JP2010117834A - Power supply start-up time control unit, information processor, power supply start-up time control method and power supply start-up time control program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce a rush current into a capacitor, to prevent a power start-up time from becoming long more than necessary, and to optimize a time spent for system starting. <P>SOLUTION: A power supply start-up time control unit includes: one or more boards (cards 10) mounted with electronic components; a power supply means 30 for supplying power supply voltage to the boards; and a management means (an upper device 20) for setting the start-up time of the power supply voltage based on total capacitance of the capacitors 11 mounted on the respective boards, and sending the set start-up time to the power supply means 30. The power supply means 30 starts the power supply voltage based on the start-up time. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a power supply start time control device equipped with one or more substrates, an information processing device equipped with the power supply start time control device, and a power supply start time control method for controlling the power supply start time supplied to the substrate. And a power supply start time control program for executing this power supply start time control method, and in particular, a power supply start time control apparatus, an information processing apparatus, and a power supply start time control for starting the power supplied to each board by soft start The present invention relates to a method and a power supply startup time control program.

In recent years, performance and function diversification of information processing apparatuses has been promoted.
For example, supercomputers have been developed for the purpose of performing enormous calculation processing such as large-scale simulations. In addition, high-end servers equipped with high-performance and high-performance specifications are commercially available.
These large-scale systems such as supercomputers and high-end servers have a wider variety of board configurations than the low-end machines and entry machines.

Among them, the supercomputer generally has a configuration as shown in FIG.
As shown in the figure, one chip 110 is equipped with a plurality of (for example, two) processors 111 and a cache memory (not shown). A plurality of chips 110 and a memory (not shown) are mounted on a compute card (card) 120.
A plurality of (for example, 16) cards 120 are mounted on the node board 130. Further, a plurality of (for example, 32) node boards 130 are stored in the cabinet 140.
A system 150 is configured by a plurality of (for example, 64) cabinets 140.

Here, the cabinet 140 is mounted with a power supply unit (power supply means) 141 for supplying power to the components such as the card 120.
However, if the power supply voltage is suddenly applied when supplying the power supply voltage to the card 120, an inrush current may flow through the capacitor mounted on the card 120 and the capacitor may be damaged.
In order to prevent this, the power supply means 141 is often provided with a soft start circuit.
The soft start circuit is a circuit that controls a time for starting the power supply voltage from 0 V to a predetermined voltage (for example, +12 V). By extending the startup time, the inrush current to the capacitor can be suppressed.
In addition, the technique regarding a soft start circuit is disclosed (for example, refer patent document 1).
JP 2004-023948 A

However, the technique described in Patent Document 1 described above has the following problems.
In general, a card is usually mounted with a capacitor for suppressing fluctuations in power supply voltage. And, as a measure to increase the inrush current to the capacitor mounted on the card when starting the power supply, soft start control is performed to delay the start time until the voltage rises from 0V to the specified voltage, Inrush current is reduced.

  However, if the number of cards decreases due to the card configuration, the capacity of the mounted capacitors decreases, and soft start control is performed even when there is no need to increase the startup time. For this reason, the startup time took longer than necessary, and the system startup was slow.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problem, and reduces the inrush current to the capacitor, suppresses the start-up time of the power supply to be longer than necessary, and reduces the time required for system startup. It is an object of the present invention to provide a power start time control device, an information processing device, a power start time control method, and a power start time control program that can be optimized.

  In order to achieve this object, a power supply start-up time control device according to the present invention includes one or more substrates on which electronic components are mounted, power supply means for supplying a power supply voltage to these substrates, and capacitors mounted on each substrate. The system includes a management unit that sets a startup time of the power supply voltage based on the total capacity, and sends the set startup time to the power supply unit, and the power supply unit starts up the power supply voltage based on the startup time.

  Further, the information processing apparatus of the present invention is based on one or more substrates on which electronic components are mounted, power supply means for supplying power to these substrates, and the total capacity of capacitors mounted on each substrate, Management means for setting a start time of the power supply voltage and sending the set start time to the power supply means, and the power supply means starts up the power supply voltage based on the start time.

