JPH02257207A - Cooler for electronic device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To curtail the labor and time for recovering the data after the recovery of abnormality by utilizing a gap until an operating temperature of a part to be cooled reaches the prescribed upper limit temperature after abnormality is generated in a cooling mechanism, and saving the data to an external storage device such as a magnetic disk, etc. CONSTITUTION:When it is detected that abnormality of an operation whose control is difficult such as a supply stop of secondary cooling water to a heat exchanger 21a in a cooling mechanism 20 and an operation stop of a pump, etc. is generated, a microprocessor 22a decides whether an operating temperature which is read from a signal line 26 exceeds the prescribed upper limit value or not. Unless this operating temperature exceeds the prescribed upper limit value, the microprocessor 22a sends out a saving command of data to an operation control part 13 of an electronic device 10 through an output port 22c and a control line 23. The operation control part 13 which receives this command stops a regular operation of a logic integrated circuit and a storage integrated circuit for constituting a part 11 to be cooled and commands to save the data to an external storage part 14. In such a way, the labor and time for recovering the data after the recovery of abnormality can be curtailed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a cooling device used for heat dissipation of electronic devices such as computers.

(Prior art) In recent years, in electronic devices such as computers, the integration of digital integrated circuits and the density of packaging have been increasing in order to improve the performance of the devices. Density is also increasing rapidly.

In order to cope with this, the cooling method for electronic devices is also shifting from the conventional air cooling method to a forced circulation liquid cooling method.

In this liquid cooling system, forced circulation of the refrigerant is performed, in which the refrigerant is sent to the electronic device, and the refrigerant that returns from the electronic device, whose temperature has increased, is cooled and circulated back to the electronic device.

If a failure occurs in this cooling device and the cooling function decreases,
An increase in the operating temperature of an electronic device may cause its functionality to deteriorate or be destroyed.

In order to prevent deterioration or destruction of electronic devices due to failures in such cooling devices, safety measures are taken to constantly monitor the condition of the cooling device and to immediately command the power supply circuit of the electronic device to stop power supply operation when an abnormality is detected. ing.

That is, as shown in the block diagram of FIG. 3, data is loaded into the cooled section 11, the power supply section 12, the operation control section 13, and the digital integrated circuit of the cooled section 11, which are mainly composed of integrated circuits. The heat exchanger 3
1a, a tank 31b, a circulation pump 31C, and a refrigerant conduit 31d.

The monitoring/control unit 32 in the cooling device 30 includes a heat exchanger 31a.
The operating status of each part of the cooling mechanism, such as the cooling system and circulation pump 31c, is monitored via the internal monitoring/control line 33 and these operations are controlled, and if an abnormality in operation that is difficult to control is detected, safety measures are immediately taken. A power cut command is sent on the signal line 34. When a power cut command appears on the safety signal line 34, the operation control unit 13 in the electronic device 10
By issuing a command to the power supply unit 12, the supply of operating power to the cooled unit 11 is stopped.

(Issues to be Solved by the Invention 1!) In the conventional cooling device described above, the power supply to the integrated circuit of the electronic device is immediately stopped when an abnormality occurs in the cooling mechanism.

For this reason, when an abnormality occurs, the data being processed or held in the logic integrated circuit or memory integrated circuit in the cooled part 11 is destroyed, and it is necessary to spend a great deal of effort and time to restore the data after the abnormality is recovered. The problem is that it doesn't.

(Means for Solving the Problems) A cooling device for an electronic device according to the present invention includes a temperature sensor that detects the operating temperature of a cooled part of the electronic device and notifies a monitoring/control unit, and When an abnormality in the operation of the cooling mechanism is detected and the temperature detected by the temperature sensor is below a predetermined upper limit value, the unit instructs the electronic device to save data from the cooled unit to an external storage device, and cools the unit. Means is provided for instructing the electronic device to stop supplying operating power to the cooled section by the power supply section when the temperature detected by the temperature sensor exceeds the predetermined upper limit when an abnormality in the mechanism is detected. .

That is, according to the cooling device of the present invention, focusing on the fact that the thermal time constant of the cooling system is generally a large value compared to the operation time of a digital integrated circuit, Abnormal recovery is possible by evacuating the data being processed or held in the digital integrated circuit of the cooled part to an external storage device such as a magnetic disk, using the gap until the upper limit temperature is reached that requires the operation to stop. It is configured to save effort and time in later data recovery.

Hereinafter, the operation of the present invention will be explained in detail together with examples.

(Embodiment) FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a cooling device for an electronic device according to the present invention together with an electronic device to be cooled.

The electronic device 10 to be cooled includes a cooled section 11 mainly composed of digital integrated circuits such as logic circuits and memory circuits, a power supply section 12 that supplies DC power for operation to the cooled section 11, and a power supply section 12 that supplies DC power for operation to the cooled section 11. An operation control unit 13 that controls the operating status of the power supply unit 12, the cooled unit 11, etc., and a magnetic disk device that loads data to be processed into the cooled unit 10 and saves data that is being processed or held there. It is equipped with an external storage section 14 consisting of:

A cooling device 20 for this electronic device 10 includes a heat exchanger 2
1a, a tank 21b, an N-ring pump 21c, and a refrigerant pipe line 21d, a monitoring/control section 22, an internal monitoring/control line 23, and a security signal line 24. A temperature sensor 25 installed in the cooling unit 11 to detect its operating temperature, a signal line 26 that transmits the temperature detected by the temperature sensor 25 to the monitoring/control unit 22, and a signal line 26 for transmitting data to the operation control unit 13 of the electronic device 10. A control signal line 27 for issuing an evacuation command is provided.

