SMART COOLING FAN SYSTEM
20230070920 · 2023-03-09
Assignee
Inventors
Cpc classification
H05K7/20727
ELECTRICITY
International classification
Abstract
A smart cooling fan system is disclosed, and comprises a first temperature sensor, a second temperature sensor, a first cooling fan connected to a main processor of an electronic device, a second cooling fan disposed in a housing case of the electronic device, and a microcontroller. The microcontroller is configured to, based on immediate fan rotation speed, find out a first volumetric flow rate and a second volumetric flow rate by looking up a CFM-RPM lookup table (LUT), a first PWM LUT and a second PWM LUT, the microcontroller controls the first cooling fan to produce a first airflow having the first volumetric flow rate, and also controls the second cooling fan to produce a second airflow having the second volumetric flow rate. As a result, the operating temperature of the main processor and an ambient temperature of the housing case are therefore immediately reduced.
Claims
1. A smart cooling fan system, being disposed in a housing case of an electronic device, and comprising: at least one first cooling fan, being disposed in the housing case, and being installed on or near at least one electronic chip; wherein said first cooling fan has a RPM signal outputting terminal and a PWM signal inputting terminal; at least one first temperature sensor, being disposed in the housing case for sensing a first temperature of the at least one electronic chip; at least one second cooling fan, being disposed in the housing case, and being used for exhausting a hot air produced in the housing case or feeding an external air into the housing case; wherein said second cooling fan also has a RPM signal outputting terminal and a PWM signal inputting terminal; at least one second temperature sensor, being disposed in the housing case for sensing a second temperature of an inner space of the housing case; and a microcontroller, having a memory and being selected from a group consisting of complex programmable logic device (CPLD) and field programmable gate array (FPGA), and being coupled to each said first temperature sensor, each said temperature sensor, the RPM signal outputting terminal and the PWM signal inputting terminal of each said first cooling fan, and the RPM signal outputting terminal and the PWM signal inputting terminal of each said second cooling fan; wherein the memory stores a plurality of lookup tables, and the plurality of lookup tables comprising: at least one first lookup table, recording a plurality of volumetric flow rates and a plurality of fan rotation speed corresponding to the plurality of volumetric flow rates; a second lookup table, recording L number of first duty cycle analogue values and L number of first temperature values corresponding to the L number of first duty cycle analogue values, L being an positive integer; and a third lookup table, also recording M number of second duty cycle analogue values and M number of second temperature values corresponding to the M number of second duty cycle analogue values, M being an positive integer; wherein during a normal operation of said first cooling fan and said second cooling fan, the microcontroller receiving a first immediate rotation speed of said first cooling fan and a second immediate rotation speed of said second cooling fan; wherein after receiving a data of the first temperature sensed by said first temperature sensor, the microcontroller finding out one said first duty cycle analogue value corresponding to the first temperature value from the second lookup table, and then generating and transmitting, according to the first duty cycle analogue value, a first PWM signal with a first duty cycle to the PWM signal inputting terminal of said first cooling fan, thereby controlling said first cooling fan to produce a first airflow with a first volumetric flow rate; wherein after receiving a data of the second temperature sensed by said second temperature sensor, the microcontroller finding out one said second duty cycle analogue value corresponding to the second temperature value from the third lookup table, and then generating and transmitting, according to the second duty cycle analogue value, a second PWM signal a with a second duty cycle to the PWM signal inputting terminal of said second cooling fan, thereby controlling said second cooling fan to produce a second airflow with a second volumetric flow rate.
2. The smart cooling fan system of claim 1, wherein said electronic chip is selected from a group consisting of CPU, GPU, digital signal processor (DSP), and application processor.
3. The smart cooling fan system of claim 2, wherein said first temperature sensor is a thermal diode coupled to said electronic chip.
4. The smart cooling fan system of claim 2, wherein said first temperature sensor is a thermal diode integrated in said electronic chip.
5. The smart cooling fan system of claim 1, wherein the electronic device is selected from a group consisting of server, cloud computing device, industrial computer, desktop computer, laptop computer, and all-in-one computer.
