NOISE REDUCTION IN A SYSTEM

• US 20080181433A1
• Filed: 01/25/2007
• Published: 07/31/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/25/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Thomas, Fred C., Boerger, Paul
• Granted Patent: US 8,085,948 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 381/94.5
• CPC Class Codes: F01N 1/065 by using an active noise source, e.g. speakers
• CPC Class Codes: G10K 11/16 Methods or devices for protecting against, or for damping, noise or other acoustic waves in general G10K11/36 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10K 11/17823 Reference signals, e.g. ambient acoustic environment
• CPC Class Codes: G10K 11/1783 handling or detecting of non-standard events or conditions, e.g. changing operating modes under specific operating conditions
• CPC Class Codes: G10K 11/17873 using a reference signal without an error signal, e.g. pure feedforward
• CPC Class Codes: G10K 11/17875 using an error signal without a reference signal, e.g. pure feedback
• CPC Class Codes: G10K 2210/10 Applications

Abstract

A system comprises a plurality of storage drives coupled to logic. The logic implements a noise-reducing feature selected from a group consisting of a first feature that limits system performance based on a level of ambient noise, a second feature that staggers access transactions among said storage drives, a third feature that staggers spin up among the storage drives, a fourth feature that at least partially cancels noise generated by the system, a fifth feature that limits fan speed, and combinations thereof.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a plurality of storage drives; and

logic coupled to said storage drives, said logic implements a noise-reducing feature selected from a group consisting of a first feature that limits system performance based on a level of ambient noise, a second feature that staggers access transactions among said storage drives, a third feature that staggers spin up among the storage drives, a fourth feature that at least partially cancels noise generated by the system, a fifth feature that limits fan speed, and combinations thereof.

2. The system of claim 1 further comprising an acoustic sensor coupled to said logic, said acoustic sensor detects ambient noise and provides an ambient noise level value to said logic which adjusts the system performance based on said ambient noise level value.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein said logic limits the system performance to a level which causes the system to generate noise at a level not greater than a predetermined threshold noise margin below said level of ambient noise.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein, for said second feature, said logic enables access transactions to be performed to at least two storage drives while precluding access transactions from being performed to at least one other storage drive.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein said access transactions comprise read and write transactions.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein, for said third feature, said logic enables spin up of at least two storage drives while precluding spin up of at least one other storage drive.

7. The system of claim 1 further comprising a acoustic sensor coupled to said logic, wherein said logic generates a sound signal that is substantially out of phase with respect to a sound signal detected by said acoustic sensor.

8. The system of claim 7 further comprising a speaker coupled to said logic, said logic provides said substantially out of phase sound signal to said speaker.

9. The system of claim 1 further comprising a acoustic sensor wirelessly coupled to said logic, said wireless acoustic sensor providing a signal indicative of the level of ambient noise to said logic.

10. A system, comprising:

a plurality of storage drives; and

logic coupled to said storage drives, said logic implements multiple operational modes comprising at least a first mode in which noise generated by the system is ameliorated by at least one of reducing system performance based on a level of ambient noise, staggering access transactions among said storage drives, staggering spin up among the storage drives, and at least partially canceling noise generated by the system.

11. The system of claim 10 in which the operational modes also comprise a second mode in which system performance is higher than in said first mode.

12. The system of claim 10 wherein said logic receives configuration input from a computer external to said system, said configuration input causing the system to operate in at least one of the multiple modes.

13. The system of claim 10 further comprising a acoustic sensor coupled to said logic, said acoustic sensor detects ambient noise and provides an ambient noise level value to said logic which adjusts the system performance based on said ambient noise level value.

14. The system of claim 10 further comprising a acoustic sensor coupled to said logic, said acoustic sensor detects ambient noise and provides an ambient noise level value to said logic which staggers access transactions among said storage drives by enabling access transactions to be performed simultaneously to as many drives as possible so that the noise generated by the system is less than a predetermined threshold noise margin below said level of ambient noise while precluding access transactions from being performed to at least one other storage drive.

15. The system of claim 10 further comprising an acoustic sensor coupled to said logic, said microphone detects ambient noise and provides an ambient noise level value to said logic which staggers spin up among the storage drives by enabling as many drives as possible to be spun up simultaneously so that the noise generated by the system is less than a predetermined threshold noise margin below said level of ambient noise while precluding at least one other storage drive from being spun up.

16. The system of claim 10 further comprising an acoustic sensor coupled to said logic, wherein said logic generates a sound signal that is substantially out of phase with respect to a sound signal detected by said acoustic sensor.

17. The system of claim 10 further comprising an acoustic sensor wirelessly coupled to said logic, said wireless acoustic sensor providing a signal indicative of the level of ambient noise to said logic.

18. A method, comprising:

determining an ambient noise level; and

altering the operation of a system based on the ambient noise level.

19. The method of claim 18 further comprising staggering access transactions to a plurality of storage drives associated with said system.

20. The method of claim 18 further comprising staggering spin up of a plurality of storage drives associated with said system.