JP2003079067A - Electric device, computer device, charging method in electric device, and charging method in computer device, and program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To shorten charging time according to need, in a computer device using a battery which allows charging and discharging. SOLUTION: The computer device comprises an intelligent battery 52 to supply power to a system body by discharging after charging, an AC adapter 51 to supply charging power to the intelligent battery 52 from an external power source and to supply power to the system body, and a utility program to offer an interface with which charging content to the intelligent battery 52 can be designated by a user; and increases charging power to the intelligent battery 52, by lowering consumption power to the system body from the AC adapter 52, by slowing operation speed of CPU 11 with a CPU operating mode control logic 65, based on the charging content designated by the user via the interface.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electric device or the like having a chargeable / dischargeable battery such as a notebook PC (notebook personal computer), and more particularly to an electric device or the like in which a user can control a charging time.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In various electric devices such as notebook PCs, PDAs, mobile phones, information terminal devices, MD (Mini Disc) devices, video cameras and the like, storage batteries (batteries, batteries) can be mounted, as well as the main body. Some battery packs have a built-in charger and battery. It is possible to charge these storage batteries with a charger and operate the electric device using the voltage of the charged storage batteries.

For example, in a notebook PC, AC10
An AC adapter is provided as a power supply device that is connected to a 0V commercial power source and performs AC / DC conversion.
The remaining power (Pmax-Ps) obtained by subtracting the system power consumption (Psys) from the power capacity (Pmax) of this AC adapter
ys) is used to charge the battery. That is, if the power consumption (Psys) of the AC adapter does not change and the power consumption (Psys) of the system increases, the power allocated to charge the battery tends to decrease.

[0004]

On the other hand, in the future, the power consumption of, for example, a notebook PC tends to further increase, but it is impossible to unnecessarily increase the capacity and size of the AC adapter. As mentioned above, the greater the power consumption of the system, the less power is allocated to charge the battery, resulting in longer battery charging time. If the charging time is long, it is not preferable for a user who wants to finish charging in a short time.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above technical problems, and an object thereof is to provide an electric device using a battery for charging and discharging,
It is to shorten the charging time if necessary. Another object is to allow the user to control the charging time of the battery while the user is operating the electric device.

[0006]

To this end, the present invention provides an interface allowing the user to select the charging time. Furthermore, when the charging time is predicted and the predicted time is longer than the charging time set by the user, the power management function is activated to reduce the power consumption of the system and increase the charging power to shorten the charging time. It is characterized by meeting the requirements of.

That is, the electric equipment to which the present invention is applied includes a battery for discharging and then supplying electric power to the main body, and charging power for the battery and electric power for the main body. When supplying power to the battery and the main body by the power supply means for
It is characterized by including a power management means for reducing the power consumption of the main body in order to increase the charging power to the battery.

Here, a charging time predicting means for predicting the charging time of the battery is further provided, and the power management means controls the level of performance deterioration with respect to the main body based on the charging time predicted by the charging time predicting means. Can be characterized.

Further, the power management means includes a user request grasping means for grasping a request for a charging time of a user who uses the electric equipment, and the power management means predicts the request grasped by the user request grasping means and the charging time estimating means. It is preferable to control the lowering level of the power consumption with respect to the main body based on the charged charging time, since it is possible to more appropriately respond to the user's request.

From another point of view, a computer device to which the present invention is applied, a battery for charging and then discharging the battery to supply power to the system main body, and an external commercial power source for charging power to the battery. A power supply device that supplies power to the system main body as well as an interface that allows the user to specify the charging content for the battery,
A controller for controlling the charging power level from the power supply device to the battery based on the charging content designated by the user via the interface can be provided.