6. The smart cooling fan system of claim 1, wherein a readout chip is coupled the microcontroller, the RPM signal outputting terminal and the PWM signal inputting terminal of each said first cooling fan, and the RPM signal outputting terminal and the PWM signal inputting terminal of each said second cooling fan, such that the microcontroller receives the first immediate rotation speed of said first cooling fan and the second immediate rotation speed of said second cooling fan through the readout chip.
7. The smart cooling fan system of claim 1, further comprising: at least one third cooling fan, being disposed in the housing case, and being installed on or near at least one electronic module; wherein said third cooling fan also has a RPM signal outputting terminal and a PWM signal inputting terminal; at least one third temperature sensor, being disposed in the housing case for sensing a third temperature of the at least one electronic module; wherein the plurality of lookup tables further comprises a fourth lookup table, recording N number of third duty cycle analogue values and N number of third temperature values corresponding to the N number of third duty cycle analogue values, N being an positive integer; wherein during a normal operation of said third cooling fan, the microcontroller receiving a third immediate rotation speed of said third cooling fan; wherein after receiving a data of the third temperature sensed by said third temperature sensor, the microcontroller finding out one said third duty cycle analogue value corresponding to the third temperature value from the fourth lookup table, and then generating and transmitting, according to the third duty cycle analogue value, a third PWM signal with a third duty cycle to the PWM signal inputting terminal of said third cooling fan, thereby controlling said third cooling fan to produce a third airflow with a third volumetric flow rate.
8. The smart cooling fan system of claim 7, wherein the electronic module is selected from a group consisting of DRAM, hard disk drive and LED lighting device.
9. The smart cooling fan system of claim 2, wherein the microcontroller communicates with said electronic chip through a platform environment control interface (PECI), such that said electronic chip transmits the data of the first temperature sensed by the first temperature sensor to the microcontroller.
10. The smart cooling fan system of claim 3, wherein the microcontroller communicates with said electronic chip through a platform environment control interface (PECI), such that said electronic chip transmits the data of the first temperature sensed by the first temperature sensor to the microcontroller.
11. The smart cooling fan system of claim 7, further comprising a management unit coupled to a BIOS chip of the electronic device, wherein the management unit is used for communicating with an external electronic device, such that the external electronic device writes the at least one first lookup table, the second lookup table, the third lookup table, and the fourth lookup table into a storage space of the BIOS chip.
12. The smart cooling fan system of claim 11, wherein a register is adopted as the memory of the microcontroller, such that the at least one first lookup table, the second lookup table, the third lookup table, and the fourth lookup table are loaded into the memory from the storage space of the BIOS chip after the microcontroller is awakened.
13. The smart cooling fan system of claim 11, wherein the external electronic device is allowed to write a fan rotation speed controlling command into the storage space of the BIOS chip through the management unit, so as to make the microcontroller adjust the first volumetric flow rate of the first cooling fan, the second volumetric flow rate of the second cooling fan, and/or the third volumetric flow rate of the third cooling fan according to the fan rotation speed controlling command.
14. The smart cooling fan system of claim 11, wherein the management unit is selected from a group consisting of platform security processor (PSP) and Intel management engine (IME).
Description
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0037] The invention as well as a preferred mode of use and advantages thereof will be best understood by referring to the following detailed description of an illustrative embodiment in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
[0038]
[0039]
[0040]
[0041]
[0042]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[0043] To more clearly describe a smart cooling fan system, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the attached drawings hereinafter.
First Embodiment
[0044] With reference to
[0045] According to
[0046] As
[0047] Please continuously refer to
[0048] According to
[0049] Moreover, curve C in
[0050] Herein, it needs to further explain that, CFM stands for cubic feet per minute (it is also referred to as airflow). Put simply, CFM is how much air a fan moves. The measurement is taken when the cooling fan is on a specified speed and uses both the volume of air and the rate at which it moves. For example, a commercial CPU cooling fan (i.e., said first cooling fan FA1) has the maximum airflow capacity of 30-40 CFM, a commercial computer case fan (i.e., said second cooling fan FA2) has the maximum airflow capacity of 60-120 CFM, and a commercial DRAM cooling fan (i.e., said third cooling fan FA3) has the maximum airflow capacity of 20-25 CFM. Therefore, after measuring CFM-RPM curves of each said first cooling fan FA1, each said second cooling fan FA2 and each said cooling fan FA3, duty cycle-CFM curves of each said first cooling fan FA1, each said second cooling fan FA2 and each said cooling fan FA3, duty cycle-CFM are simultaneously obtained. Subsequently, a duty cycle-duty cycle analogue value lookup table (LUT) shown as follows can be generated according to one duty cycle-CFM curve.
