JP2014165303A - Electronic device, cooling method, and program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an electronic device in which power consumption is reduced.SOLUTION: An electronic device 1 has: a cooling section 131; a determination section 11 which determines an attribute on a mounting state of an expansion card in the device itself for each expansion card slot which is an insertion port of the expansion card; and a cooling control section 12 which controls a cooling degree of the cooling section 131 according to the attribute on the mounting state of the expansion card.

Description

  The present invention relates to an electronic device such as a server device or an information terminal device having an internal cooling function, a cooling method for the electronic device, and a program.

  In the internal cooling of an electronic device such as a conventional server system, there is a method of controlling a cooling fan based on a temperature detected by a temperature sensor installed in the electronic device. For example, when the temperature sensor detects that the temperature inside the apparatus is low, the cooling fan rotates at a low speed, and power consumption and noise are suppressed.

  In addition, in a communication apparatus including a plurality of interface modules, a method of controlling a cooling operation for the interface module in accordance with a mounting state of an external device for the interface has been proposed (see Patent Document 1). In this way, the communication device can suppress cooling of the unused interface module and reduce unnecessary power consumption.

JP 2012-164246 A

  On the other hand, in the case of an electronic apparatus such as the server system described above, a plurality of expansion card slots for expanding the functions are provided in the inside so that the functions can be flexibly expanded according to applications. The operator of the electronic device can give various functions to the electronic device by mounting a desired expansion card in the expansion card slot. The electronic device operator can be installed in the expansion card slot provided in the device with various types of expansion cards and combinations thereof, so the electronic device has a cooling design that matches the expansion card that needs the most cooling. ing.

  In the case of the electronic device described above, the expansion card itself installed in the inside is a target for cooling. Here, as described above, there are various types of expansion cards. That is, there are some expansion cards that need to be cooled with a high cooling capacity because they generate heat intensely in their operation, and there are expansion cards that hardly generate heat due to their functions. The method described in Patent Document 1 discriminates whether or not the interface module is operating, and controls the rotation of the cooling fan in accordance with this, but all the operating interface modules are cooled in the same manner. Control to do. Here, even if the mounted expansion card requires little cooling, operating the cooling fan to exhibit high cooling capacity increases wasteful power consumption and causes noise. It becomes.

  Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an electronic device, a cooling method, and a program that can solve the above-described problems.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problem, and includes a cooling unit and a determination unit that determines an attribute of an expansion card mounted state in the own device for each expansion card slot that is an insertion port of the expansion card. And a cooling control unit that controls the degree of cooling of the cooling unit in accordance with an attribute regarding the mounting state of the expansion card.

  The present invention is also a cooling method for an electronic device including a cooling unit, wherein an attribute of an expansion card mounted state in the own device is determined for each expansion card slot that is an insertion slot of the expansion card, and the expansion The cooling method is characterized in that the cooling degree of the cooling unit is controlled in accordance with an attribute regarding the mounting state of the card.

  According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a determination unit that determines, for each expansion card slot that is an insertion slot of the expansion card, an attribute of the expansion device mounted on the computer of the electronic device including the cooling unit. The program is made to function as a cooling control unit that controls the degree of cooling of the cooling unit in accordance with an attribute regarding the mounting state.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to provide an electronic device with reduced power consumption.

It is a figure which shows the minimum structure of the electronic device by one Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the specific function structure of the electronic apparatus by one Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure explaining the determination method of the determination part by one Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure explaining the process of the cooling control part by one Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart figure which shows the processing flow of the electronic device by one Embodiment of this invention.

Hereinafter, an electronic device according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a minimum configuration of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the present invention. In this figure, reference numeral 1 denotes an electronic device. As illustrated in FIG. 1, the electronic device 1 includes a cooling unit 131 and a determination unit that determines an attribute regarding the mounting state of the expansion card 2 in the own device for each expansion card slot 101 that is an insertion slot of the expansion card 2. 11 and a cooling control unit 12 that controls the degree of cooling of the cooling unit 131 according to the attribute of the mounting state of the expansion card 2.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a specific functional configuration of the electronic device according to the embodiment of the present invention.
As shown in FIG. 2, the electronic device 1 includes a plurality of expansion card slots 101, 102,..., A determination unit 11, a cooling control unit 12, a plurality of cooling units 131, 132,. 2 is provided.