  In addition, the power supply start-up time control method of the present invention sets the start-up time of the power supply voltage based on the total capacity of the capacitors mounted on one or more substrates, and starts the power supply voltage based on the start-up time. As a way to do.

  The power supply start time control program of the present invention sets the start time of the power supply voltage based on the total capacity of the capacitors mounted on one or more boards, and starts the power supply voltage based on the start time. The power source activation time control device is configured to execute the processing to be performed.

According to the power start time control device, the information processing apparatus, the power start time control method, and the power start time control program of the present invention, the power start time is optimized according to the total capacity of the capacitors mounted on the card. be able to.
As a result, inrush current to the capacitor can be reduced, and unnecessary system startup time can be reduced.

  Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of a power supply start time control device, an information processing apparatus, a power supply start time control method, and a power supply start time control program according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

[Embodiment]
First, an embodiment of a power supply start time control device, an information processing device, a power supply start time control method, and a power supply start time control program according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a power supply activation time control device installed in the information processing apparatus of the present embodiment. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the detailed configuration of the power supply means and the card in the information processing apparatus shown in FIG.

(Power supply start time control device, information processing device)
The power supply activation time control device is a computer that operates under program control. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the card 10 (10-1 to 10-n), the host device 20, and the power supply means 30 are provided. I have.
The card (compute card, board) 10 can be inserted into and removed from a slot (not shown) of the node board 130, for example, and the number can be increased or decreased depending on the system configuration.
As shown in FIG. 2, the card 10 includes a capacitor 11 (11-1 to 11-n), a card storage unit 12 (12-1 to 12-n), and a card control unit 13 (13-1 to 13). -N).

The capacitor 11 suppresses the fluctuation of the + 12V voltage of the main power supply.
The card storage unit (storage unit) 12 stores information related to the card 10. The information regarding the card includes, for example, the capacitance of the capacitor 11. Information regarding this card is stored in advance in the card storage unit 12 by the manufacturer of the card 10 or the power-on activation time control device 1.
When standby power is supplied from the power supply means 30, the card control unit (board control unit) 13 takes out information related to the card 10 from the card storage unit 12 and sends it to the host device 20.
The card 10 includes electronic components (not shown) such as a processor (CPU (Central Processing Unit)) and a main memory element (DIMM (Dual Inline Memory Module)) in addition to the capacitor 11 and the like. ) Can be installed.

The host device (management means) 20 can be provided in the cabinet 140, for example, and performs system control.
As shown in FIG. 3, the host device 20 includes a bus communication unit 21, a storage unit 22, a determination unit 23, and a transmission unit 24.
The bus communication unit 21 transmits / receives predetermined information to / from each card 10 via the data communication bus 40. As a result, the host device 20 can acquire information on each card from each card 10.

The storage unit 22 stores information transmitted from each card 10. The storage unit 22 also stores a table (starting time setting table) for setting the starting time of the main power supply.
As shown in FIG. 4, the start time setting table is a table in which the total capacity of the capacitor 11 and the start time of the power supply voltage are associated with each other.
In this startup time setting table, when the total capacity of the capacitor 11 is larger than a predetermined amount, the startup time is lengthened. When the total capacity of the capacitor 11 is less than a predetermined amount, the start-up time is shortened.
For example, as shown in the figure, when the total capacity of the capacitor 11 is greater than a predetermined amount of 1000 μF, the start-up time is lengthened as 0.2 s, while when less than 1000 μF, the start-up time is set to 0. It is as short as 1s.

The determination unit 23 selects information indicating the capacity of the capacitor 11 from the information regarding the card stored in the storage unit 22, and extracts information indicating the capacity of the capacitor 11 for all the cards 10. Next, the determination unit 23 calculates the total sum of the capacities of the capacitors 11 mounted for each card 10 using the information indicating the capacities of the capacitors 11. Subsequently, the determination unit 23 refers to the activation time setting table, selects an activation time corresponding to the total capacity of the capacitor 11, and sets this as the activation time of the main power supply.
The transmission unit 24 transmits the activation time set by the determination unit 23 to the power supply unit 30 as an activation time setting signal.

