or any combination thereof; and where the relationship between different values of closed loop controller gains and different component fan control target setpoint temperature values that is stored on the system persistent storage is a lookup table storing multiple scalable controller gain values for at least one of the proportional gain (K p ), the integral gain (K i ), or the derivative gain (Kd) as a function of specified component fan control target temperature setpoint value retrieved from the internal memory register of the heat generating component.

2. The system of claim 1 , where the selected fan control target setpoint temperature value is a system fan control target setpoint temperature value; and where the processing device is further configured to determine a value of the system fan control target setpoint temperature by subtracting an offset value from the component fan control target setpoint temperature value, and to use the at least one determined closed loop controller gain in the closed loop process controller to further provide the control signals based on the retrieved component fan control target setpoint temperature value and the determined system fan control target setpoint temperature value to control the fan speed of each of the cooling fans to cool the heat-generating component.

3. The system of claim 1 , where the at least one heat-generating component is a central processing unit (CPU); and where the at least one processing device that is separate from the heat-generating component is an out-of-band processing device.

4. An adaptive method for controlling cooling fan response in an information handling system, comprising:
operating at least one heat-generating component that consumes electrical power within an information handling system chassis enclosure, the heat-generating component including its own internal memory register storing at least one component thermal control parameter that includes a component fan control target setpoint temperature value for the heat-generating component;
using one or more variable speed cooling fans to provide different flow rates of cooling air within the chassis enclosure to cool the heat generating component;
using at least one temperature sensor to sense an operating temperature of the heat generating component in real time;
using at least one processing device separate from the heat generating component to:
retrieve the component fan control target setpoint temperature value profile stored in the internal memory register of the heat-generating component, and
receive values of real time sensed component temperature from the temperature sensor; and

using at least one processing device separate from the heat generating component to:
determine a value of at least one closed loop controller gain for a closed loop process control based on the component fan control target setpoint temperature value that is retrieved from the internal memory register of the heat-generating component and a relationship between different values of closed loop controller gains as a function of different component fan control target setpoint temperature values that is stored separately from the internal memory register of the heat-generating component,
receive values of real time sensed component temperature from the temperature sensor,
implement a closed loop process controller to provide control signals to control a fan speed of each of the cooling fans to cool the heat-generating component based on the received values of real time sensed component temperature, and
use the at least one determined closed loop controller gain in the closed loop process controller to further provide the control signals based on the component fan control target setpoint temperature value that is retrieved from the internal memory register of the heat-generating component and a selected fan control target setpoint temperature value to control a fan speed of each of the cooling fans to cool the heat-generating component;

where the at least one closed loop controller gain comprises at least one of proportional gain (K p ), integral gain (K i ), derivative gain (Kd), or any combination thereof; where the separately-stored relationship between different values of closed loop controller gains and different component fan control target setpoint temperature values is a lookup table storing multiple scalable controller gain values for at least one of the proportional gain (K p ), the integral gain (K i ), or the derivative gain (Kd) as a function of spec

Assignees

• Dell Products Lp
• Dell Products Lp

Inventors

• Lovicott Dominick Adam
• Shabbir Hasnain
• Tunks Eric

Classifications

• G06F1/324

  by lowering clock frequency · CPC title

• G06F1/206 Primary

  comprising thermal management · CPC title

• G05B2219/49216

  Control of temperature of processor · CPC title

• Y02D10/00

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