JP3086032B2 - Electronic device and power management control method thereof - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic device which is required to be miniaturized, such as a notebook personal computer and a notebook word processor, and a power management control method therefor.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, power management control in an electronic device limits power to a device in an electronic device when the device is considered not to be used for a while in order to reduce power consumption. When the operating load of the electronic device is light, the operating speed (operating clock frequency of the CPU in the case of a personal computer or a word processor) is appropriately reduced. Taking a notebook personal computer as an example, the configuration is as shown in FIG. In the figure, 6 is a control circuit for executing a power management control program, 1 to 4 are means corresponding to typical device status monitoring items, and 1 is a hard disk device 11 that has not been accessed for a certain period of time. In such a case, the HD can notify the control circuit 6 of the fact.
D is a non-access time timer. Similarly, 2 is an FDD non-access time timer that can notify the control circuit 6 when the floppy disk device 12 has not been accessed for a certain period of time, and 3 changes the display content of the LCD display device for a certain period of time. This is a V-RAM non-access time timer that can notify the control circuit 6 that there has been no access to the video RAM (V-RAM) for a certain period of time. Also,
4 is an invalid processing performed by the CPU within a certain period of time (for example, a key input waiting routine that simply waits for a key input, and all events requested so far are processed, and the next processing is performed. A counter indicating the number of events that are waiting for an event request). A CPU process that can notify the control circuit 6 of the situation when the value exceeds a certain value or drops below a certain value. This is a load measurement counter. The monitoring statuses of the timers and counters corresponding to the device status monitoring items 1 to 4 in FIG. 4 can be notified to the power management control program in the control circuit 6 by a normal interrupt. The control is executed in parallel with the processing of the application program.

When the power management control program in the control circuit 6 is started by an interrupt from the timers 1 to 3 and the counter 4, it first checks which device status monitoring item is required, and responds to the item. Perform the following processing. For example, if the item is the HDD non-access time timer 1, the power management control program
And instructs the power controller (PC) 7 to limit the power supplied from the power supply 15 to the hard disk drive (HDD) 11. Similarly, if the item is FDD non-access time timer 2
, The power management control program predicts that there will be no FDD access for some time to come, and the power controller (PC) 8
To limit the power supplied from the power supply 15 to the floppy disk drive (FDD) 12. If the item is the V-RAM non-access time timer 3, the power management control program predicts that the display screen will not be referred to for a while in the future, and the power controller (P.
C. 9) Instruct 9 to cut off the power supplied from the power supply 15 to the backlight 13 for the LCD display. The devices 11 to 13 whose powers are limited and cut off by the three device status monitoring items described above are also interrupted by the power management control program of the control circuit 6 when an access request is made from an application program or the like. The power is restored when the program is informed and instructs the power controllers 7 to 9 corresponding to the devices 11 to 13 which have requested the access.

[0004] Finally, the request by the device status monitoring item is C
In the case of the PU processing load measurement counter 4, the control circuit 6
The power management control program determines whether the cause of this request is a count value exceeding a certain value or a count value falling below a certain value. If the value falls below a certain value, it can be determined that the processing speed of the CPU 14 may be lower.
0 is instructed to lower the operating clock frequency of the CPU 14. When the operating clock of the CPU 14 is lowered, the CPU
Not only the power consumption of the CPU 14 but also the power consumption of memories and peripheral circuits operating in synchronization with the CPU 14 is reduced, resulting in considerable power saving.

When the CPU processing load measurement counter 4 exceeds a certain value, it is determined that the processing speed of the CPU 14 is too slow, and the operating clock frequency of the CPU 14 is increased. In a general personal computer, the time in this state is very small. Therefore, by controlling the operation clock frequency of the CPU 14 in this manner, power consumption can be reduced.

The conventional power management control operates as described above to reduce the power consumption of the electronic device.