As shown in FIG. 2, the power supply means 30 includes a standby power supply unit 31, a main power supply unit 32, a power supply control unit 33, and a soft start circuit unit 34.
The standby power supply unit 31 supplies standby power (+5 VS voltage) to the card control unit 13 and the host device 20 in each card 10.
The main power supply unit 32 supplies main power (+12 V voltage) to the card 10. At this time, the main power source unit 32 is controlled by the soft start circuit unit 34 to control the startup time of the main power source.

The power supply control unit 33 receives the start time setting signal from the host device 20 and sends the start time transmitted by the start time setting signal to the soft start circuit unit 34 as the set start time.
The soft start circuit unit 34 controls the startup time of the main power supply (+ 12V voltage) supplied from the main power supply unit 32 according to the set startup time.
Each component of the power supply activation time control device 1 can be provided in the information processing device A.

(Power start time control method)
Next, the operation (power activation time control method) of the power activation time control device will be described with reference to FIG.
This figure is a diagram showing an operation procedure of the power supply activation time control method.

In the storage unit 22 of the host device 20, activation time setting information corresponding to the capacitor capacity is defined in advance (storage of the activation time setting table).
When starting up the system, first, the standby power supply unit 31 of the power supply means 30 supplies standby power of +5 VS voltage to the host device 20 and the card control unit 13 on each card 10 ((1) in the figure). As a result, the entire system can be controlled.

  The card control unit 13 of each card 10 takes out information (card configuration information) related to the card 10 from the card storage unit 12 and sends it to the host device 20 via the data communication bus 40 ((2) in the figure). Thereby, the host device 20 can read the card configuration information of each card 10 via the data communication bus. The card configuration information includes information indicating the capacity of the capacitor 11 mounted on the card 10. When the card configuration information is received by the bus communication unit 21 of the host device 20, it is sent to the storage unit 22 and stored therein.

Next, the determination unit 23 of the host device 20 extracts the card configuration information from the storage unit 22 and calculates the total sum of the capacities of the capacitors 11 mounted on each card 10 mounted on the power supply activation time control device 1. . Then, the startup time setting table stored in the storage unit 22 is referred to, and the startup time corresponding to the total capacity of the capacitor 11 is set as the startup time of the main power supply ((3) in the figure).
Subsequently, the transmission unit 24 of the host device 20 transmits the set activation time set by the determination unit 23 to the power supply unit 30 as an activation time setting signal ((4) in the figure).

When the power supply control unit 33 of the power supply means 30 receives the start time setting signal, it sends the set start time to the soft start circuit unit 34.
The soft start circuit unit 34 arbitrarily sets (starts up) the time during which the voltage rises from 0 V to the specified value (+12 V) by switching the control of the switching pulse in the main power supply unit 32 according to the set startup time. (Figure (5)).
Under the control of the soft start circuit unit 34, the main power supply unit 32 activates the main power supply so that the activation time coincides with the set activation time, and supplies the main power supply to the card 10 ((6) in the figure).

(Startup time setting)
Next, the setting of the activation time will be described.
The determination unit 23 of the host device 20 sets the activation time. At this time, referring to the start time setting table, the start time corresponding to the total capacity of the capacitors 11 mounted on each card 10 is set.
Here, when the configuration of the card 10 is large (when the number of cards 10 is large), the total capacity of the mounted capacitors 11 is increased, so that the startup time is increased. Thereby, the inrush current to the capacitor 11 can be reduced.

On the other hand, when the configuration of the card 10 is small (when the number of cards 10 is small), the total capacity of the mounted capacitors 11 is reduced, so the startup time is shortened. Thereby, the inrush current to the capacitor 11 can be reduced.
In addition, when the card configuration is small, shortening the start-up time can shorten the system start-up time, and the system start-up time can be optimized.

