Apparatus, system, and method for event, time, and failure state recording mechanism in a power supply

• US 7,908,505 B2
• Filed: 09/28/2007
• Issued: 03/15/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Howard, Ted A., Nguyen, Trung M., Malik, Randhir S., Lindfors, Eino A., Dishman, Cecil C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Cao; Chun
• Assistant Examiner(s): Choudhury; Zahid
• Application Number:
  US11/864,613
• Publication Number:
  US 20090089604A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,264 Days
• Field of Search: 713/330, 713/340, 714/47, 714/48
• US Class Current: 713/340
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/28 Supervision thereof, e.g. detecting power-supply failure by out of limits supervision

Abstract

An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for event, time, and failure state recording in a power supply. Disclosed is a power supply that receives AC voltage as an input and provides regulated DC voltage as an output; a microcontroller integrated into the power supply that regulates output voltage and monitors, records, and reports operating conditions of the power supply; and a non-volatile solid-state storage that can be repeatedly read from, written to, and erased by the microcontroller and integrated within the microcontroller such that only a single address is needed to access both the microcontroller and the solid-state storage, the solid-state storage configured to store operating data received from the microcontroller, the operating data including the recorded operating conditions of the power supply.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a power supply that receives alternating current (“

AC”

) voltage as an input and provides regulated direct current (“

DC”

) voltage as an output;

a microcontroller integrated into the power supply that regulates output voltage and monitors, records, and reports operating conditions of the power supply and that records a fault code for the power supply, wherein the fault code is generated by at least one of the power supply and an electronic device connected to the power supply in response to a fault; and

a non-volatile solid-state storage that can be repeatedly read from, written to, and erased by the microcontroller and integrated within the microcontroller such that only a single address is needed to access both the microcontroller and the solid-state storage, the solid-state storage configured to store operating data and the fault codes received from the microcontroller, the operating data comprising recorded operating conditions of the power supply.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the non-volatile solid-state storage is an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (“

EEPROM”

).

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the EEPROM is a flash memory.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising an efficiency module configured to periodically determine and store, in the solid state-storage, efficiency data for the power supply, the efficiency data comprising data indicating an amount of power loss within the power supply.

5. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the efficiency module is further configured to compare the efficiency data stored in the solid-state storage with a lookup efficiency table and output a prediction failure warning in response to the power supply efficiency falling below a predefined threshold.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising an energy module configured to periodically determine and store, in the solid state-storage, energy consumption data for the power supply, the energy consumption data comprising data indicating an amount of energy consumed by the power supply.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a time module configured to determine and store, in the solid state-storage, a time stamp indicating a time and a date at which a power fault occurred, the time and data information received from a system clock external to the power supply.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a power on hours (“

POH”

) module configured to determine and store, in the solid state-storage, a number of hours during which the power supply has been operating.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising an on/off module configured to determine and store, in the solid state-storage, each date and time that the power supply is turned on and each date and time that the power supply is turned off.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a fan module configured to determine and store, in the solid state-storage, a temperature of at least one critical component of the power supply and a fan speed of a fan configured to cool the component.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the fan module is further configured to output a failure prediction warning in response to detection of a temperature above a predefined threshold and a fan speed below a predefined threshold.

12. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a component stress module configured to measure a voltage on one or more critical components, compare the voltage against a voltage threshold in a voltage stress lookup table, and output a warning in response to the voltage exceeding the voltage threshold from the voltage stress lookup table.

13. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a waveform module configured to continuously record and update, in the solid state-storage, a predetermined number of cycles of a voltage waveform for one or more metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (“

MOSFETs”

) in the power supply, a cycle comprising one period of a switching rate for the power supply.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the recorded and updated voltage waveforms comprise a predetermined number of voltage waveforms immediately preceding a failure event.

15. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a bulk voltage module configured to adjust a bulk voltage of the power supply in response to a peak AC input voltage exceeding a predetermined threshold, the bulk voltage comprising an output of a first power supply stage and used as an input of a second power supply stage.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the bulk voltage module is further configured to adjust a set point of the first power supply stage, the set point comprising a voltage to which the first power supply stage regulates the bulk voltage.

17. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable medium having computer usable program code stored on a tangible medium and executable on a processor, the operations of the computer program product comprising:

regulating the output voltage of a power supply and monitoring, recording, and reporting operating conditions of the power supply and recording fault codes for the power supply via a microcontroller integrated into the power supply, wherein the fault code is generated by at least one of the power supply and an electronic device connected to the power supply in response to a fault the power supply receiving alternating current (“

AC”

) voltage as an input and providing regulated direct current (“

DC”

) voltage as an output; and

storing operating data and fault codes in a non-volatile solid-state storage that can be repeatedly read from, written to, and erased by the microcontroller, the solid-state storage integrated within the microcontroller such that only a single address is needed to access both the microcontroller and the solid-state storage, the solid-state storage configured to store operating data received from the microcontroller, the operating data comprising the recorded operating conditions of the power supply.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the non-volatile solid-state storage is an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (“

EEPROM”

).

19. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the EEPROM is a flash memory.

20. The computer program product of claim 17, further comprising periodically determining and storing, in the solid state-storage, efficiency data for the power supply, the efficiency data comprising data indicating an amount of power loss within the power supply.

21. The computer program product of claim 20, further comprising comparing the efficiency data stored in the solid-state storage with a lookup efficiency table and outputting a prediction failure warning in response to the power supply efficiency falling below a predefined threshold.

22. The computer program product of claim 17, further comprising periodically determining and storing, in the solid state-storage, energy consumption data for the power supply, the energy consumption data comprising data indicating an amount of energy consumed by the power supply.

23. The computer program product of claim 17, further comprising determining and storing, in the solid state-storage, a time stamp indicating a time and a date at which a power fault occurred, the time and data information received from a system clock external to the power supply.

24. A system comprising:

a power supply that receives alternating current (“

AC”

) voltage as an input and provides regulated direct current (“

DC”

) voltage as an output;

an electronic device that receives the regulated DC voltage as an input;

a microcontroller integrated into the power supply that regulates output voltage and monitors, records, and reports operating conditions of the power supply and that records fault codes for the power supply, wherein the fault code is generated by at least one of the power supply and the electronic device in response to a fault; and

a non-volatile solid-state storage that can be repeatedly read from, written to, and erased by the microcontroller and integrated within the microcontroller such that only a single address is needed to access both the microcontroller and the solid-state storage, the solid-state storage configured to store operating data and fault codes received from the microcontroller, the operating data comprising recorded operating conditions of the power supply.

25. An apparatus comprising:

a power supply that receives alternating current (“

AC”

) voltage as an input and provides regulated direct current (“

DC”

) voltage as an output;

a microcontroller integrated into the power supply that regulates output voltage and monitors, records, and reports operating conditions of the power supply;

a non-volatile solid-state storage that can be repeatedly read from, written to, and erased by the microcontroller and integrated within the microcontroller such that only a single address is needed to access both the microcontroller and the solid-state storage, the solid-state storage configured to store operating data received from the microcontroller, the operating data comprising recorded operating conditions of the power supply;

an efficiency module configured to periodically determine and store, in the solid state-storage, efficiency data for the power supply, the efficiency data comprising data indicating an amount of power loss within the power supply wherein the efficiency module is further configured to compare the efficiency data stored in the solid-state storage with a lookup efficiency table and output a prediction failure warning in response to the power supply efficiency falling below a predefined threshold;

an energy module configured to periodically determine and store, in the solid state-storage, energy consumption data for the power supply, the energy consumption data comprising data indicating an amount of energy consumed by the power supply;

a time module configured to determine and store, in the solid state-storage, a time stamp indicating a time and a date at which a power fault occurred, the time and data information received from a system clock external to the power supply;

a power on hours (“

POH”

) module configured to determine and store, in the solid state-storage, a number of hours during which the power supply has been operating;

an on/off module configured to determine and store, in the solid state-storage, each date and time that the power supply is turned on and each date and time that the power supply is turned off;

a fan module configured to determine and store, in the solid state-storage, a temperature of at least one critical component of the power supply and a fan speed of a fan configured to cool the component wherein the fan module is further configured to output a failure prediction warning in response to detection of a temperature above a predefined threshold and a fan speed below a predefined threshold;

further comprising a component stress module configured to measure a voltage on one or more critical components, compare the voltage against a voltage threshold in a voltage stress lookup table, and output a warning in response to the voltage exceeding the voltage threshold from the voltage stress lookup table;

a waveform module configured to continuously record and update, in the solid state-storage, a predetermined number of cycles of a voltage waveform for one or more metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (“

MOSFETs”

) in the power supply, a cycle comprising one period of a switching rate for the power supply wherein the recorded and updated voltage waveforms comprise a predetermined number of voltage waveforms immediately preceding a failure event; and

a bulk voltage module configured to autonomically adjust a bulk voltage of the power supply in response to a peak AC input voltage exceeding a predetermined threshold, the bulk voltage comprising an output of a first power supply stage and used as an input of a second power supply stage wherein the bulk voltage module is further configured to adjust a set point of the first power supply stage, the set point comprising a voltage to which the first power supply stage regulates the bulk voltage.