Here, the controller grasps the estimated charging time required to charge the battery, and controls the charging power level to the battery based on the grasped estimated charging time and the charging content designated by the user. Can be characterized. This estimated charging time can be grasped from the information output from the intelligent battery if the intelligent battery has a CPU inside, and the CP
In the case of a so-called dam battery that does not include U, it is possible for the controller itself to know the charging current value that can be detected by a current measuring circuit provided elsewhere. Further, the control of the charging power level to the battery is not limited to the case where the controller itself controls all, and for example, a CPU provided in the system
It is possible to control by the instruction of the utility program executed in.

The computer device to which the present invention is applied includes a battery for discharging and then supplying electric power to the system main body, and a battery for supplying charging power to the system main body and supplying power to the system main body. And a CPU in the system body for increasing or decreasing the charging power to the battery when the power supply apparatus supplies power to the battery and the system body.
And a controller for changing the operation speed of the.

Here, this controller artificially operates the CPU by changing the operating frequency and / or the operating voltage of the CPU to change the operating speed of the CPU, or by periodically turning the CPU on and off. It can be characterized by varying the speed.

On the other hand, the charging method in the electric equipment to which the present invention is applied recognizes the charging mode which is the charging content to be executed by the designation by the user, grasps the remaining charging time of the battery, and grasps the remaining charging which is grasped. It is characterized in that it is determined whether or not the time is compatible with the recognized charging mode, and if it is determined that the time is not compatible, the power management function is operated to reduce the power consumption of the electric device.

Further, the charging method in the computer device to which the present invention is applied displays a setting screen in which the user can input the charging content to be executed by the computer device, and recognizes the input from the user to the displayed setting screen. Then, the estimated charging time of the battery to be charged is recognized, and the power control for the system is instructed based on the recognized input from the user and the recognized estimated charging time.

Further, the present invention can be understood as a program for causing a computer device to realize these functions. These programs are, for example, CD-R
It may be stored in a storage medium such as an OM and read by a computer device configured to be able to read the storage medium such as a CD-ROM drive. Further, for example, a form in which it is downloaded to a computer device via a network such as the Internet can be considered. In the form of downloading the program, it is sufficient that the transmission device for transmitting the program includes a storage unit for storing the program and a transmission unit for transmitting the program read from the storage unit.

[0017]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION The present invention will be described below in detail based on the embodiments shown in the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a hardware configuration of a computer system 10 to which this embodiment is applied. A computer device including the computer system 10 is, for example, an OADG (O
In accordance with the pen Architecture Developer's Group) specifications, it is configured as a notebook PC (notebook type personal computer) equipped with a predetermined OS (operating system).

In the computer system 10 shown in FIG. 1, the CPU 11 functions as the brain of the entire computer system 10 and executes various programs under the control of the OS. CPU 11 is FSB which is a system bus
(Front Side Bus) 12, PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) bus 2 as a high-speed I / O device bus
0, ISA (Industry S) as a low-speed I / O device bus
Each component is interconnected via a three-stage bus called a tandard architecture bus 40. This CPU
11 stores the program code and data in the cache memory to speed up the process. In recent years, 128K as a primary cache inside the CPU 11
Byte-sized SRAM is integrated, but in order to make up for the lack of capacity, it is a dedicated bus BSB (Back Side Bus)
A secondary cache 14 of about 512 K to 2 Mbytes is provided via 13. BSB13 is omitted and FS
By connecting the secondary cache 14 to B12 and avoiding a package having a large number of terminals, it is possible to keep the cost low.

The FSB 12 and PCI bus 20 are connected to a memory /
CPU bridge called PCI chip (host-PC
I bridge 15). This CPU
The bridge 15 has a memory controller function for controlling the access operation to the main memory 16 and the FSB 12
And a PCI bus 20 to absorb a difference in data transfer speed, a data buffer and the like are included.
The main memory 16 is a writable memory used as a read area for the execution program of the CPU 11 or as a work area for writing processing data of the execution program. For example, it is composed of a plurality of DRAM chips, for example, 64 MB is standard equipment, and it is possible to add up to 320 MB. This execution program has an OS
Drivers for operating hardware of peripherals and peripherals, application programs for specific jobs, and BIO stored in a flash ROM 44 described later.
S (Basic Input / Output System)
Etc. firmware is included.

