Dynamic control of fan floor
AssigneeDell Products L.P.
InventorsKevin Locke, Travis North, Joohyun Woo
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Controlling an activation status of a proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller for an information handling system cooling system, such as the on/off status of the PID controller, can reduce power consumption and processing and memory requirements for such a system. A decrease in resource consumption can be realized by deactivating the PID controller during certain periods and activating the PID controller during others. For example, the PID controller can be deactivated when a temperature of a system component falls below a threshold temperature and activated when the temperature of the system component rises above the threshold temperature.
Claims18
A method for controlling a component cooling system of an information handling system, comprising:
- receiving a temperature margin of a system component;
- comparing the temperature margin of the system component to a set temperature margin;
- receiving a fan speed of a cooling fan of the information handling system;
- comparing the fan speed to an idle fan speed;
- activating a proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller configured to generate a control signal for a cooling fan when the comparison indicates that the temperature margin of the system component is less than the set temperature margin;
- and
- deactivating the PID controller when the comparison indicates that the temperature margin of the system component is greater than or equal to the set temperature margin and the fan speed is less than or equal to the idle fan speed,
- wherein deactivating the PID controller comprises turning off the PID controller.
An apparatus, comprising:
- a controller configured to perform steps comprising:
- receiving a temperature margin of a system component;
- comparing the temperature margin of the system component to a set temperature margin;
- receiving a fan speed of a cooling fan of the information handling system;
- comparing the fan speed to an idle fan speed;
- activating a proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller configured to generate a control signal for a cooling fan when the comparison indicates that the temperature margin of the system component is less than the set temperature margin;
- and
- deactivating the PID controller when the comparison indicates that the temperature margin of the system component is greater than or equal to the set temperature margin and the fan speed is less than or equal to the idle fan speed,
- wherein deactivating the PID controller comprises turning off the PID controller.
An apparatus for controlling a component cooling system of an information handling system, comprising:
- a cooling fan;
- and
- a controller coupled to the cooling fan to control the cooling fan;
- wherein, the controller is configured to perform steps comprising:
- receiving a temperature margin of a system component;
- comparing the temperature margin of the system component to a set temperature margin;
- receiving a fan speed of the cooling fan;
- comparing the fan speed to an idle fan speed;
- activating a proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller configured to generate a control signal for the cooling fan when the comparison indicates that the temperature margin of the system component is less than the set temperature margin;
- and
- deactivating the PID controller when the comparison indicates that the temperature margin of the system component is greater than or equal to the set temperature margin and the fan speed is less than or equal to the idle fan speed,
- wherein deactivating the PID controller comprises turning off the PID controller.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.