Heterogeneous power supply management system

• US 7,529,949 B1
• Filed: 10/26/2005
• Issued: 05/05/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/26/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Valtrus Innovations Limited (f/k/a Dolya Holdco 9 Limited) (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Leech, Phil, Ranganathan, Parthasarathy, Alzien, Khaldoun
• Primary Examiner(s): Cao; Chun
• Application Number:
  US11/258,758
• Time in Patent Office: 1,287 Days
• Field of Search: 713/300
• US Class Current: 713/300
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/263 Arrangements for using multiple switchable power supplies, e.g. battery and AC G06F1/30 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/28 Supervision thereof, e.g. detecting power-supply failure by out of limits supervision
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/30 Means for acting in the event of power-supply failure or interruption, e.g. power-supply fluctuations for resetting only G06F1/24
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3203 Power management, i.e. event-based initiation of a power-saving mode

Abstract

A system for managing heterogeneous supply of power includes a plurality of heterogeneous power supplies having a primary power supply and a secondary power supply. The primary power supply has a first power rating and the secondary power supply has a second power rating, where the first power rating differs from the second power rating. In addition, power is supplied to the electronic system through at least one of the primary power supply and the secondary power supply.

Claims

1. A system for managing heterogeneous supply of power, said system comprising:

a plurality of heterogeneous power supplies, wherein the heterogeneous power supplies comprise a primary power supply and a secondary power supply, the primary power supply having a first power rating and the secondary power supply having a second power rating, wherein the first power rating differs from the second power rating; and

a power controls agent configured to monitor supply of power to an electronic system, to compare the monitored supply of power to the electronic system to efficiency curves of the primary power supply and the secondary power supply, and to supply power to the electronic system from one or both of the primary power supply and the secondary power supply based upon a determination of which of the one or both of the primary power supply and the secondary power supply has a substantially optimized efficiency curve in comparison with the monitored supply of power to the electronic system.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the primary power supply is provisioned to supply sufficient power to handle peak power draws of the electronic system and wherein the secondary power supply is provisioned to supply sufficient power to handle substantially less than peak power draws of the electronic system.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein the primary power supply and the secondary power supply are provisioned to handle substantially less than peak power draws of the electronic system.

4. The system according to claim 1,

wherein the power control agent is further configured to modify a power budget for the electronic system according to which of the one or both of the primary power supply and the secondary power supply is supplying power to the electronic system.

5. The system according to claim 4, wherein the electronic system comprises a plurality of power components, wherein the power control agent is configured to select at least one of the plurality of power components to at least one of adjust and throttle to maintain a power consumption level of the electronic system within the modified power budget, and wherein the power control agent is further configured to select at least one of an adjusting and a throttling level for the selected at least one of the plurality of power components.

6. The system according to claim 4, wherein the power control agent is further configured to monitor at least one of a current and a predicted power usage of the electronic system.

7. The system according to claim 6, wherein the power control agent is further configured to compare the monitored at least one of a current and a predicted power usage of the electronic system with a predetermined power consumption level, wherein the predetermined power consumption level comprises a power rating corresponding to the secondary power supply.

8. The system according to claim 7, wherein the power control agent is further configured to vary power delivery to the electronic system from at least one of the primary power supply and the secondary power supply to a different at least one of a primary power supply and a secondary power supply in response to the monitored at least one of a current and a predicted power usage falling below the predetermined power consumption level.

9. The system according to claim 7, wherein the power control agent is further configured to compare the at least one of the current and predicted power usage of the electronic system to a plurality of efficiency curves for one or more of the plurality of heterogeneous power supplies, and wherein the power control agent is further configured to determine which of the one or more of the plurality of heterogeneous power supplies are to supply power to the electronic system based upon a determination of the one or more heterogeneous power supplies having a substantially optimized efficiency curve in comparison to the at least one of the current and predicated power usage.

10. A method for supplying power to an electronic system with heterogeneous power supplies, said method comprising:

monitoring the supply of power to the electronic system from one or more of the heterogeneous power supplies, wherein the one or more heterogeneous power supplies comprises a primary power supply and a secondary power supply, and wherein the primary power supply has a different power rating as compared to the secondary power supply;

comparing the monitored supply of power to the electronic system to efficiency curves of the primary power supply and the secondary power supply; and

supplying power to the electronic system from one or both of the primary power supply and the secondary power supply based upon a determination of which of the one or more both of the primary power supply and the secondary power supply has a substantially optimized efficiency curve in comparison with the monitored supply of power to the electronic system.

11. The method according to claim 10, further comprising:

identifying a maximum power rating of the one or more heterogeneous power supplies determined to be supplying power to the electronic system.

12. The method according to claim 11, said method further comprising adjusting the power budget of the electronic system to correspond to the maximum identified power rating of the one or more heterogeneous power supplies.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein the electronic system comprises a plurality of power components, said method further comprising:

selecting at least one of the plurality of power components to at least one of throttle and adjust in maintaining a power consumption level of the electronic system within the adjusted power budget;

selecting at least one level to at least one of adjust and throttle the selected at least one of the plurality of power components to maintain the power consumption level of the electronic system within the adjusted power budget; and

modifying at least one operation of the selected at least one of the plurality of power components to maintain a power consumption level of the electronic system within the adjusted power budget.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein the selected at least one of the plurality of power components comprises a processor having at least two power states, and wherein modifying at least one operation further comprises increasing a power state of the processor to thereby reduce a power consumption level of the processor.

15. The method according to claim 12, wherein adjusting a power budget of the electronic system further comprises adjusting the power budget in response to a detected failure in the primary power supply.

16. A system for supplying power to an electronic system with heterogeneous power supplies, said heterogeneous power supplies comprising a primary power supply having a first power rating and a secondary power supply having a second power rating, wherein the first power rating differs from the second power rating, said system comprising:

means for monitoring the supply of power from one or more of the heterogeneous power supplies to the electronic system;

means for comparing the monitored supply of power to the electronic system to efficiency curves of the primary power supply and the secondary power supply; and

means for supplying power to the electronic system from one or both of the primary power supply and the secondary power supply based upon a determination of which of the one or both of the primary power supply and the secondary power supply has a substantially optimized efficiency curve in comparison with the monitored supply of power to the electronic system.

17. A computer program product embodied on a computer-readable storage device and comprising code that, when executed, causes a computer to perform the following:

monitor a supply of power to an electronic system from one or more of a plurality of heterogeneous power supplies, wherein the plurality of heterogeneous power supplies comprises a primary power supply and a secondary power supply, and wherein the primary power supply has a higher power rating as compared to the secondary power supply;

compare the monitored supply of power to the electronic system to efficiency curves of the primary power supply and the secondary power supply; and

supply power to the electronic system from one or both of the primary power supply and the secondary power supply based upon a determination of which of the one or more both of the primary power supply and the secondary power supply has a substantially optimized efficiency curve in comparison with the monitored supply of power to the electronic system.