TWI387175B - Battery protection system and method for electronic device - Google Patents

Description

Battery protection system and method for electronic device

The present invention relates to a battery protection system and method for an electronic device, and more particularly to a system and method for protecting a battery of a portable electronic device by using frequency reduction.

The application of portable devices has become a trend in electronic products, such as notebook computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), etc., and the power supply of these portable devices is usually provided with an AC power source and a battery. In some use cases, when the AC power is removed from the portable electronic device, if the device is still operating at a high frequency, the battery may not be able to load such a large current in an instant, causing great damage to the battery.

Therefore, a battery protection system and method are necessary to improve the above disadvantages.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a battery protection system and method for an electronic device that protects the battery and extends battery life.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a battery protection system of the electronic device includes: a battery for providing electrical energy; a central processing unit; an embedded controller for detecting an AC power removal signal, and generating and transmitting a frequency reduction a control signal; and a basic output input system for receiving the down-conversion control signal and transmitting a down-converted command to the central processor to perform the down-conversion procedure.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the battery protection device of the electronic device The method includes the steps of: detecting an AC power removal signal; generating and transmitting a down control signal to the basic output input system according to the AC power removal signal; and transmitting according to the frequency reduction control signal and the frequency reduction mechanism supported by the electronic device The down-convert command is sent to the central processor to perform a down-conversion procedure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Reference will be made in detail to the preferred embodiments embodiments Wherever possible, the same reference numerals are used in the drawings and the claims

The battery protection method and system of the present invention can be applied to various portable electronic devices, such as a notebook computer or a personal digital assistant (PDA). With the design of the frequency reduction mechanism of the present invention, the battery is used as an electronic device. When the power source is used, the power consumption of the battery can be reduced to avoid damage to the battery. The following embodiments are described with a notebook computer, but the application of the present invention is not limited to the preferred embodiments described below.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the functional architecture of a battery protection system according to an embodiment of the present invention. The battery protection system 100 is a part of a notebook computer, and includes a battery 110, an embedded controller (EC) 120, a basic input/output system (BIOS) 140, and is executed in a computer system. The operating system 160, and components such as the central processing unit 180. Some of these components, such as batteries, operating systems, and central processing units, can be used in today's notebooks, the functions and interrelationships between the components, and the operation of the down-conversion mechanism. The description is as follows.

In this embodiment, the embedded controller 120 can be a keyboard controller that can detect the power source status of the computer system. For example, at a certain time, the power source is powered by a battery or an AC power source (AC). Provide, as well as other events related to AC power and batteries. When the AC power is removed from the computer system, the embedded controller 120 can detect the AC power removal signal and generate and transmit the down control signal to the basic output input system 140, and then proceed with the subsequent processing.

The basic output input system 140 is configured to receive the down-convert control signal and send a down-converted command to the central processor 180 to perform a down-conversion procedure. The basic output input system 140 can implement the down-conversion procedure in a suitable mechanism, depending on the different down-conversion mechanisms supported by the different central processing units 180. In one case, the basic output input system 140 can communicate directly with the central processing unit 180, so the down-converted instructions can be sent directly to the central processor 180 to perform the down-conversion procedure. For example, in one embodiment, a throttling function can be performed within the central processing unit 180, that is, within a duty cycle width, without causing the central processing unit 180 to continue to operate over the entire duty cycle width. The speed function mechanism causes the central processor 180 to perform only a certain percentage over a duty cycle width to reduce the frequency of the central processor.

In another case, the basic output input system 140 is to communicate with the central processing unit 180 via the operating system 160 to perform the down-conversion procedure. For example, Intel's SpeedStep technology can reduce the frequency by quickly changing the operating speed of the CPU by controlling the computer system.

In an embodiment, for example, the program control code of the down-conversion mechanism can be written by a keyboard controller in the notebook computer. The battery protection system is implemented in the memory block in accordance with the code change of the corresponding basic output input system.

In an embodiment, the operating system 160 may further include an AC power safety removal unit 165 for receiving an AC power safety removal signal input by a user using an input device (such as a mouse or a keyboard), and according to the AC power supply security. Remove the signal to perform the pre-protection process. For example, after the computer system is ready to handle the removal of AC power, the pre-protection program can display a warning message if the user wants to execute a program that will use a large amount of computer system resources.