[0007]

However, the mechanical design of an electronic device requires that the device be operated at the highest guaranteed ambient temperature and in continuous operation under the highest possible load conditions for operation of the device (a condition that is almost impossible in actual use). Because it is assumed that it operates normally, it is necessary to take measures to dissipate heat from the power supply and high power parts, and use measures such as using a large heat sink or blower fan, and providing a certain distance between each part. However, this has been a major obstacle in reducing the size of the device.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an electronic device and a power management control method for the electronic device which have solved the above problems.

[0009]

According to the present invention, there is provided an electronic apparatus having a plurality of devices.
Temperature detection means for detecting the temperature of the electronic device at predetermined time intervals, priority storage means for storing the priority of the plurality of devices, and whether or not power supply is restricted for each of the plurality of devices An information storage unit that stores information indicating whether the power is limited, based on the temperature detected by the temperature detection unit, the priority stored in the priority storage unit, and the information stored in the information storage unit. It is characterized by comprising determining means for determining a device, and power management means for restricting power to the device determined by the determining means. Further, the present invention is an electronic device having a plurality of devices, a temperature detecting means for detecting the temperature of the electronic device at predetermined time intervals, priority storage means for storing the priority of the plurality of devices, For each of the plurality of devices, information storage means for storing information indicating whether power supply restriction is performed, the temperature detected by the temperature detection means, the priority stored in the priority storage means, and Based on the information stored in the information storage means, determining a device to release the power restriction, and power management means to release the power restriction to the device determined by the determination means. Features. Further, the present invention is a power management control method for an electronic apparatus having a plurality of devices, wherein a priority order of the plurality of devices is stored in priority order storage means, and a power supply restriction is set for each of the plurality of devices. Information indicating whether the operation is being performed is stored in an information storage unit, the temperature of the electronic device is detected at predetermined time intervals, and the detected temperature, the priority stored in the priority storage unit, and the information are stored. On the basis of the information stored in the storage means, a device for limiting power is determined, and power is limited to the determined device. Furthermore, the present invention is an electronic device power management control method having a plurality of devices, wherein a priority order of the plurality of devices is stored in priority order storage means, and a power supply restriction is performed for each of the plurality of devices. Information indicating whether or not the temperature has been set is stored in an information storage means, the temperature of the electronic device is detected at predetermined time intervals, and the detected temperature, the priority stored in the priority storage means, and the information storage are stored. Based on the information stored in the means, a device whose power restriction is to be released is determined, and the power restriction to the determined device is released.

[0010]

According to the present invention, when limiting the power of a device based on temperature information, the device to be limited is determined based on the priority and information indicating whether or not the power supply is limited. When the restriction of the power of the device is released based on the temperature information, the restriction of the power is released based on the priority and the information indicating whether the power supply is restricted. Determine the device and remove the power limit.

[0011]

As shown in FIG. 1, a control circuit 6 receives information from a temperature sensor 5 in addition to the three timers 1 to 3 and one counter 4 shown in FIG. In addition, a power management control program is executed to control the power controllers 7, 8, 9 and the frequency controller 10, and the power supply 15
11, FDD 12, LCD backlight 13, CPU1
And controlling the power supplied to the fourth and the like to keep the internal temperature of the electronic device below the maximum allowable value.

FIG. 2 shows a device control port and a temperature control port of I / O ports used for power management in the control circuit 6 in the embodiment. The two ports are closely related, and together control the power of the power-managed device. Each bit of both ports corresponds as follows.

[0013]

[Table 1]

Then, the logical product of the corresponding bits of both ports is taken to obtain the final result, and the resulting 1 and 0 are output from the control circuit 6 to the controllers 7 to 10 in FIG. And thereby each device 11-
14 is power controlled.

[0015]

[Table 2]

That is, for example, in the case of an HDD, power can be normally supplied and normal operation can be performed only when both bits 1 of both ports are “1”, but bit 1 of either port or both ports is “0”. In the case of "", the power is limited, the busy bit of the operation state flag in the HDD becomes valid, and the request is made to wait for the HDD access request from the application program. The same applies to other devices.