As shown in the block diagram of FIG. 2, the monitoring/control section 22 within the cooling device 10 is comprised of a microprocessor 22a, an input boat 22b, and an output boat 22C.

The microprocessor 22a monitors the operating status of cooling mechanisms such as the heat exchanger 21a and the circulation pump 21c via the internal monitoring/control line 23 and the output boat 22b, and
The operation of each part of this cooling mechanism is controlled via the output boat 22c and the monitoring/control line 23. Note that the tank 21b is for absorbing expansion and contraction of volume due to temperature changes of the refrigerant. Further, the microprocessor 22a is
The operating temperature of the cooled part 11 outputted from the temperature sensor 25 onto the signal line 26 is detected, and if this operating temperature is higher than the control target value, the flow rate of the secondary cooling water of the heat exchanger 21a is adjusted. The cooling function is strengthened by increasing the amount of liquid sent by the pump 21C of the cooling mechanism.

The microprocessor 22a is a heat exchanger 2 in the cooling mechanism.
When it detects that an abnormality in operation that is difficult to control has occurred, such as stopping the supply of secondary cooling water to 1a or stopping the operation of the pump,
It is determined whether the operating temperature read from the signal line 26 exceeds a predetermined upper limit. If the operating temperature does not exceed the predetermined upper limit, the microprocessor 22a sends a data save command to the operation control section 13 of the electronic device 10 via the output capacitor 22c and the control line 26.

Upon receiving this command, the operation control unit 13 instructs the logic integrated circuits and memory integrated circuits constituting the cooled unit 11 to stop their normal operations and save data to the external storage unit 14.

Subsequently, the microprocessor 22a reads the operating temperature of the cooled part 11 output from the temperature sensor 25 by shortening the reading cycle compared to normal times, and determines whether or not this exceeds a predetermined upper limit value. If the operating temperature exceeds a predetermined upper limit, the microprocessor 22a outputs a power-off command to the operation control unit 13 of the data processing device 10 via the output port 22c and the safety signal line 24. The operation control unit 13 that received this power disconnection command,
The power supply unit 12 stops the supply of operating power to the cooling unit 11.
command.

The configuration in which the operation when an abnormality occurs is controlled via the operation control unit 13 in the electronic device 10 has been exemplified above.

However, without such an operation control unit 13,
Directly command the cooled part 11 to start saving data,
It may also be configured to directly instruct the power supply unit 12 to stop power supply.

Moreover, although the case where one temperature sensor is installed in the cooled part is illustrated, a plurality of temperature sensors can be installed in a fishing boat.

(Effects of the Invention) As explained in detail above, in the cooling device for an electronic device according to the present invention, the thermal time constant of the cooling mechanism is generally a large value compared to the operation time of a digital integrated circuit. Focusing on this, the system utilizes the gap between when an abnormality occurs in the cooling mechanism and when the operating temperature of the cooled part reaches a predetermined upper limit temperature to save data to an external storage device such as a magnetic disk. The effect is that the effort and time required to restore data after an abnormality recovery is significantly reduced.

Further, since the cooling device of the present invention is equipped with a temperature sensor for directly reading the operating temperature of the cooled part in the electronic device,
By utilizing this, highly accurate feedback temperature control can be performed during normal conditions.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a cooling device according to an embodiment of the present invention together with an electronic device to be cooled, and FIG.
A block diagram showing an example of the configuration of the monitoring/control unit 22 shown in FIG.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a conventional mold cooling device together with an electronic device to be cooled. 10... Electronic device to be cooled, 11... Part to be cooled,
12...Power supply unit, 14...External storage unit, 20...
Cooling device, 21a... Heat exchanger, 21c... Pump, 22... Monitoring/control unit, 23... Internal monitoring/control line, 24... Safety signal line, 25... Temperature sensor ,2
7... Control line that sends a data save command.

Claims (1)

[Claims] A cooled section mainly composed of digital integrated circuits, a power supply section that supplies operating power to the cooled section, and an external storage section for saving data in the cooled section. A cooling device for an electronic device comprising: a cooling mechanism having a heat dissipation function that circulates a refrigerant to a cooled part of the electronic device; a monitoring/control unit that monitors and controls the operation of the cooling mechanism; a temperature sensor that detects an operating temperature of a cooled part of the cooling mechanism and notifies the cooling/monitoring unit, and the control/monitoring unit detects an operating temperature of the cooling mechanism when the temperature detected by the temperature sensor is detected. When the temperature is below the predetermined upper limit, the electronic device is instructed to save data from its cooled part to an external storage device, and when an abnormality in the cooling mechanism is detected, the temperature detected by the temperature sensor is set to the predetermined upper limit. 1. A cooling device for an electronic device, comprising means for instructing the electronic device to stop supplying operating power to a cooled unit by a power supply unit of the electronic device when the value exceeds a certain value.