US 11,237,605 B2 · System and method for cooling computing devices

Abstract

Systems and methods for cooling large numbers of computing devices in a data center are disclosed. The computing devices have cooling fans that can have their fan speed set by management instructions. The devices are mounted in racks in a two-dimensional array and connected via network switches with ports corresponding to their location in the racks. The computer devices are oriented so that their cooling fans all exhaust waste heat to one side of the rack. Instructions are sent to the computing devices to set one or more attributes such as fan speed, operating frequency and voltage according to one ore more patterns. The patterns can be linear or nonlinear and can be shifted, rotated, or changed over time periodically or based on temperature or other performance measurements from the computing devices.

Claims18

Dependent claims

A method for cooling a plurality of computing devices, the method comprising:

positioning the plurality of computing devices on one or more racks in a two-dimensional array, wherein each of the computing devices on each of the racks has at least one fan and is configured to exhaust heat in the same direction;
and
sending, via a management computer connected to the computing devices via an electronic communication network, instructions to set the fan speed of the fans of the computing devices in a gradient pattern across the two-dimensional array;
wherein the gradient pattern includes fan speeds that vary according to positions of the computing devices relative to an exhaust opening.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

System and method for cooling computing devices

Life of this patent

System and method for cooling computing devices

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims18