Providing resilient power to a system

• US 20050285570A1
• Filed: 06/29/2004
• Published: 12/29/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Kumar, Pavan M., Dunstan, Robert A., Alexander, Donald R.
• Granted Patent: US 8,450,980 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 320/128
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 9/061 for DC powered loads

Abstract

In one embodiment, the present invention includes a resilient power supply having a charger to charge a battery with a low voltage and to provide back-up battery power to a system; and a main power supply to provide a plurality of voltages for operation of the system. The resilient power supply may be used to discharge the battery into the main power supply upon loss of alternating current (AC) power in the system.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a power supply to provide battery back-up power to a system, the power supply having a charger to charge a battery with a low voltage.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a voltage converter coupled to the charger to convert a battery voltage to a high voltage.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, further comprising a main power supply coupled to the power supply to receive the high voltage upon loss of alternating current (AC) power.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the main power supply is coupled to receive the high voltage via a one-way link from the power supply.

5. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the main power supply is coupled to provide the low voltage to the charger.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the power supply comprises a resilient power supply to provide the battery back-up power.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the low voltage comprises a standby voltage.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the low voltage comprises a first standby low voltage and a second non-standby low voltage.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the charger is adapted to charge the battery with either the first standby low voltage or the second non-standby low voltage.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the battery is coupled to the charger without electrical isolation.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising using a charger of a resilient power supply to charge the back-up battery.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising sending an alternating current (AC) status signal from the power supply to the resilient power supply.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising forwarding the AC status signal to a circuit board of the system.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising controlling operation of the back-up battery based on the AC status signal.

17. The method of claim 11, further comprising discharging the back-up battery through a high voltage tap to the power supply to power the system upon loss of alternating current (AC) power.

11. A method comprising:

charging a back-up battery using a standby voltage from a power supply of a system.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the standby voltage comprises a low voltage.

18. The method of claim 11, further comprising using the standby voltage to charge the back-up battery when the power supply is off.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising using a non-standby voltage to charge the back-up battery when the power supply is on.

20. A system comprising:

a resilient power supply to provide back-up battery power to the system, the resilient power supply having a charger to charge a battery with a low voltage; and

a main power supply to provide a plurality of voltages for operation of the system.

21. The system of claim 20, further comprising a circuit board coupled to receive the plurality of voltages.

22. The system of claim 21, further comprising a status signal coupled between the resilient power supply and the circuit board.

23. The system of claim 20, wherein the low voltage comprises a standby voltage.

24. The system of claim 20, wherein the resilient power supply is coupled to receive the low voltage from the main power supply.

25. The system of claim 20, wherein the battery is coupled to receive a low voltage charge signal from the charger.

26. The system of claim 20, wherein the resilient power supply further comprises a voltage converter coupled to convert a battery voltage to a high voltage for input into the main power supply.

27. An article comprising a machine-accessible storage medium containing instructions that if executed enable a system to:

send a first control signal to a resilient power supply to charge a back-up battery with a low voltage.

28. The article of claim 27, further comprising instructions that if executed enable the system to send a second control signal to discharge the back-up battery into a main power supply upon loss of alternating current (AC) power.

29. The article of claim 28, further comprising instructions that if executed enable the system to receive an alternating current (AC) status signal and to send the second control signal if the AC status signal is indicative of the loss of AC power.

30. The article of claim 27, further comprising instructions that if executed enable the system to charge the back-up battery with a standby voltage.

31. An article comprising a machine-accessible storage medium containing instructions that if executed enable a system to:

send a control signal to prevent a resilient power supply from providing back-up power to the system.

32. The article of claim 31, further comprising instructions that if executed enable the system to prevent the back-up power after the resilient power supply has provided the back-up power for a predetermined time.

33. The article of claim 31, further comprising instructions that if executed enable the system to prevent the back-up power when a back-up battery associated with the resilient power supply is discharged to a predetermined level.

34. The article of claim 31, further comprising instructions that if executed enable the system to perform a graceful shutdown of the system before the control signal is sent.