  Here, the electronic apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment is a server apparatus used in a predetermined server system. As will be described later, the electronic device 1 can provide a desired function to the electronic device 1 by mounting various expansion cards 2 in accordance with the application. The electronic device 1 according to the present embodiment is not limited to such a server device, and may be an information terminal device for consumers, for example. The electronic device 1 is an electronic device having a functional configuration other than that shown in FIG. 2 as a server system or consumer information terminal device, but description of these functions will be omitted.

  A plurality of expansion card slots 101, 102,... Are interfaces into which the expansion card 2 is mounted. The electronic device 1 which is a server device includes a plurality of expansion card slots 101, 102,. Here, as shown in FIG. 2, the plurality of expansion card slots 101 are arranged to belong to the slot area A1. Similarly, the plurality of expansion card slots 102 are arranged so as to belong to the slot area A2. In the following description, the expansion card slots 101, 102,... Are simply referred to as “expansion card slot 10”.

  As described above, the determination unit 11 is a functional unit that determines the attribute regarding the mounting state of the expansion card 2 in the electronic apparatus 1 for each of the plurality of expansion card slots 10. As shown in FIG. 2, the determination unit 11 detects input signals from all the expansion card slots 10 and determines whether or not the expansion card 2 is mounted in each expansion card slot 10 or what kind of expansion card. A predetermined “attribute” indicating whether or not is installed is determined. Specific processing of the “attribute” and the determination unit 11 will be described later.

  The cooling control unit 12 is a functional unit that controls the cooling degree of the cooling units 131, 132,... According to the attribute about the mounting state of the expansion card 2 for each expansion card slot 10. Here, the cooling units 131, 132,... According to the present embodiment are cooling fans, as will be described later, and the cooling control unit 12 rotates the cooling units 131, 132,. This is a functional unit that controls the degree of cooling. That is, the “cooling degree” corresponds to “the number of rotations of the cooling fan per unit time” in the present embodiment. As shown in FIG. 2, the cooling control unit 12 outputs a predetermined rotation signal to the plurality of cooling units 131, 132,. Although the details will be described later, the cooling control unit 12 refers to the determination result from the determination unit 11 described above and the “cooling degree correspondence table” registered in the storage unit 14. ,..., A rotation signal for rotating at a predetermined rotation number is output.

  The cooling units 131, 132,... Are functional units that cool each expansion card 2 mounted in the electronic device 1. In the present embodiment, the cooling unit 13 is a cooling fan that blows and cools by rotating itself. Here, in the following description, the cooling units 131, 132,... Are collectively referred to simply as “cooling unit 13”. The cooling unit 13 receives the rotation signal from the cooling control unit 12 described above, and rotates at a rotation speed (rpm) corresponding to the rotation signal. As shown in FIG. 2, a plurality of cooling units 13 are provided for each of the slot areas A1, A2,. As the cooling unit 13 rotates, the cooling unit 13 blows air to the slot areas A1, A2,... Corresponding to the cooling unit 13 and cools the expansion cards 2 mounted in the respective expansion card slots 10.

  The expansion card 2 is a function expansion card that can be attached to and detached from the expansion card slot 10. In the following description, the expansion card 2 is, for example, a PCI (Peripheral Components Interconnect) card. There are various expansion cards 2 such as an expansion card that needs to be cooled with a high cooling capacity during operation and an expansion card that hardly generates heat and does not require cooling, depending on the function of the expansion card 2. . For example, a video controller that calculates an image to be displayed on a display screen and a RAID (Redundant Arrays of Independent Disks) controller that manages various operation methods of a mounted hard disk requires high-speed and large-volume signal processing. The amount of heat generated by expansion cards is also large. On the other hand, a LAN (Local Area Network) controller, which is a network interface, and a SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) controller, which is an interface for connecting devices such as hard disk drives, hardly generate heat even during operation.

  The storage unit 14 is a storage area that functions as a server that stores various data for constructing a database. The storage unit 14 is constructed by a general storage unit, for example, a storage device such as an HDD (Hard Disk Drive), an SSD (Solid State Drive), or a DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory). The storage unit 14 according to the present embodiment stores a “cooling degree correspondence table” to be described later.