In the above configuration, the operation of the power management control program is shown in FIG.
Shown in

In FIG. 3, those except for S18 to S21 are the same as the above-mentioned conventional power management control program. Therefore, S18 to S2
1 is incorporated as described below to provide the power
The management control program is executed.

First, the power management control program is started as an interrupt process in response to an access request to each device from each device status monitoring item (timers 1 to 3, counter 4, sensor 5) or an application or the like. Let me do. Therefore, the application programs seem to be operating in parallel in appearance.

The activated program first checks the cause of the activation. That is S2
These are S4, S6, S8, S10, S12, S14, and S18.

First, if it is determined in S2 that the cause is the HDD non-access timer, the HDD bit (bit1) of the device control port is set to "0" in S3.
And restrict the power to the HDD. If it has already been restricted, that state is maintained.

If it is determined in S4 that the cause is an HDD access request, in S5 the HDD bit of the device control port is set to 1 and an instruction is issued to supply power to the HDD. Then, after clearing the HDD non-access timer for measuring the time from this access to the next access, the HDD is restarted and the time is counted.

In steps S6 to S9, the same as the previous HDD
D also goes. Similarly for S10 to S13, V-
It is about RAM.

Next, in S14, when it is determined that the factor is the CPU processing load measurement counter 4, the counter value is read in S15, and whether the counter has exceeded a certain value (count OVER), Or, check whether the counter has fallen below another certain value, and if the count is OVER, indicate that the CPU load is light.
The CPU bit (bit 0) of the port is set to 0, and the operation clock of the CPU is reduced. If the count is not OVER, the CPU load of the device control port is set to 1 as in S17 to indicate that the CPU load is heavy.
Request to increase the operating clock of the CPU.

Up to this point, the power management control is almost the same as the conventional power management control.
In S5, S9, S13, and S17, even if a request is made to supply power to the device or a request to increase the operation clock of the CPU is not always executed immediately.
That is, the corresponding bit of the temperature control port is 1
If it is 0, it is executed immediately, but if it is 0, the request is waited until it becomes 1. This is because the temperature control described later is given priority and the power can be controlled in an integrated manner.

The temperature sensor according to the present embodiment generates an interrupt at a fixed time interval (for example, one minute interval) so that the performance of the system is not extremely lowered, and the measured temperature result can be read in the power management program. Shall be. This measured temperature is the most important point in terms of the temperature of the device (the part that first interferes when the temperature rises,
That is, the measured value of the temperature at the lowest point of the temperature margin). In this embodiment, the maximum allowable operation value of a general semiconductor is 7
Since the temperature was 0 ° C., the measurement point was set at the periphery of the printed circuit board inside the apparatus, and 65 ° C. was set as the maximum allowable value of the measurement point with a margin of 5 ° C.

If the power management program determines in S18 that this is the cause of the temperature sensor interrupt, the power management program reads the measured temperature result at that time in S19 and determines whether the value T exceeds 65 ° C. And determine
If it exceeds, the device currently supplied with power in order to lower the temperature of the current device in S20 (the corresponding bit of the temperature control port is 1).
By forcibly limiting or shutting off the power of the apparatus, an attempt is made to lower the temperature of the apparatus (details will be described later). Conversely, S19
If the value T of the measured temperature result is lower than 65 ° C., it is no longer necessary to limit the power. Therefore, in S21, the power of the measured temperature result exceeds 65 ° C. before the power is forcibly forced. If there are any restrictions or cutoffs, release them and do nothing, otherwise do nothing (more on this later).