The video subsystem 17 is a subsystem for realizing functions related to video and includes a video controller. This video controller processes a drawing command from the CPU 11, writes the processed drawing information in the video memory, reads the drawing information from the video memory, and then displays the drawing information.
D) 18 is output as drawing data.

The PCI bus 20 is a bus capable of relatively high-speed data transfer, and has a data bus width of 32 bits or 64 bits, a maximum operating frequency of 33 MHz, and 66 MH.
z, maximum data transfer rate is 132MB / sec, 528MB /
It is standardized according to the specification of seconds. The PCI bus 20 includes an I / O bridge 21, a card bus controller 22, an audio subsystem 25, a docking station interface (Dock I / F) 26, and a miniP.
The CI connectors 27 are respectively connected.

The card bus controller 22 is a dedicated controller for directly connecting the bus signal of the PCI bus 20 to the interface connector (card bus) of the card bus slot 23.
It is possible to load a PC card 24 on the. The docking station interface 26 is hardware for connecting a docking station (not shown) that is a function expansion device of the computer system 10. When the notebook PC is set in the docking station, various hardware elements connected to the internal bus of the docking station are connected to the PCI bus 20 via the docking station interface 26. In addition, the mini PCI connector 27 has a mini PCI
A (miniPCI) card 28 is connected.

The I / O bridge 21 has a bridge function between the PCI bus 20 and the ISA bus 40. Also,
DMA controller function, programmable interrupt controller (PIC) function, programmable interval timer (PIT) function, IDE (Integrated Device Ele)
ctronics) interface function, USB (Universal Ser
real-time clock with the SMB (System Management Bus) interface function
(RTC) is built in.

The DMA controller function transfers data between a peripheral device such as an FDD and the main memory 16 by the CPU.
11 is a function to be executed without intervention. The PIC function is a function for executing a predetermined program (interrupt handler) in response to an interrupt request (IRQ) from a peripheral device. The PIT function is a function of generating a timer signal at a predetermined cycle. The interface implemented by the IDE interface function is connected to an IDE hard disk drive (HDD) 31 and a CD.
-ROM drive 32 is ATAPI (AT Attachment Pac
ket Interface) is connected. Instead of the CD-ROM drive 32, another type of IDE device such as a DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) drive may be connected. The external storage device such as the HDD 31 and the CD-ROM drive 32 is stored, for example, in a storage place called “media bay” or “device bay” in the notebook PC main body. These standard external storage devices are
In some cases, it may be attached replaceably and exclusively to other devices such as an FDD and a battery pack.

Further, the I / O bridge 21 is provided with a USB port, and this USB port is connected to a USB connector 30 provided on the wall surface of the notebook PC main body, for example. Furthermore, the I / O bridge 21 has an SM
The EEPROM 33 is connected via the bus. The EEPROM 33 is a memory for holding information such as a password registered by a user, a supervisor password, a product serial number, etc., and is non-volatile and can be electrically rewritten.

Furthermore, the I / O bridge 21 is connected to the power supply circuit 50. The power supply circuit 50 is, for example, an AC
An AC adapter 51 that is connected to a commercial power source of 100V and performs AC / DC conversion, an intelligent battery 52 as a battery (secondary battery, battery), the intelligent battery 52 is charged, and power from the AC adapter 51 and the intelligent battery 52 is also charged. A battery switching circuit 54 for switching the supply path, and a circuit such as a DC / DC converter (DC / DC) 55 for generating a constant DC voltage of + 15V, + 5V, + 3.3V or the like used in the computer system 10 are provided.

