Systems and methods for reporting air mover events to an operating system during operating system runtime

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9934080-B2
Application number	US-201414171252-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 3, 2014
Priority date	Feb 3, 2014
Publication date	Apr 3, 2018
Grant date	Apr 3, 2018

Abstract

In accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure, an information handling system may include a processor, a controller, a driver, and a basic/input output system. The controller may be associated with an air mover and configured to generate an interrupt responsive to an event associated with the air mover. The driver may be embodied in an operating system configured for execution on the processor, the driver configured to, during a runtime execution of the operating system in which the event occurred, receive at least one of the interrupt from the controller or an indication of the interrupt from a basic input/output system. The basic input/output system may comprise a program of instructions executable by the processor and configured to cause the processor to, responsive to the event, receive air mover data from the air mover, and communicate the air mover data to the driver.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An information handling system for processing air mover events comprising:
a processor;
an air mover including:
an air mover controller; and
air mover firmware comprising firmware instructions, executable by the air mover controller;
a computer readable medium including processor-executable operating system instructions corresponding to an operating system for controlling allocation and usage of one or more information handling resources, wherein said operating system includes one or more drivers including a first driver providing an operating system interface for the air mover firmware;
a basic input/output system (BIOS) including BIOS instructions executable by the processor, the BIOS instructions including:
boot firmware to configure the information handling system to a known state; and
driver communication instructions configured to enable the BIOS to communicate with the one or more drivers;
wherein the information handling system is configured to perform operations including:
booting the information handling system to initialize the information handling system and establish a runtime execution of the operating system; and
within the runtime execution of the operating system, performing interrupt handling operations comprising:
detecting, with the air mover firmware executing on the air mover controller of the air mover integral to the information handling system, an event associated with a state or functionality of the air mover, wherein the detecting includes consulting a particular threshold to determine whether a number of events has occurred;
responsive to the detecting, by the air mover firmware, the event, generating, by the air mover firmware, an interrupt corresponding to the event;
providing an indication of the interrupt to the first driver;
sending a response to said indication to the BIOS;
obtaining, by the BIOS, air mover data maintained by the air mover firmware;
communicating the air mover data from the BIOS to the first driver; and
communicating the air mover data to an air mover control application program configured to take an action in accordance with the event.

2. The information handling system of claim 1 , wherein the interrupt comprises a system control interrupt.

3. The information handling system of claim 1 , wherein the event comprises a Windows Management Instrumentation event.

4. The information handling system of claim 1 , wherein the air mover controller is configured to communicate the interrupt to the BIOS.

5. The information handling system of claim 4 , wherein the interrupt is an Advanced Configuration and Power Interface interrupt.

6. The information handling system of claim 1 , wherein the interrupt handling operations include:
sending, by the air mover control application program, an alert to a management application.

7. The information handling system of claim 1 , wherein the interrupt handling operations include:
sending, by the air mover control application program, an alert to a user of the air mover control application program.

8. The information handling system of claim 1 , wherein the BIOS operations include storing the air mover data in a BIOS memory.

9. The information handling system of claim 8 , wherein the BIOS memory comprises a system management BIOS (SMBIOS) memory including one or more data structures in compliance with a SMBIOS standard.

10. The information handling system of claim 1 , wherein the event comprises an event-triggering parameter reaching a threshold defined by a user of the information handling system.

11. An interrupt handling method for processing air mover events, the interrupt handling method comprising:
establishing a runtime execution of an operating system on an information handling system; and
within the runtime execution of the operating system, performing interrupt handling operations comprising:
detecting, with an air mover firmware executing on an embedded controller of an air mover integral to the information handling system, an event associated with a state or functionality of the air mover, wherein the detecting includes consulting a particular threshold to determine whether a number of events has occurred;
responsive to the detecting, with the air mover firmware, the event, generating, by the air mover firmware, an interrupt corresponding to the event;
providing an indication of the interrupt to a driver, wherein the driver comprises an interface between the air mover firmware and the operating system;
communicating a response to the air mover firmware from the driver to a basic input/output system (BIOS);
retrieving, by the BIOS, air mover data from the air mover firmware;
communicating the air mover data from the BIOS to the driver; and
communicating the air mover data to an air mover control application program configured to take an action in accordance with the event.

12. The interrupt handling method of claim 11 , wherein the interrupt comprises a system control interrupt.

13. The interrupt handling method of claim 11 , wherein the event comprises a Windows Management Instrumentation event.

14. The interrupt handling method of claim 11 , wherein the air mover firmware is configured to communicate the interrupt to the BIOS.

15. The interrupt handling method of claim 14 , wherein the interrupt is an Advanced Configuration and Power Interface interrupt.

16. The interrupt handling method of claim 11 , further comprising:
sending, by the air mover control application program, an alert to a management application.

17. The interrupt handling method of claim 11 , further comprising:
alerting, by the air mover control application program, a user of the information handling system.

18. The interrupt handling method of claim 11 , further comprising:
storing the air mover data in a BIOS memory.

19. The interrupt handling method of claim 18 , wherein the BIOS memory comprises a system management BIOS (SMBIOS) memory in compliance with an SMBIOS standard.

20. The interrupt handling method of claim 18 , wherein the event comprises particular parameter reaching a threshold defined by a user of the information handling system.

Assignees

• Dell Products Lp

Inventors

• Joshi Anand
• Samuel Balasingh

Classifications

• G06F11/30

  Monitoring · CPC title

• G06F11/0706 Primary

  the processing taking place on a specific hardware platform or in a specific software environment · CPC title

• G06F1/20

  Cooling means · CPC title

• G06F11/00 Primary

  Error detection; Error correction; Monitoring (error detection, correction or monitoring in information storage based on relative movement between record carrier and transducer G11B20/18; monitoring, i.e. supervising the progress of recording or reproducing G11B27/36; in static stores G11C29/00) · CPC title

• G06F11/0784

  Routing of error reports, e.g. with a specific transmission path or data flow · CPC title