External ambient noise monitoring to adapt control of internal system noise sources

• US 7,983,770 B2
• Filed: 04/30/2007
• Issued: 07/19/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lenovo PC International Limited (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Lenovo Singapore Pte Limited (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Inventors: Vernon, Kevin S., Lewis, Thomas F., Reinberg, Kevin M., Langgood, John K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel; Ramesh B
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chang; Sunray R
• Application Number:
  US11/742,583
• Publication Number:
  US 20080269920A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,541 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 700/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/206 comprising thermal management
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 7/20209 Thermal management, e.g. fan control

Abstract

An arrangement for controlling a system generated noise level such that the same is adapted to an actual ambient noise level of the system environment. Internal noise generators will thus not run at a needlessly lowered rate than actually needed. For instance, by permitting a fan to run at a generally higher speed, the system will not needlessly undergo significant internal temperature increases. By the same token, CPU performance, to the extent that it represents a noise generator, will not be needlessly throttled.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a CPU;

a system memory in communication with said CPU;

a fan;

an ambient noise measurement input which provides an ambient noise measurement; and

a control module configured to;

determine a corrected external noise value corresponding to an ambient noise measurement having contribution of internal system components removed by using a value obtained from a table storing a plurality of noise profile measurements corresponding to calibrated system noise values, the calibrated system noise values representing internal system noise as a function of one or more of fan speed and CPU throttling; and

control fan speed and CPU throttling responsive to said ambient noise measurement input;

wherein said control module acts to prompt said fan to generate less noise if a noise profile measurement for a current fan speed is greater than the corrected external noise measurement.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein responsive to a CPU temperature increase, said control module throttles the CPU rather than increasing a fan speed if a noise profile measurement for a current fan speed is greater than the corrected external noise value.

3. The system according to claim 2, wherein responsive to a CPU temperature decrease, said control module decreases a current fan speed before decreasing CPU throttling if a system noise profile measurement for a current fan speed is greater than the corrected external noise measurement.

4. The system according to claim 3, wherein responsive to a CPU temperature decrease, said control module decreases CPU throttling if a system noise profile measurement for a current fan speed is less than the corrected external noise measurement.

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein said ambient noise measurement input comprises a microphone.

6. The system according to claim 1, wherein said system memory stores the plurality of noise profile measurements.

7. The system according to claim 1, wherein responsive to corrected external noise increase, the control module is configured to keep CPU throttling at a minimum while allowing the fan speed to increase in compensation.

8. A method comprising:

determining a corrected external noise value corresponding to an ambient noise measurement having noise contributed by internal system components removed by using a value obtained from a table storing a plurality of noise profile measurements corresponding to calibrated system noise values, the calibrated system noise values representing internal system noise as a function of one or more of fan speed and CPU throttling; and

controlling fan speed and CPU throttling responsive to an ambient noise measurement;

wherein said control module acts to prompt said fan to generate less noise if a noise profile measurement for a current fan speed is greater than the corrected external noise measurement.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein said controlling comprises responsive to a CPU temperature increase, throttling the CPU rather than increasing a fan speed if a noise profile measurement for a current fan speed is greater than the corrected external noise value.

10. The method according to claim 8, wherein said controlling comprises, responsive to a CPU temperature decrease, decreasing a current fan speed before decreasing CPU throttling if a system noise profile measurement for a current fan speed is greater than the corrected external noise measurement.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein said controlling further comprises, responsive to a CPU temperature decrease, decreasing CPU throttling if a system noise profile measurement for a current fan speed is less than the corrected external noise measurement.

12. The method according to claim 8, wherein said ambient noise measurement is derived from a microphone.

13. The method according to claim 8, further comprising storing the plurality of noise profile measurements in a system memory.

14. The method according to claim 8, wherein said controlling further comprises, responsive to corrected external noise increase, keeping CPU throttling at a minimum while allowing the fan speed to increase in compensation.

15. A program storage device readable by machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform steps comprising:

determining a corrected external noise value corresponding to an ambient noise measurement having contribution of internal system components removed by using a value obtained from a table storing a plurality of noise profile measurements corresponding to calibrated system noise values, the calibrated system noise values representing internal system noise as a function of one or more of fan speed and CPU throttling; and

controlling fan speed and CPU throttling responsive to an ambient noise measurement;

wherein said control module acts to prompt said fan to generate less noise if a noise profile measurement for a current fan speed is greater than the corrected external noise measurement.

16. The program storage device according to claim 15, wherein said controlling comprises, responsive to a CPU temperature increase, throttling the CPU rather than increasing a fan speed if a noise profile measurement for a current fan speed is greater than the corrected external noise value.

17. The program storage device according to claim 16, wherein said controlling comprises, responsive to a CPU temperature decrease, decreasing a current fan speed before decreasing CPU throttling if a system noise profile measurement for a current fan speed is greater than the corrected external noise measurement.

18. The program storage device according to claim 17, wherein said controlling further comprises, responsive to a CPU temperature decrease, decreasing CPU throttling if a system noise profile measurement for a current fan speed is less than the corrected external noise measurement.