The intelligent battery 52 can be detached from the main body system as a battery pack, and may be provided inside the housing of the main body system. Also, the intelligent battery 52 may be replaced with a dumb battery without a CPU. Further, although the AC adapter 51, which is one of the power supply devices, is generally provided outside the housing of the main body system,
It may be provided inside the housing of the main body system.
As the main body system, for example, a configuration in which an AC inlet or a DC inlet into which a cable connector can be inserted / removed can be considered. For example, when the AC adapter 51 is outside, the AC inlet or the DC inlet is configured so that a connector that comes out of a cable connected to the AC adapter 51 can be inserted and removed. For example, when the AC adapter 51 is inside the main body system. A connector that is directly connected to a commercial power source can be inserted into and removed from the.

On the other hand, inside the core chip constituting the I / O bridge 21, internal registers for managing the power supply state of the computer system 10 and management of the power supply state of the computer system 10 including the operation of this internal register are managed. There is a logic (state machine) to do.
This logic sends and receives various signals to and from the power supply circuit 50, and by sending and receiving these signals, the actual power supply state from the power supply circuit 50 to the computer system 10 is recognized. The power supply circuit 50 controls the power supply to the computer system 10 according to the instruction from this logic.

The ISA bus 40 has a lower data transfer rate than the PCI bus 20 (for example, a bus width of 16).
Bit, maximum data transfer rate 4MB / sec). An embedded controller 41 connected to a gate array logic 42, a CMOS 43, a flash ROM 44, and a Super I / O controller 45 are connected to the ISA bus 40. It is also used to connect peripherals that operate at relatively low speeds, such as keyboard / mouse controllers. An I / O port 46 is connected to the Super I / O controller 45, and drives the FDD and inputs / outputs parallel data via the parallel port.
(PIO) and serial data input / output (SIO) via the serial port are controlled.

The embedded controller 41 controls a keyboard (not shown) and is connected to the power supply circuit 50 to have a built-in power management controller (PMC).
r) plays a part of the power management function together with the gate array logic 42.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the configuration of a power supply system to which this embodiment is applied. In this power supply system, a current detector 62 that detects a current value from an AC adapter 51 that is a power supply device, a charger 61 that supplies a charging voltage to the intelligent battery 52, and a CPU
11 and the voltage regulator 63 which adjusts the voltage output to the inverter 66 of LCD18 etc. is provided. Also, CPU1
CPU 11 based on the mode control from the basic input / output / operating system (BIOS / OS) 64 and the embedded controller 41 that passes the power control information from the utility program 1 to the embedded controller via the gate array logic 42.
The CPU operating mode control logic 65 for controlling the operating frequency of the above and the inverter circuit 66 for driving the lamp 67 of the LCD 18 based on the brightness control of the embedded controller 41 are provided.

Intelligent battery 5 used here
The CPU 2 has a CPU (not shown) mounted therein and can manage the state of the battery (remaining battery level, charging / discharging state) and the like, and is compliant with, for example, the standard SBS (Smart Battery System). The intelligent battery 52 in the present embodiment calculates the remaining charging time in the battery pack, and outputs the calculated value to the embedded controller 41.

Instead of the intelligent battery 52, it is also possible to use a simple battery (dumb battery) having no CPU. In such a case, the charger 61
A charging current detection mechanism for measuring a current value is provided between the battery and the battery, and the charging current value of the battery detected by the charging current detection mechanism is input to the embedded controller 41,
The embedded controller 41 may be configured to integrate the input current values and hold the battery capacity value.

The remaining charge time calculated by the SBS-compliant intelligent battery 52 is sent to the embedded controller 41 as AverageTimeToFull (command 0x13) together with the information on a series of batteries. The utility program of the CPU 11 is a gate array logic 42,
This information can be received via BIOS / OS64. The utility program is BIOS / OS6
4. Give a power control instruction to the embedded controller 41 via the gate array logic 42.

