Cooling Device Control

• US 20120123610A1
• Filed: 08/20/2009
• Published: 05/17/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/20/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Durham, Michael R., Rijken, Christopher, Tupa, Mark D
• Granted Patent: US 9,261,929 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/300
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/206 comprising thermal management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3034 where the computing system component is a storage system, e.g. DASD based or network based digital input from or digital output to record carriers G06F3/06; digital recording or reproducing G11B20/18; for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS], H04L67/1097
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3058 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring environmental properties or parameters of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring of power, currents, temperature, humidity, position, vibrations thermal management in cooling arrangements of a computing system G06F1/206
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A computing system can include a monitor (150) to estimate a temperature of a storage device (120). The monitor estimates the temperature from an activity indicating signal of the storage device. A cooling device controller (155) can be connected to the monitor. The cooling device controller can control the output of a cooling device (115).

Claims

1. A computing system comprising:

a storage device (120);

a monitor (150) to estimate a temperature of the storage device from an activity indicating signal of the storage device; and

a cooling device controller (155) connected to the monitor to control the output of a cooling device (115).

2. The device of claim 1 further comprising an input output controller (230) to generate the activity indicating signal based on access to the storage device.

3. The device of claim 2 wherein a speed of the fan is increased if the estimated temperature is above a operating specification.

4. The device of claim 1 wherein the monitor estimates the temperature of the storage device from the activity indicating signal if an operating system does not include drivers for receiving the temperature of the storage device.

5. The device of claim 1 wherein the estimated temperature is determined from monitoring the activity indicating signal over a period of time.

6. The device of claim 1 further comprising firmware (225) to scale the estimated storage device temperature.

7. A method to adjust cooling device output comprising:

generating an activity signal if a storage device (120) is accessed;

estimating the temperature of the storage device from the activity signal over a period of time; and

controlling a cooling device (115) based on the estimated temperature.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising looking up an amount of activity of the activity signal over a period of time on a table that includes corresponding estimates of the temperature of the storage device (120).

9. The method of claim 7 further comprising overriding the cooling device controller (155) signal based on the estimated temperature.

10. The method of claim 7 further comprising comparing the temperature to an operating specification.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising increasing the output of the cooling device (115) if the temperature is above the operating specification.

12. The method of claim 7 further comprising scaling an estimated temperature of the storage device (120) to adjust the output of the cooling device.

13. A computer readable medium comprising instructions that if executed cause an input output controller to:

monitor an activity signal from a storage device over a period of time;

estimate a temperature of the storage device from the activity signal over a period of time; and

controlling an output of a cooling device based on the estimation of the temperature.

14. The computer readable medium of claim 13 further comprising instructions to determine if the temperature is above an operating specification.

15. The computer readable medium of claim 13 further comprising instructions to increase a speed of the cooling device to adjust the output if the temperature of the storage device is above an operating specification.