  In the electronic device 1 described above, a plurality of expansion card slots 101, 102,... Are arranged in the slot areas A1, A2,..., And a cooling unit is provided for each slot area A1, A2,. 131, 132,... Are made to correspond to each other. However, the electronic apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment is not limited to this aspect. For example, the electronic device 1 may have a configuration in which one cooling card 131, 132,... Is associated with each expansion card slot 101, 102,.

  The determination unit 11 and the cooling control unit 12 are general-purpose CPUs (Central Processing Units) provided in the electronic device 1 and read a predetermined program into a storage unit (register) included in the CPU. In other words, the function of each functional unit may be performed by executing the function.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a determination method of a determination unit according to an embodiment of the present invention.
As described above, the determination unit 11 according to the present embodiment determines the attribute of the mounted state of the expansion card 2 for each expansion card slot 10. Specifically, the determination unit 11 according to the present embodiment may be a BIOS (Basic Input / Output System) that performs detection processing of various hardware mounted when the electronic device 1 is powered on. That is, the determination unit 11 performs predetermined communication with each expansion card slot 10 when the electronic device 1 is powered on, and whether or not the expansion card 2 is mounted in the expansion card slot 10. It detects what type of expansion card 2 is mounted on the.

  Here, the determination unit 11 according to the present embodiment has a classification table as shown in FIG. 3 in advance. As shown in FIG. 3, the classification table indicates whether the various expansion cards 2 belong to either the expansion card 2 (A group) that becomes high temperature during operation or the expansion card 2 (B group) that does not become so high during operation. A table to be defined. For example, the above-described RAID controller, video controller, and the like are defined as belonging to “A group”. The SAS controller and the LAN controller are defined as belonging to “B group”.

  The determination unit 11 refers to the above-described classification table for each expansion card slot 10 in the “high temperature card mounting state” (“A group mounting state”) in which an expansion card belonging to the A group is mounted or in the B group. It is determined whether the expansion card to which it belongs is in a “non-high temperature card mounted state” (“B group mounted state”), and the determination result is output to the cooling control unit 12. If there is an expansion card slot 10 in which no expansion card 2 is installed, the determination unit 11 determines that the expansion card slot 10 is in the “non-mounted state”, and controls the determination result for cooling control. To the unit 12.

  That is, the determination unit 11 outputs, as the expansion card slot 10, one of the attributes “A group mounting state”, “B group mounting state”, and “non-mounted state” described above for each expansion card slot 10. To do. Note that the determination unit 11 may include a unique memory area that stores the above-described classification table, or may refer to a classification table separately stored in the storage unit 14. The classification table can add a new expansion card and change the classification of the registered expansion card based on a predetermined operation by the operator.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating the processing of the cooling control unit according to the embodiment of the present invention.
The cooling control unit 12 according to the present embodiment first inputs an attribute indicating the mounting state for each expansion card slot 10 from the determination unit 11. Next, the cooling control unit 12 refers to the cooling degree correspondence table stored in the storage unit 14. Here, as shown in FIG. 4, the attribute of the expansion card and the cooling degree (cooling fan rotation speed) of the cooling unit 13 are registered in association with each other in the cooling degree correspondence table. Further, the cooling degree correspondence table indicates the number of rotations of each cooling fan in the cooling unit 13 with the control patterns A to C.

  The cooling control unit 12 outputs a rotation signal for rotating each cooling unit 13 with a control pattern corresponding to the attribute input from the determination unit 11. For example, when the expansion card 2 belonging to the group A is mounted in any one of the expansion card slots 101 belonging to the slot area A1, the cooling control unit 12 controls the cooling unit 131 with the control pattern A, that is, the cooling fan rotation speed. A rotation signal is output so as to rotate at 5,000 to 10,000 rpm. Further, for example, when the expansion card 2 is not mounted in any of the expansion card slots 102 belonging to the slot area A2, the cooling control unit 12 sets the rotation speed of the cooling fan to 0 rpm with respect to the control pattern C, that is, the cooling unit 132. (In this case, the cooling control unit 12 may not output the rotation signal itself).

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a processing flow of the electronic device according to the embodiment of the present invention.
The processing flow shown in the flowchart of FIG. 5 starts from a state in which the power is supplied to the electronic apparatus 1 by the operator. The electronic device 1 to which the power is turned on immediately executes a startup program (BIOS), and detection processing of various hardware mounted therein is performed. At this time, the determination unit 11 determines whether or not the expansion card 2 is mounted in an expansion card slot (referred to as an expansion card slot 10n) belonging to each slot area (referred to here as a slot area An) ( Step S1).