The embedded controller 41 has a power management control function as well as ON / OFF control of the charger 61. As a power management function, the embedded controller 41 sends a CP to the CPU operating mode control logic 65.
The operation of U11 (control of operation speed) is instructed, and the CPU operating mode control logic 65 controls the operation frequency of the CPU 11 and the voltage regulator 6 for example.
The control of the supply voltage for 3 is performed. Further, the embedded controller 41 issues an instruction to the inverter circuit 66 in order to adjust the brightness level of the lamp 67 in the LCD 18.

Next, the charging speed adjustment processing in this embodiment will be described. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the process of adjusting the charging speed. In the process of adjusting the charging speed in the present embodiment, first, it is determined whether or not the power is currently on (step 101). If it is not power on, wait until it is powered on. If it is power on, the user is requested to set the charging mode using the utility program of the CPU 11 (step 102). Here, for example, in a certain notebook PC, from the viewpoint of battery protection, there is one that is not charged unless it reaches a certain state (for example, the battery capacity is 95% or less). Therefore, for example, the intelligent battery 52
Whether the battery capacity detected by is less than 95%,
Whether or not it is in a charging state, that is, whether or not to charge the battery is sent to the embedded controller 41 as Charging Current (command 0x14) (step 103).
If the battery is not in the charging state, it waits until the battery is in the charging state, and if it is in the charging state, the charger 61 is turned on to start charging (step 104).

Next, the remaining charge time is calculated by the intelligent battery 52 (step 105). The embedded controller 41 determines whether the remaining charging time is suitable for the charging mode requested by the user (step 106). If it is determined that they are not compatible, the embedded controller 41 operates the power management function to reduce the power consumption and increase the charging capability to perform charging (step 107). If the remaining charging time is suitable for the charging mode requested by the user, adjustment is made according to the user's request. That is, it is judged whether or not there is a margin (step 108), and if there is a margin, the power management function is loosened (step 10).
9) and shifts to step 110. If there is no room, the power management function is left as it is and the process proceeds to step 110.

Next, the embedded controller 41 determines whether or not the charging is completed (step 110). If the charging is not completed, the process returns to step 105 and continues. If the charging is completed, the power management function is returned to the state before the charging (step 111), and the process ends.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a setting screen when the user sets the charging mode in step 102. Such a setting screen is displayed on the LCD 18 by the utility program executed by the CPU 11. Here, as the setting of the charging mode, "charge in the shortest time", "charge in less than 2 hours", "charge in less than 3 hours", "charge in less than 4 hours", and "the current setting remains unchanged""Charge" is shown as a menu,
It is configured to be selectable by the user. In addition to these items, it is also possible to prepare a menu such as "Charge while maximizing system performance (longest time)". Further, in the setting of the operation state, Yes / No can be selected for each item of "Allow CPU speed reduction" and "Allow LCD brightness reduction". If there are other suitable power management functions, the user may be asked whether or not to permit them. In the example shown in FIG. 4, the charge mode is “charge within 3 hours”, the operation state is “allow CPU speed reduction”, and “LCD
"Allow lowering brightness" is set.

Next, assuming that the user has made the settings as shown in FIG. 4 on the setting screen, a specific process will be described with reference to FIG. The utility program of the CPU 11 passes through the embedded controller 41, the gate array logic 42, and the BIOS / OS 64,
The current remaining charging time of the intelligent battery 52 is grasped. The utility program compares the remaining charging time thus grasped with the time specified by the user, and if the charging time is longer than the user expects,
The embedded controller 41 is instructed to turn off the power via the BIOS / OS 64 and the gate array logic 42 (power control).