2 is a flow chart showing a battery protection method of an electronic device. The battery protection method is described by a functional architecture supported by a general notebook computer, and includes the following steps: In step 210, an AC power removal signal is detected. At step 220, a down-conversion control signal is generated and transmitted to the basic output input system based on the AC power removal signal. At step 230, the basic output input system determines if the computer system supports SpeedStep technology. That is, this step is based on the down-conversion control signal and the down-conversion mechanism supported by the electronic device, and sends a down-converted command to the central processing unit to perform the frequency-down procedure.

At step 240, when the basic output input system determines that the computer system supports the SpeedStep technique, the basic output input system notifies the Passive Cooling event, and in step 242, the operating system performs a SpeedStep technique to achieve the down frequency. In this case, the step of performing the down-conversion procedure is to reduce the operating frequency of the central processing unit through the operating system.

At step 250, when the basic output input system determines that the computer system does not support the SpeedStep technique, the basic output input system issues a central processor command to perform a throttle function. In this situation In this case, the operating frequency of the central processing unit can be reduced without going through the operating system. At step 260, the computer system waits for the next event to occur.

The battery protection method may further include the following additional steps: receiving an AC power safety removal signal; and performing a pre-protection procedure based on the AC power safety removal signal before the step of detecting the AC power removal signal. The pre-protection program allows the computer system to take appropriate action to prepare for the event of removing AC power. For example, if the user wants to execute a program that will use a large amount of computer system resources, the pre-protection program can display a warning message.

When the battery is used as the power source of the notebook computer, the frequency down mechanism of the present invention rewrites the frequency operation mechanism originally determined by the operating system. For example, in an embodiment, when the power mode is set to a different mode such as a battery mode, a performance mode, or a power saving mode, there may be different frequency switching settings, but in the frequency reduction mechanism of the present invention, when When the AC power is removed and the battery is used as the power source, the frequency reduction is performed to protect the battery.

Because, when the battery is used to provide power, if the computer system is still in the state of high frequency operation (for example, when the user sets the power mode in the performance mode), the central processor increases the power consumption when the load is high, and the current is increased. Increased to provide the current required by the computer system, the battery may not be able to load such a large current in an instant, which is easy to damage the battery, resulting in extremely short battery life. Therefore, the present invention can protect the battery and extend battery life.

Although the present invention has been described above in terms of a preferred embodiment, it is not intended to limit the present invention, and various modifications and refinements may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. The scope of the invention is defined by the scope of the appended claims.

100‧‧‧Battery protection system

110‧‧‧Battery

120‧‧‧ embedded controller

140‧‧‧Basic output input system

160‧‧‧Operating system

165‧‧‧AC power safe removal unit

180‧‧‧Central Processing Unit

210-260‧‧‧Step method

The above and other objects, features, advantages and embodiments of the present invention will become more apparent and understood.

1 is a block diagram showing the functional architecture of a battery protection system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a flow chart showing a battery protection method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

100‧‧‧Battery protection system

110‧‧‧Battery

120‧‧‧ embedded controller

140‧‧‧Basic output input system

160‧‧‧Operating system

165‧‧‧AC power safe removal unit

180‧‧‧Central Processing Unit

Claims (6)

A battery protection system for an electronic device, comprising: a battery for providing electrical energy; a central processing unit; an embedded controller for detecting an AC power removal signal, and generating and transmitting a down control signal; a basic output input system for receiving the down-conversion control signal and transmitting a down-converted command to the central processor to perform a down-conversion process; and an operating system through which the basic output input system performs the down-conversion The frequency program, wherein the operating system comprises an AC power safety removal unit for receiving an AC power safety removal signal, and performing a pre-protection procedure according to the AC power safety removal signal. The battery protection system of claim 1, wherein the embedded controller is a keyboard controller. The battery protection system of claim 1, wherein the electronic device is a notebook computer or a PDA. A battery protection method for an electronic device includes the steps of: detecting an AC power removal signal; generating and transmitting a down control signal to a basic output input system according to the AC power removal signal; Transmitting a down-converting command to a central processing unit to perform a down-conversion process according to the down-conversion control signal and the down-conversion mechanism supported by the electronic device; and receiving a frequency-down procedure before the step of detecting the AC power removal signal The AC power supply safely removes the signal; and performs a pre-protection procedure based on the AC power safety removal signal. The battery protection method of claim 4, wherein the step of performing the frequency down procedure comprises reducing an operating frequency of the central processor. The battery protection method of claim 4, wherein the step of performing the frequency down procedure comprises reducing an operating frequency of the central processing unit through an operating system.