TABLE-US-00001 TABLE (1) Duty cycle Duty cycle (%) analogue value 0 0 39 100 59 150 78 200 100 255
[0051] After obtaining the duty cycle-duty cycle analogue value LUT like above table (1), a duty cycle analogue value-temperature LUT can be further generated as follows.
TABLE-US-00002 TABLE (2) Duty cycle Temperature analogue value (° C.) 0 0-49 100 50-59 150 60-69 200 70-89 255 80-89
[0052] It needs to further explain that, number of the switching level of the duty cycle of a PWM signal is not limited to 5 like the above-presented table (2) shows. In a practicable embodiment, the number of the switching level of the duty cycle can be set to 5, 7, or 10. Therefore, after setting the number of the switching level of the duty cycle, it can further decide a quiet and energy-saving region and a high-efficiency heat dissipation region on
[0053] In summary, the memory 131 of the microcontroller 13 stores a first LUT (i.e., CFM-RPM LUT), a second LUT (i.e., duty cycle analogue values-temperature LUT), a third LUT (i.e., duty cycle analogue values-temperature LUT), and, a fourth LUT (i.e., duty cycle analogue values-temperature LUT). By such arrangements, during a normal operation of said first cooling fan FA1, said second cooling fan FA2 and said third cooling fan FA3, the microcontroller 13 receives a first immediate rotation speed of said first cooling fan FA1, a second immediate rotation speed of said second cooling fan FA2 and a third immediate rotation speed of said third cooling fan FA3 from the readout chip 11. Subsequently, after receiving a data of the first temperature sensed by said first temperature sensor T1, the microcontroller 13 find out one said first duty cycle analogue value corresponding to the first temperature value from the second LUT (e.g., table (2)), and then generates and transmits, according to the first duty cycle analogue value, a first PWM signal with a first duty cycle to the PWM signal inputting terminal of said first cooling fan FA1, thereby controlling said first cooling fan FA1 to produce a first airflow with a first volumetric flow rate (e.g. 20 CFM).
[0054] Moreover, after receiving a data of the second temperature sensed by said second temperature sensor T2, the microcontroller 13 finds out one said second duty cycle analogue value corresponding to the second temperature value from the third LUT, and then generates and transmits, according to the second duty cycle analogue value, a second PWM signal a with a second duty cycle to the PWM signal inputting terminal of said second cooling fan FA2, thereby controlling said second cooling fan FA2 to produce a second airflow with a second volumetric flow rate (e.g., 70 CFM). In addition, after receiving a data of the third temperature sensed by said third temperature sensor T3, the microcontroller 13 finds out one said third duty cycle analogue value corresponding to the third temperature value from the fourth LUT, and then generates and transmits, according to the third duty cycle analogue value, a third PWM signal with a third duty cycle to the PWM signal inputting terminal of said third cooling fan FA3, thereby controlling said third cooling fan FA3 to produce a third airflow with a third volumetric flow rate (e.g., 20 CFM).
[0055] As described in more detail below, the second LUT (e.g., table (2)) is set for being accessed by the microcontroller 13 so as to control the CFM value and the RPM value of the first cooling fan FA1, and the second LUT records L number of first duty cycle analogue values (e.g. 0˜255) and L number of first temperature values corresponding to the L number of first duty cycle analogue values. Moreover, the third LUT is set for being accessed by the microcontroller 13 so as to control the CFM value and the RPM value of the second cooling fan FA2, and the third LUT records M number of first duty cycle analogue values (e.g. 0˜255) and M number of first temperature values corresponding to the M number of first duty cycle analogue values. On the other hand, the fourth LUT is set for being accessed by the microcontroller 13 so as to control the CFM value and the RPM value of the third cooling fan FA3, and the fourth LUT records N number of first duty cycle analogue values (e.g. 0˜255) and N number of first temperature values corresponding to the N number of first duty cycle analogue.
