Adaptable input/output apparatus and method
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorDaniel Milton ALLEY
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An integrated circuit and/or sensing circuitry assists in determining the thermal capacity available at a given and future time. In one aspect, the integrated circuit includes a number of channels connected to any number of components having differing thermal capacities. The integrated circuit may provide information relating to available thermal capacity on a per-channel basis as well as on a system-wide basis.
Claims15
A method for monitoring power consumption of an electronic module having a plurality of channels, the method comprising:
- for each channel of a plurality of channels of the electronic module, computing a plurality of channel values comprising:
- measuring a present operating value,
- determining a present channel load value using the present operating value,
- determining a worst-case channel power dissipation value using the present operating value,
- determining a worst-case channel thermal behavior value using the present operating value;
- calculating a sum of the present channel load values of the plurality of channels using each of the measured present channel load values;
- calculating a worst-case module power dissipation value using the sum of each of the worst-case channel power dissipation values of the plurality of channels;
- calculating a worst-case module thermal behavior value using the sum of each of the worst-case thermal behavior values of the plurality of channels;
- determining whether the electronic module is capable of supporting the plurality of channels without exceeding the worst-case module thermal behavior value;
- and
- calculating a power margin value using said sum of the present channel load values, the worst-case module power dissipation value, and the worst-case module thermal behavior value, the power margin value representative of remaining power available in the electronic module to be used by at least one additional channel.
A method for monitoring power consumption of an electronic module having a plurality of channels, the method comprising:
- determining whether the electronic module is capable of supporting the plurality of channels without exceeding a worst-case module thermal behavior value;
- calculating a power margin value representative of remaining power available in the electronic module to be used by at least one additional channel.
A power consumption monitoring apparatus comprising:
- an interface comprising an input and an output;
- a controller coupled to the interface, the controller configured to determine whether an electric module is capable of supporting a plurality of channels without exceeding a worst-case module thermal behavior value, the controller configured to calculate a power margin value representative of the remaining power available in the electric module to be used by at least one additional channel, the controller configured to transmit a signal to the output of the interface indicating remaining power available in the electric module or a lack of power available in the electric module.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.