Based on this instruction, the embedded controller 41 instructs the CPU operating mode control logic 65 to set the CPU 11 to the low power mode.
Instruct to operate in (Low Power Mode) (mode control). CPU11 by the instruction of Low Power Mode
As a method of slowing down the operating speed of, Intel's SpeedStep technology (reducing the operating frequency and operating voltage of the processor) and throttling technology (by periodically turning the processor on and off, artificially There is a method to reduce the operating frequency). When the CPU operating mode control logic 65 receives the instruction of Low Power Mode, the CPU operating mode control logic 65 lowers the operating frequency, for example.
11 and further controls the voltage regulator 63 to control the CPU.
It operates to lower the voltage supplied to 11. As a result, the CPU 11 comes to operate in the Low Power Mode. In the Low Power Mode, for example, the clock of the CPU 11 is set to 750 MHz instead of the normal 850 MHz.
The voltage of 11 can be lowered to 1.35V, normally 1.6V.

After the CPU 11 starts operating in the low power mode, the utility program receives the remaining charging time data calculated inside the battery (intelligent battery 52) again. At this time, if the battery is charged within 3 hours, the charging is continued in this state. When the charging time is longer than 3 hours, the utility program issues an instruction to further power down the embedded controller 41 via the BIOS / OS 64 and the gate array logic 42.

Next, the embedded controller 41 issues an instruction to the inverter circuit 66 to lower the brightness level of the lamp 67 in the LCD 18 by one step (brightness control). The utility program receives the remaining charge time data and issues an instruction to reduce the brightness to the embedded controller 41 until the charge time set by the user is satisfied. When the utility program can set the state satisfying the user's request, the utility program keeps charging in that state. When charging is completed, the embedded controller 41 uses the instructions of the utility program or its own judgment to determine the CPU 11
The operation mode (operation speed) and the brightness of the LCD 18 are returned to the original settings.

In the above description, the embedded controller 41 is operated by the power control from the utility program of the CPU 11, but the embedded controller 41 receives the information of the time expected by the user, and the embedded controller 41 receives the information. It is also possible to configure so as to execute the power control according to the above judgment.

FIGS. 5A to 5C are diagrams showing the charging characteristics. FIG. 5A shows the charging characteristics during normal operation, FIG. 5B shows the charging characteristics when the CPU 11 is in Low Power Mode, and FIG. 5C shows the CPU 11 at Low Power Mode.
Mode, charging characteristics when the brightness of the lamp 67 in the LCD 18 is minimized are shown. The horizontal axis represents charging time (min) and the vertical axis represents charging current value (mA) and battery capacity (%).
Shows the state of change in battery capacity and the state of change in charging current. In the actual measurement data in the normal state shown in FIG. 5A, it takes about 240 minutes (4 hours) to charge. on the other hand,
In the actual measurement data when the CPU 11 shown in FIG. 5B is set to Low Power Mode, the charging is shortened to about 170 minutes (2 hours and 50 minutes), and the CPU 11 shown in FIG.
In the actual measurement data when the brightness of the lamp 67 in the LCD 18 is minimized, the charging is further shortened to about 161 minutes (2 hours and 41 minutes). In this way, by performing power control, the charging time can be shortened significantly.

Next, a method of calculating the estimated charging time in this embodiment will be described. In the case of an intelligent type having a CPU inside, the predicted charging time is calculated inside the intelligent battery 52. When a system configuration using a dumb battery that does not have a CPU inside the battery is adopted, the embedded controller 41 executes it based on, for example, the measured charging current value.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the charging characteristics of the lithium ion battery. Here, the horizontal axis represents the charging capacity (m
Wh), the vertical axis represents the charging current value (mA) and the voltage value (V), and the change in voltage and the change in charging current with respect to the charging capacity are shown. The charging characteristics of a lithium-ion battery are
Constant current mode with constant charging current (Constant Curr
ent mode), the constant current mode (Constant Voltage mod
Move to e). The charge capacity at the time of shifting from the constant current mode to the constant voltage mode is Cth. If the current capacity of the battery is Cnow, the remaining charging time T [min] can be calculated as follows. (A) When Cnow <Cth, T [min] = (Cth [mWh] −Cnow [mWh]) × 60 / (charging current [m
A] × voltage [V]) + Ttable [min] (B) When Cnow ≧ Cth, T [min] = Ttable [min] where Ttable is a table showing the relationship between the capacity and the charging time in the constant voltage mode. is there.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of a table showing the relationship between the battery capacity and the charging time in this constant voltage mode. For example, when the capacity of the battery is less than 80%, the value calculated by the above equation (A) is used as the constant current mode. For example, when the capacity of the battery is 80% or more, the remaining capacity (%) of the battery shown in FIG. Read the charging time (min). still,
When power management is activated, the above (A)
Charging current [mA] x voltage, which indicates the charging power in the formula
[V] ”becomes large, and the remaining charging time T [min] becomes small.

As described above, according to this embodiment, the AC
When the capacity (output power) of the adapter 51 does not change and the power of the system increases, the battery charging time becomes long. By combining this with the system power management function, the user can select the optimum charging time. can do.

Further, in the present embodiment, an interface (utility program) which allows the user to select the charging time is provided. This enables the user to select the charging time, which has not been dealt with in the past. Further, the charging time is predicted by the system body side (embedded controller 41) or the intelligent battery 52, and when the predicted time is longer than the charging time set by the user, the power management function is activated to reduce the power consumption of the system body. By increasing the charging power, the charging time can be shortened and the user's request can be satisfied.

As the power management function, in the above, the CPU 11 is set to the low power mode, and
The one that lowers the brightness of the lamp 67 of the CD 18 is shown. When the CPU 11 is set to the low power mode, as described above, the clock of the CPU 11 is normally 750 MHz for 850 MHz, and the voltage of the CPU 11 is usually about 1.35 V for 1.6 V. 5
It is possible to ensure the same level of performance as when the notebook PC is battery-operated with 1 removed.

As a power management function,
Other than the above example, it can be appropriately adopted. For example, disabling unused communication functions,
Stopping the power supply of B compatible devices, reducing the performance of video chips and video controllers, etc.
It can be arbitrarily selected according to the performance and function of the system. Further, the function of prioritizing such quick charging is not limited to computer devices such as notebook PCs, but can be applied to other electric devices.

[0053]

As described above, according to the present invention,
In an electric device using a battery for charging / discharging, the charging time can be shortened if necessary.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a hardware configuration of a computer system to which this embodiment is applied.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration of a power supply system to which this embodiment is applied.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a charging speed adjustment process.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a setting screen when the user sets a charging mode shown in step 102.

5A to 5C are diagrams showing charging characteristics.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing charge characteristics in a lithium ion battery.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of a table showing the relationship between the battery capacity and the charging time in the constant voltage mode.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 ... Computer system, 11 ... CPU, 18 ... Liquid crystal display (LCD), 41 ... Embedded controller, 42 ... Gate array logic, 50 ... Power supply circuit,
51 ... AC adapter, 52 ... Intelligent battery, 6
1 ... Charger, 62 ... Current detector, 63 ... Voltage regulator, 6
4. Basic input / output / operating system (BIOS /
OS), 65 ... CPU operating mode control logic, 66 ... Inverter circuit, 67 ... Lamp

Continuation of front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification code FI theme code (reference) H01M 10/44 G06F 1/00 330Z (72) Inventor Oda Ohara Shigefumi 1623 Shimotsuruma, Yamato-shi, Kanagawa 14 Japan AI BM Co., Ltd. Yamato Plant (72) Inventor Atsushi Kumaki 1623 Shimotsuruma, Yamato City, Kanagawa 14 Japan ABM Co., Ltd. Yamato Plant F-term (reference) 2G016 CB21 CC07 CC23 CC27 CC28 CE03 5B011 DA02 DA13 EA04 EA05 EB09 GG14 LL12 LL13 LL15 5G003 AA01 BA01 CA03 CC07 DA04 DA18 GC05 5H030 AA03 AA04 AS11 BB01 BB21 DD20 FF51 FF52

Claims (18)

