US 10,481,656 B2Granted

Systems and methods for cooling portable information handling systems

AssigneeDell Products L.P.

InventorsMark A. Casparian, Philip J. Grossmann, Joe A. Olmsted, Francisco Santana, Charles Cameron Duncan, Frank C. Azor

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Abstract

Systems and methods that may be implemented using an external cooling dock that is configured to provide supplemental cooling to a portable information handling system by blowing sub-ambient temperature air into one or more existing external air intake-vents of the chassis of the portable information handling system. The external cooling dock may be further configured to electronically dock or otherwise mate in bidirectional signal communication with the portable information handing system to allow the cooling dock processing device to operate cooperatively in a closed loop with the internal processing device/s of the portable information handling system so as to control operation of the cooling dock components and/or the operation of the processing devices within the portable information handling system.

Claims34

Dependent claims

A cooling dock configured to dock with an information handling system, the cooling dock comprising:

at least one cooling fan positioned in the cooling dock, the cooling fan supplying external supplemental cooling air from an outlet vent of the cooling dock to a cooling air inlet vent defined in a chassis enclosure of the information handling system when the cooling dock is docked with an information handling system;
at least one cooler positioned within the cooling dock, the cooler cooling the external supplemental cooling air before it is provided to the chassis enclosure inlet vent;
and
at least one first processing device coupled to at least one of the cooling fan or cooler, the first processing device programmed to execute a computer program of instructions embodied in a non-transitory tangible computer readable medium to control at least one of the speed of the cooling fan or the temperature of the cooler;
where the first processing device is wired or wirelessly coupled to receive real time values of existing processor utilization and/or overclock state from at least one second processing device located within the chassis enclosure of the information handling system when the cooling dock is in docked position with an information handling system;
and
where the first processing device is further programmed to determine and then control a temperature and/or flow rate of the supplemental cooling air based on the values of existing processor utilization and/or overclock state received from the second processing device.

4 more elements

A system, comprising:

an information handling system comprising a chassis enclosure containing at least one second processing device and at least one cooling air inlet vent defined in the chassis enclosure;
a cooling dock positioned in docking relationship with the information handling system, the cooling dock comprising:
at least one cooling fan positioned in the cooling dock, the cooling fan supplying external supplemental cooling air from an outlet vent of the cooling dock to the inlet vent defined in a chassis enclosure of the information handling system,
at least one cooler positioned within the cooling dock, the cooler cooling the external supplemental cooling air before it is provided to the chassis enclosure inlet vent, and
at least one first processing device coupled to at least one of the cooling fan or cooler, the first processing device programmed to execute a computer program of instructions embodied in a non-transitory tangible computer readable medium to control at least one of the speed of the cooling fan or the temperature of the cooler temperature;
where the first processing device is coupled in wired or wireless communication with the second processing device;
where the second processing device is programmed to execute a computer program of instructions embodied in a non-transitory tangible computer readable medium to provide information indicative of processor utilization or overclocking state mode of one or more processing devices within the chassis enclosure to the first processing device, where the information indicative of processor utilization or overclocking state mode comprises real time values of existing processor utilization as a percentage or fraction value of full processing device utilization and/or as either an on or an off mode of an existing overclock state read from the one or more processing devices;
and
where the first processing device is programmed to determine and then control a temperature and/or flow rate of the supplemental cooling air based on the information received from the second information handling system processing device that is indicative of processor utilization or overclocking state mode of one or more processing devices within the chassis enclosure of the information handling system.

6 more elements

A method of cooling an information handling system, comprising:

positioning a cooling dock having at least one first processing device in docking relationship with an information handling system that includes a chassis enclosure containing at least one second processing device and at least one cooling air inlet vent defined in the chassis enclosure;
supplying chilled external supplemental cooling air from a cooling fan of the cooling dock to the inlet vent defined in the chassis enclosure of the information handling system;
using the at least one first processing device of the cooling dock to control at least one of the speed of the dock cooling fan or the temperature of the supplemental cooling air;
providing information from the second processing device that is indicative of processor utilization or overclocking state mode of one or more processing devices within the chassis enclosure of the information handling system to the dock control processing device, where the information indicative of processor utilization or overclocking state mode comprises real time values of existing processor utilization as a percentage or fraction value and/or as either an on or an off mode of an existing overclock state having a higher processor clock speed than a maximum allowable processor clock speed read from the one or more processing devices;
and
using the first processing device to determine and then control a temperature and/or flow rate of the supplemental cooling air based on the information received from the second processing device that is indicative of processor utilization or overclocking state mode of one or more processing devices within the chassis enclosure of the information handling system.

3 more elements

An information handling system, comprising:

a chassis enclosure containing at least one information handling system processing device and at least one cooling air inlet vent defined in the chassis enclosure, the at least one second processing device comprising at least one of a host processor executing an operating system (OS) for the information handling system, a discrete graphics processing unit (dGPU), or a combination thereof;
where the information handling system processing device located within the chassis enclosure of the information handling system is configured to be wired or wirelessly coupled to communicate with at least one first processing device of a cooling dock when it is positioned in docking relationship with the information handling system to supply external supplemental cooling air to the cooling air inlet vent defined in the chassis enclosure of the information handling system;
and
where the information handling system processing device is programmed to read and then provide information indicative of processor utilization or overclocking state mode of one or more processing devices within the chassis enclosure of the information handling system to the first processing device, where the information indicative of processor utilization or overclocking state mode comprise real time values of existing processor utilization and/or as either an on or an off mode of an existing overclock state having a higher processor clock speed than a maximum allowable processor clock speed read from the one or more processing devices.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 14/965,186Filed 10 Dec 2015
Published: US 2017/0168531 A115 Jun 2017
Granted: 19 Nov 2019
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification4 codes

G06F 1/1632
For portable computers: external expansion units, e.g. docking stations
G06F 1/206
Cooling means: comprising thermal management
G06F 1/203
Cooling means: for portable computers, e.g. for laptops
G06F
Computing and data processing

Family

US 2017/0168531 A1Pre-grant publication · published 15 Jun 2017
US 10,481,656 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.

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