[0056] As
[0057] In other words, the microcontroller 13 acquires an immediate rotation speed from said first cooling fan FA1, said second cooling fan FA2 and said cooling fan FA3. Subsequently, after obtaining a first volumetric flow rate (i.e., CFM value for FA1), a second volumetric flow rate (i.e., CFM value for FA2) and a third volumetric flow rate (i.e., CFM value for FA3) by accessing a CFM-RPM lookup table (LUT), a first LUT, a second LUT and a third LUT, the microcontroller 13 controls the first cooling fan FA1 to produce a first airflow having the first volumetric flow rate, controls the second cooling fan FA2 to produce a second airflow having the second volumetric flow rate, and also controls the third cooling fan FA3 to produce a third airflow having the third volumetric flow rate. As a result, the operating temperature of the at least one electronic chip (i.e., CPU or GPU) 22, an ambient temperature of the housing case 21 and at least one electronic module (i.e., DRAM, HD, LED) 23 are therefore immediately reduced and well-controlled. For example, when the operating temperature of a CPU (i.e., one said electronic chip 22) abruptly rises to 80-90 degrees Celsius, the microcontroller 13 controls the three cooling fans (FA1, FA2, FA3) to immediately be operated in the high-efficiency cooling region, so as to reduce the operating temperature of the CPU in a short time period, thereby preventing the CPU from thermal shutdown. On the contrary, in case of the operating temperature of the CPU is decreasing with the CPU utilization, the microcontroller 13 controls the three cooling fans (FA1, FA2, FA3) to be immediately operated in the quiet and energy-saving region, so as to reduce noise of the three cooling fans (FA1, FA2, FA3) in a short time period.
[0058] In a real application case, the at least one first lookup table, the second lookup table, the third lookup table, and the fourth lookup table are stored in a storage space of the BIOS chip 24. Therefore, because a register is adopted as the memory 131 of the microcontroller 13, such that the at least one first lookup table, the second lookup table, the third lookup table, and the fourth lookup table are loaded into the memory 131 from the storage space of the BIOS chip 24 after the microcontroller 13 is awakened. It is worth explaining that, the microcontroller 13 selects and loads corresponding LUTs from the BIOS chip 24 into the register (i.e., memory 131) according to the model of the electronic chip 22 and the electronic module 23.
[0059] As described in more detail below, commercial CPU (GPU) is commonly coupled with a thermal diode, wherein this thermal diode is used for monitoring the operating temperature of the CPU (GPU). In such case, as
[0060] On the other hand, high-level CPU (GPU) is commonly integrated with a thermal diode therein. In such case, as
[0061] It is worth further explaining that, there is no need to calibrate the thermal diode (i.e., the first temperature sensor) integrated in a CPU (GPU) before utilizing the thermal diode to sense the operating temperature of the CPU (GPU). On the contrary, calibration is needed for the second temperature sensor T2 for monitoring the inner ambient temperature and the third temperature sensor T3 for monitoring the operating temperature of the electronic module 23. As described in more detail below, thermal resistor, having a base temperature (or called reference temperature), is adopted as the second temperature sensor T2 and the first temperature sensor, and it is necessary to calibrate the base temperature before utilizing the thermal resistor because the base temperature may vary with environment temperature.
Second Embodiment
[0062] With reference to
[0063] In a practicable embodiment, the management unit 221 can be a platform security processor (PSP) proposed by AMD or an Intel management engine (IME), wherein the PSP and the IME are both remote controllable. In other words, the external electronic device is allowed to write the at least one first LUT, the second LUT, the third LUT, and the fourth LUT into the storage space of the BIOS chip 24 through the management unit 221. In addition, the external electronic device is also allowed to write a fan rotation speed controlling command into the storage space of the BIOS chip 24 through the management unit 221, so as to make the microcontroller 13 adjust the first volumetric flow rate of the first cooling fan FA1, the second volumetric flow rate of the second cooling fan FA2, and/or the third volumetric flow rate of the third cooling fan FA3 according to the fan rotation speed controlling command.
[0064] Therefore, through the above descriptions, all embodiments of the smart cooling fan system according to the present invention have been introduced completely and clearly. Moreover, the above description is made on embodiments of the present invention. However, the embodiments are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention, and all equivalent implementations or alterations within the spirit of the present invention still fall within the scope of the present invention.