Cooling device control

• US 9,261,929 B2
• Filed: 08/20/2009
• Issued: 02/16/2016
• 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: Tupa, Mark D., Durham, Michael R., Rijken, Christopher
• Primary Examiner(s): BARNES-BULLOCK, CRYSTAL JOY
• Application Number:
  US13/386,435
• Publication Number:
  US 20120123610A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,371 Days
• Field of Search: 713/300, 713/320, 713/323, 713/340
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 plurality of storage devices;

a monitor to;

receive activity indications representing respective accesses of the plurality of storage devices, the activity indications being based on a degree of overlap of activities of the plurality of storage devices due to the accesses of the plurality of storage devices, and

estimate a temperature of the plurality of storage devices based on the received activity indications over a specified period of time; and

a cooling device controller connected to the monitor to control an output of a cooling device in response to the estimated temperature.

2. The computing system of claim 1 further comprising an input output controller to generate the activity indications based on the accesses of the plurality of storage devices.

3. The computing system of claim 2 wherein the cooling device controller is to increase a speed of a fan in the cooling device in response to the estimated temperature being above an operating specification.

4. The computing system of claim 1 wherein the monitor is to estimate the temperature of the plurality of storage devices from the activity indications responsive to an operating system not including drivers for receiving the temperature of the plurality of storage devices.

5. The computing system of claim 1 further comprising firmware to scale the estimated temperature.

6. The computing system of claim 1, further comprising a data structure, wherein the monitor is to further:

determine an amount of activity based on the activity indications over the specified period of time; and

look up, based on the determined amount of activity, the data structure that maps different amounts of activities to corresponding temperatures,

wherein the estimated temperature is a temperature in the data structure that maps to the determined amount of activity.

7. The computing system of claim 1, wherein a first activity indication of the activity indications is derived based on overlap of activities of a first subset of the storage devices.

8. The computing system of claim 7, wherein a second activity indication of the activity indications is derived by adding activities of a second subset of the storage devices whose activities do not overlap.

9. A method to adjust cooling device output comprising:

generating activity indications in response to respective accesses of storage devices;

estimating a temperature of the storage devices based on the activity indications over a period of time, the activity indications being based on a degree of overlap of activities of the storage devices due to the accesses of the storage devices; and

controlling a cooling device based on the estimated temperature.

10. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

determining an amount of activity based on the activity indications over the period of time; and

looking up, based on the determined amount of activity, a table that maps different amounts of activities to corresponding temperatures,

wherein the estimated temperature is a temperature in the table that maps to the determined amount of activity.

11. The method of claim 9 further comprising providing a signal to a cooling device controller based on the estimated temperature, the cooling device controller adjusting the cooling device in response to the signal.

12. The method of claim 9 further comprising comparing the estimated temperature to an operating specification.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising increasing an output of the cooling device in response to the temperature being above the operating specification.

14. The method of claim 9 further comprising scaling an estimated temperature of the storage device to adjust an output of the cooling device.

15. The method of claim 9, further comprising varying the period of time depending upon a thermal property of the storage device.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the period of time is set to a first time period in response to the thermal property of the storage device having a first characteristic, and set to a different time period in response to the thermal property of the storage device having a second, different characteristic.

17. The method of claim 9, wherein a first activity indication of the activity indications is derived based on overlap of activities of a first subset of the storage devices.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein a second activity indication of the activity indications is derived by adding activities of a second subset of the storage devices whose activities do not overlap.

19. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions that if executed cause a controller to:

monitor activity indications responsive to accesses of storage devices over a period of time;

estimate a temperature of the storage devices in response to the activity indications over the period of time, the activity indications being based on a degree of overlap of activities of the storage devices due to the accesses of the storage devices; and

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

20. The computer readable medium of claim 19 further comprising instructions to determine if the estimated temperature is above an operating specification.

21. The computer readable medium of claim 19 further comprising instructions to increase a speed of the cooling device to adjust the output of the cooling device in response to the temperature of the storage devices being above an operating specification.

22. The computer readable medium of claim 19, wherein the instructions if executed cause the controller to further:

determine an amount of activity based on the activity indications over the period of time; and

look up, based on the determined amount of activity, a data structure that maps different amounts of activities to corresponding temperatures,

wherein the estimated temperature is a temperature in the data structure that maps to the determined amount of activity.