(Power supply start time control program)
Next, the power supply start time control program will be described.
The power source startup time control function (function for executing the power source startup time control method) of the computer (information processing apparatus, power source means, card, host device) in the above embodiment is a storage means (for example, ROM (Read only memory) ) And a hard disk, etc.), and is realized by a power-on time control program.

The power supply start time control program is read by a computer control means (such as a CPU) to send commands to the various components of the computer, and performs predetermined processing such as power supply processing of the power supply means, soft start control, card card Configuration information transmission processing, host device startup time setting processing, and the like are performed.
As a result, the power supply start time control function is realized by the cooperation of the power supply start time control program that is software and each component means of the computer (information processing apparatus, power supply means, card, and host device) that is hardware resources. Realized.

Note that the power supply start time control program for realizing the power supply start time control function is stored in a computer ROM, hard disk, or the like, as well as a computer-readable recording medium such as an external storage device and a portable recording medium. Can be stored.
The external storage device refers to a memory expansion device that incorporates a storage medium such as a CD-ROM (Compact disk-Read only memory) and is externally connected to the power supply startup time control device. On the other hand, the portable recording medium is a recording medium that can be mounted on a recording medium driving device (drive device) and is portable, and refers to, for example, a flexible disk, a memory card, a magneto-optical disk, and the like.

The program recorded on the recording medium is loaded into a RAM (Random Access Memory) of a computer and executed by the CPU (control means). By this execution, the function of the power supply activation time control device of the above-described embodiment is realized.
Furthermore, when the computer loads the power supply start time control program, the power supply start time control program held by another computer can be downloaded to its own RAM or external storage device using a communication line. The downloaded power-on time control program is also executed by the CPU to realize the power-on time control function of the power-on time controller of the above embodiment.

As described above, according to the power supply start time control device, the information processing apparatus, the power supply start time control method, and the power supply start time control program of this embodiment, the configuration of the card installed in the system is recognized in advance, Depending on the total capacity of the capacitors mounted on the card, the start circuit in the power supply is set to perform soft start control, and the main power supply can be started according to the set start time.
As a result, it is possible to optimize the time until the power source starts up from 0 V to a specified voltage, and the inrush current to the capacitor can be reduced when the system power source is started. In addition, the power-on startup time does not become longer than necessary, and the time required for system startup can be optimized.

For example, in the case of a system with a large number of cards, when a +12 V voltage is applied to each card, a large amount of fluctuation suppressing capacitors are connected to the +12 V line.
In this state, if the + 12V voltage rises with a steep slope from 0V to the specified value (+ 12V), an inrush current flows into the capacitor, and a large current flows through the circuit element in the main power supply unit. Stress will be applied. In addition, the power supply shut-down function works, causing a problem that the power supply cannot be started.
Therefore, by providing a soft start circuit as a function of the power supply and setting the power supply startup time according to the total capacity of the capacitor, it is possible to prevent a steep slope from 0V to the specified value (+ 12V).

Further, when the card configuration is small, the capacitor capacity connected to the + 12V voltage line is also small, so that it is not necessary to lengthen the startup time. However, when the power supply startup time is constant, it takes time to start up the system.
Therefore, even when the number of cards decreases due to changes in the card configuration, it is possible to optimize the power supply startup time by controlling the power supply startup time according to the total capacity of the capacitors mounted on these cards. it can.

  The preferred embodiments of the power supply startup time control device, information processing device, power supply startup time control method, and power supply startup time control program of the present invention have been described above, but the power supply startup time control device, information processing device, and power supply according to the present invention have been described. The startup time control method and the power supply startup time control program are not limited to the above-described embodiments, and it goes without saying that various modifications can be made within the scope of the present invention.