[Claims] 1. A battery for charging and discharging to supply power to the main body, power supply means for supplying charging power to the battery and power to the main body, and the power supply An electric device comprising: power management means for reducing the power consumption of the main body in order to increase the charging power to the battery when the electric power is supplied to the battery and the main body by the means. 2. A charging time predicting means for predicting a charging time of the battery is further provided, wherein the power management means determines a performance deterioration level for the main body based on the charging time predicted by the charging time predicting means. The electric device according to claim 1, which is controlled. 3. A user request grasping means for grasping a request for a charging time of a user who uses an electric device, wherein the power management means has the request grasped by the user request grasping means and the charging time prediction. The electric device according to claim 2, wherein the lowering level of the power consumption with respect to the main body is controlled based on the charging time predicted by the means. 4. The power supply means is an AC adapter, D
4. The electric device according to claim 1, wherein the electric device is any one of a C inlet, an AC inlet, and a power supply device. 5. A battery for charging and discharging to supply power to the system body, and a power supply for supplying charging power to the battery from an external commercial power source and supplying power to the system body. A device, an interface that allows a user to specify charging contents for the battery, and a controller that controls a charging power level from the power supply device to the battery based on the charging contents specified by the user via the interface. A computer device comprising: 6. The controller grasps a predicted charging time required to charge the battery, and based on the grasped predicted charging time and the charging content designated by the user, a charging power level for the battery. 6. The computer device according to claim 5, wherein the computer device controls. 7. The controller controls performance of the system body to control charging power to the battery when the power supply device supplies power to the battery and the system body. The computer device according to claim 5. 8. The controller slows down the operating speed of the CPU in the system main body in order to increase the charging power to the battery when the electric power is supplied from the power supply device to the battery and the system main body. The computer device according to claim 5, characterized in that: 9. The controller reduces power consumption of an LCD panel in the system main body in order to increase charging power for the battery when the power supply device supplies power to the battery and the system main body. The computer device according to claim 5, characterized in that: 10. The computer device according to claim 5, wherein the interface provides screen information for selecting a charging time to a user and recognizes a user's input for the screen information. 11. A battery for charging and discharging to supply power to the system body; a power supply device for supplying charging power to the battery and supplying power to the system body; And a controller for changing the operating speed of the CPU in the system main body in order to increase or decrease the charging power to the battery when the power supply device supplies the electric power to the battery and the system main body. A computer device characterized by. 12. The controller changes the operating frequency and / or operating voltage of the CPU to control the CP.
12. The computer device according to claim 11, wherein the operating speed of U is changed. 13. The computer device according to claim 11, wherein the controller changes the operating speed of the CPU by turning on / off the CPU periodically. 14. A charging mode, which is a charging content to be executed by designation by a user, is recognized, a remaining charging time of a battery is grasped, and the grasped remaining charging time is adapted to the recognized charging mode. A charging method for an electric device, characterized by deciding whether or not the electric power is consumed and activating the power management function when it is judged that the electric power is not suitable. 15. The electric device according to claim 14, wherein the power management function reduces power consumption in the electric device when charging power for the battery and power consumption for the main body are simultaneously supplied. How to charge. 16. A setting screen on which a user can input charging details to be executed by a computer device is displayed, an input from the user on the displayed setting screen is recognized, and a predicted charging time of a battery to be charged is recognized. Then, the charging method in the computer device is characterized by instructing power control to the system based on the recognized input from the user and the recognized estimated charging time. 17. The charging in a computer device according to claim 16, wherein the setting screen can input a charging mode setting indicating a charging time and an operating state setting which is the content of power control. Method. 18. A function of displaying a setting screen on which a user can input the charging content of the battery on a computer device that operates using the voltage of the charged battery, and an input from the user to the displayed setting screen. And a function for recognizing the estimated charging time of the battery, and a function for instructing to turn off the power based on the input from the user and the estimated charging time.