  Here, when the determination unit 11 detects that the expansion card 2 is not mounted in all the expansion card slots 10n belonging to the slot area An (step S1 → N), the determination unit 11 determines that the attribute “ A signal indicating “unmounted state” is output to the cooling control unit 12 (step S2). The cooling control unit 12 that has input a signal indicating “non-mounted state” refers to the cooling degree correspondence table in the storage unit 14 and controls the cooling unit 13n corresponding to the slot area An to the control pattern corresponding to “non-mounted state”. C, i.e., control for non-operation (see FIG. 4) is performed (step S3).

  On the other hand, when the determination unit 11 detects that the expansion card 2 is mounted in any expansion card slot 10n belonging to the slot area An (step S1 → Y), the determination unit 11 then performs the above-described classification table. In step S4, it is determined whether or not there is an expansion card 2 that belongs to the A group.

  Here, when the determination unit 11 determines that any of the mounted expansion cards 2 belongs to the A group (step S4 → Y), the determination unit 11 sets the attribute “A group mounting state for the slot area An. Is output to the cooling control unit 12 (step S5). The cooling control unit 12 that has input the signal indicating “A group mounting state” refers to the cooling degree correspondence table in the storage unit 14, and corresponds the cooling unit 13 n corresponding to the slot area An to “A group mounting state”. Control pattern A, that is, control (see FIG. 4) to set the rotational speed to 5000 to 10,000 rpm is performed (step S6).

  On the other hand, when the determination unit 11 determines that none of the mounted expansion cards 2 belong to the A group (step S4 → N), the determination unit 11 sets the attribute “B group mounting state for the slot area An. Is output to the cooling controller 12 (step S7). The cooling control unit 12 that has input the signal indicating “B group mounting state” refers to the cooling degree correspondence table in the storage unit 14, and corresponds the cooling unit 13 n corresponding to the slot area An to “B group mounting state”. Control (refer to FIG. 4) which performs control pattern B, ie, rotation speed 1000-5000 rpm, is performed (step S8).

  When the control of the cooling unit 13n corresponding to the slot area An is determined through any of Steps S2 to S3, Steps S5 to S6, or Steps S7 to S8, the determination unit 11 determines all slot areas inside the electronic device 1. It is determined whether or not the process has been completed (step S9). If the determination unit 11 determines that the processing for all slot areas has been completed, the processing flow ends (step S9 → Y). On the other hand, when it is determined that the processing for all slot areas has not been completed (step S9 → N), the determination unit 11 starts processing for the next slot area (referred to as slot area An + 1) (step S9). S10). Then, the determination unit 11 and the cooling control unit 12 perform the processing flow of steps S1 to S8 for the slot area An + 1.

  The electronic device 1 according to the present embodiment can realize the following processing by executing the processing flow described above. That is, when the expansion card 2 (group A) that reaches a high temperature during operation is mounted in any one of the expansion card slots 10n belonging to a certain slot area An, the electronic device 1 has a high cooling capacity accordingly. The cooling unit 13n is controlled so as to exhibit. On the other hand, when the expansion card 2 is mounted in any one of the expansion card slots 10n belonging to the slot area An, the electronic device 1 is an expansion card 2 (group B) that does not reach a high temperature. Controls the cooling unit 13n so as to suppress the cooling capacity. When the expansion card 2 is not mounted in all the expansion card slots 10n belonging to a certain slot area An, the electronic device 1 performs control to stop the operation of the cooling unit 13n. Therefore, the electronic device 1 can perform an optimal cooling process according to the mounting state of the expansion card 2 in the slot areas A1, A2,.

  As mentioned above, according to electronic device 1 by one embodiment of the present invention, the power consumption accompanying operation of cooling part 13 is reduced, and the effect that the noise by cooling part 13 is controlled can be acquired.

  Note that the electronic device 1 according to the present embodiment, as described above, in the case where any one of the expansion card slots 10n belonging to the slot area An is mounted with the expansion card 2 belonging to the group A, the slot area The cooling unit 13 corresponding to An is assumed to operate in the operation pattern A (FIG. 4). However, the electronic device 1 according to another embodiment is not limited to this mode, and may operate with the operation pattern A when a condition different from this is satisfied. For example, the electronic device 1 according to another embodiment of the present invention operates only when the expansion card 2 belonging to the group A is mounted in two or three or more of the expansion card slots 10n belonging to the slot area An. A process of operating in pattern A may be performed. The same applies to the operation pattern B and the operation pattern C (FIG. 4).