For example, in the above-described embodiments, the method for controlling the power-on time in one information processing apparatus has been described. However, when power is supplied from a single power supply unit to a plurality of apparatuses, the power supplied to these apparatuses is supplied. The activation time can be controlled by applying the present invention.
In the above-described embodiment, the card configuration information (capacitor capacity) is collected from all of the plurality of cards mounted on the information processing apparatus, and the power supply startup time is set based on the total capacity of these capacitors. However, the present invention is not limited to all cards, and it is also possible to collect card configuration information from some cards and set the power supply startup time according to the difference in individual capacitor capacity and the card usage frequency.

  Since the present invention relates to control of the power supply start-up time in the information processing apparatus, it can be used for an apparatus and a device that control the power supply start-up time.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the power supply starting time control apparatus in embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the detailed structure of a power supply means and a card | curd. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of a high-order apparatus. It is a chart which shows the structure of a starting time setting table. It is a figure which shows operation | movement of the information processing apparatus in embodiment of this invention. It is an external appearance perspective view which shows the structure of a supercomputer.

Explanation of symbols

A Information processing device 1 Power supply start time control device 10 Card 11 Capacitor 12 Card storage unit 13 Card control unit 20 Host device (management means)
22 Storage Unit 23 Determination Unit 30 Power Supply Unit 31 Standby Power Supply Unit 32 Main Power Supply Unit 33 Power Supply Control Unit 34 Soft Start Circuit Unit

Claims (12)

One or more substrates on which electronic components are mounted;
Power supply means for supplying a power supply voltage to these substrates;
Based on the total capacity of the capacitors mounted on each of the substrates, the power supply voltage start time is set, and a management means for sending the set start time to the power supply means,
The power supply start time control apparatus, wherein the power supply means starts the power supply voltage based on the start time. The management means includes
When the total capacity of the capacitor is greater than a predetermined amount, set the startup time long,
The power supply start-up time control device according to claim 1, wherein the start-up time is set short when the amount is smaller than the predetermined amount. The power supply means
A main power supply unit that activates the power supply voltage and supplies it to the substrate;
A power control unit that receives the activation time from the management means;
The power supply start time control device according to claim 1, further comprising: a soft start circuit unit that controls start of the power supply voltage executed by the main power supply unit based on the start time. The power supply means has a standby power supply unit for supplying standby power to the substrate,
The substrate is
Storage means for storing the capacitance of the capacitor;
The power supply start-up time control according to any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising: a substrate control unit that sends information indicating a capacity of the capacitor to the management means when a standby power supply is received from the power supply means. apparatus. The power supply activation time control device according to claim 1, wherein the substrate includes a processor card on which a central processing unit is mounted. The power supply activation time control device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the substrate and the management unit are connected by a data communication bus. One or more substrates on which electronic components are mounted;
Power supply means for supplying a power supply voltage to these substrates;
Based on the total capacity of the capacitors mounted on each of the substrates, the power supply voltage start time is set, and a management means for sending the set start time to the power supply means,
The information processing apparatus, wherein the power supply means activates the power supply voltage based on the activation time. The management means includes
When the total capacity of the capacitor is greater than a predetermined amount, set the startup time long,
The information processing apparatus according to claim 7, wherein when the amount is smaller than the predetermined amount, the activation time is set short. A power supply start-up time control method, characterized in that a start-up time of a power supply voltage is set based on a total capacity of capacitors mounted on one or two or more substrates, and the power supply voltage is started up based on the start-up time. . When the total capacity of the capacitor is greater than a predetermined amount, set the startup time long,
The method for controlling the power supply start-up time according to claim 9, wherein the start-up time is set short when the amount is smaller than the predetermined amount. Based on the total capacity of the capacitors mounted on one or two or more substrates, the power supply voltage start-up time is set, and based on this start-up time, the power supply start-up time control device executes processing for starting the power supply voltage. A power supply start time control program. When the total capacity of the capacitor is greater than a predetermined amount, set the startup time long,
The power supply start-up time control program according to claim 11, wherein when the amount is less than the predetermined amount, the power supply start-up time control device executes a process of setting the start-up time short.

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