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

• US 10,130,007 B2
• Filed: 06/24/2015
• Issued: 11/13/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/25/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Chen, Jenseng J S, Chen, Jung-Tai, Chen, Tsung-Yu, Kung, Edward Yu-Chen, Lin, Tzongli, Smith, Bruce A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ali, Mohammad
• Assistant Examiner(s): Azad, Md
• Application Number:
  US14/748,573
• Publication Number:
  US 20150378403A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,238 Days
• Field of Search: 700282
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/206 comprising thermal management
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 7/20209 Thermal management, e.g. fan control
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

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.

Claims

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.