At this time, in order to control the power of the apparatus in an integrated manner, priority is given to the power management target devices in order from the one having the smallest power supply effect even if the power is limited, and having the greatest power reduction effect. (In this example, as shown in FIG. 2, the power management device is assigned to each bit of the temperature control port, and bit 0 is given high priority. That is, CPU operation clock>HDD>FDD> LCD backlight priority. If the measured temperature rises and the power is to be limited (S20), the priority is checked in descending order of priority and those not yet restricted (temperature control
If there is one corresponding bit of the port, the power of one device found first (for one temperature sensor interrupt) is limited (the corresponding bit of the temperature control port is set to 0). Conversely, when the measured temperature decreases and the power is restored (S21), the power is limited in order from the lowest priority and the power is limited (the corresponding bit of the temperature control port is 0).
If there is, restore the power of one device found first (set the corresponding bit of the temperature control port to 1
And).

[Other Embodiments] In the above embodiment, the operation clock frequency of the CPU is controlled only in two stages, high and low. However, if the operation clock frequency is controlled in finer divisions,
The efficiency of the system can be further increased. further,
In the above embodiment, the value of the measured temperature was read by the power management program to determine whether the measured temperature exceeded 65 ° C.
The power management program reads only the information of 1 or 0 so that it can determine whether the temperature exceeds 65 ° C. You can also.

[0030]

As described above, according to the present invention,
When limiting the power of the devices constituting the electronic device, based on the priority and information indicating whether the power supply is restricted, determine the device to restrict the power, perform the power restriction, When releasing the power restriction of the device based on the temperature information, the device to release the power restriction is determined based on the priority and information indicating whether the power supply is restricted, and the power restriction is performed. By canceling, the power of each device can be controlled appropriately, and the heat radiation countermeasure parts (blowing fan and heat radiation plate), which were conventionally required, can be omitted, and the heat radiation countermeasure space can be eliminated. The size and cost of the electronic device can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing contents of two I / O ports in the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an operation of a power management control program in the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a conventional power management control device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 HDD non-access timer 2 FDD non-access timer 3 V-RAM non-access timer 4 CPU processing load measurement counter 5 Temperature sensor 6 Control circuit 7-9 Power controller 10 Frequency controller 11 Hard disk drive (HDD) 12 Floppy disk drive Device (FDD) 13 LCD backlight 14 CPU 15 Power supply

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] An electronic device having a plurality of devices, a temperature detecting unit for detecting a temperature of the electronic device at predetermined time intervals, a priority storing unit for storing a priority of the plurality of devices, For each of the plurality of devices, an information storage unit that stores information indicating whether power supply restriction is performed, a temperature detected by the temperature detection unit, a priority stored in the priority storage unit, and Based on the information stored in the information storage means, determining means for determining a device for limiting power, and power management means for limiting power to the device determined by the determining means, Electronic devices. 2. An electronic apparatus having a plurality of devices, wherein: a temperature detecting means for detecting a temperature of the electronic apparatus at predetermined time intervals; a priority order storing means for storing a priority order of the plurality of devices; For each of the plurality of devices, an information storage unit that stores information indicating whether power supply restriction is performed, a temperature detected by the temperature detection unit, a priority stored in the priority storage unit, and Based on the information stored in the information storage means, determining means for determining a device to release the power restriction, and power management means to release the power restriction to the device determined by the determining means. Electronic device characterized by. 3. A power management control method for an electronic device having a plurality of devices, wherein a priority order of the plurality of devices is stored in priority order storage means, and a power supply restriction is set for each of the plurality of devices. Information indicating whether or not the operation is being performed is stored in an information storage unit, the temperature of the electronic device is detected at predetermined time intervals, and the detected temperature, the priority stored in the priority storage unit, and the information are stored. A power management control method for an electronic apparatus, comprising: determining a device for limiting power based on information stored in a storage unit; and limiting power to the determined device. 4. An electronic device power management control method having a plurality of devices, wherein a priority order of the plurality of devices is stored in priority order storage means, and a power supply restriction is performed for each of the plurality of devices. Information indicating whether or not the temperature has been set in the information storage means; detecting the temperature of the electronic device at predetermined time intervals; and storing the detected temperature, the priority stored in the priority storage means, and the information storage. A power management control method for an electronic device, comprising: determining a device from which power restriction is to be released based on information stored in the means; and releasing the power restriction to the determined device.