  Further, as shown in FIG. 3, the electronic device 1 according to the present embodiment has two types of expansion cards 2, an expansion card 2 (A group) that becomes hot during operation and an expansion card (B group) that does not reach high temperature during operation. However, the electronic device 1 according to another embodiment is not limited to this aspect. For example, the electronic device 1 according to another embodiment may subdivide the expansion card 2 into three or more groups for each calorific value during operation in the classification table. In addition, the electronic device 1 may subdivide the operation patterns registered in the cooling degree correspondence table accordingly.

  In addition, as described above, the electronic apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment is configured to perform cooling according to the number of rotations of the cooling fan (cooling unit 13) controlled by the cooling control unit 12. However, the electronic device 1 according to another embodiment is not limited to this mode. That is, the electronic device 1 according to another embodiment of the present invention may be one in which the cooling unit 13 is a refrigerant circulator and performs cooling by circulating a refrigerant (for example, cold water). In this case, the “cooling degree” of the cooling unit 13 corresponds to the flow rate per unit time of the refrigerant circulated by the refrigerant circulator.

  In addition, the electronic device 1 according to another embodiment may be configured such that, for example, the cooling unit 13 is a Peltier cooling element, and cooling is performed by energizing the Peltier cooling element. In this case, in this case, the “cooling degree” of the cooling unit 13 corresponds to the amount of power supplied to the Peltier cooling element.

  The electronic device 1 described above has a computer system inside. Each process of the electronic apparatus 1 described above is stored in a computer-readable recording medium in the form of a program, and the above process is performed by the computer reading and executing the program. Here, the computer-readable recording medium refers to a magnetic disk, a magneto-optical disk, a CD-ROM (Compact Disk Read Only Memory), a semiconductor memory, or the like. Alternatively, the computer program may be distributed to the computer via a communication line, and the computer that has received the distribution may execute the program.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Electronic device 101, 102, ... 10n ... Expansion card slot 11 ... Determination part 12 ... Cooling control part 131, 132, ..., 13n ... Cooling part 14- ..Storage unit 2 ... expansion card

Claims (8)

A cooling section;
A determination unit that determines, for each expansion card slot that is an insertion port of the expansion card, an attribute about the mounting state of the expansion card in the own device;
A cooling control unit for controlling a cooling degree of the cooling unit according to an attribute about a mounting state of the expansion card;
An electronic device comprising: The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of the cooling units are provided for each of the expansion card slots or for each predetermined slot area including the plurality of expansion card slots. A storage unit for storing a cooling degree correspondence table registered in association with the attribute of the expansion card and the cooling degree of the cooling unit;
With
The cooling controller is
The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the cooling unit is controlled by a cooling degree registered in the cooling degree correspondence table. The determination unit
As an attribute for the mounting state of the expansion card, at least a high-temperature card mounting state in which an expansion card that increases in temperature according to its operation is mounted, and a non-high temperature card in which an expansion card that does not increase in temperature according to its operation The electronic device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein a mounting state is determined. The determination unit
The electronic device according to claim 4, wherein an attribute of the expansion card mounted state is further determined to be a non-mounted state in which the expansion card is not mounted. The cooling part is
A cooling fan that cools itself by rotating and blowing air,
The cooling controller is
The electronic device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein a degree of cooling of the cooling fan is controlled by rotating the cooling fan at a predetermined number of rotations. A cooling method for an electronic device including a cooling unit,
Determine the attribute of the expansion card mounted state in its own device for each expansion card slot that is the insertion slot of the expansion card,
The cooling method characterized by controlling the cooling degree of the said cooling part according to the attribute about the mounting state of the said expansion card. A computer of an electronic device comprising a cooling unit,
A determination means for determining an attribute about the mounting state of the expansion card in its own device for each expansion card slot that is an insertion slot of the expansion card;
Cooling control means for controlling the cooling degree of the cooling unit according to the attribute about the mounting state of the expansion card,
A program characterized by functioning as

Images