JPH07107658B2 - Electronic device cooling system - Google Patents

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a cooling device used for heat dissipation of an electronic device such as an electronic computer.

(Prior Art) In recent years, in electronic devices such as electronic computers, higher integration of digital integrated circuits and higher packaging density have been promoted in order to improve the performance of the devices. Density is also rising rapidly. In order to deal with this, the cooling method of electronic devices is also shifting from the conventional air cooling method to the forced circulation type liquid cooling method.

In this liquid cooling system, the coolant is sent to the electronic device, and at the same time, the coolant having a raised temperature returned from the electronic device is cooled and forcedly circulated to the electronic device so as to be circulated again.
If this cooling device fails and the cooling function stops,
There is a risk that the electronic device may deteriorate in function or be destroyed due to the increase in operating temperature.

In order to prevent deterioration or destruction of the electronic device due to such a failure of the cooling device, safety measures are taken to constantly monitor the state of the cooling device and immediately instruct the power supply circuit of the electronic device to stop the power supply operation when an abnormality is detected. ing.

That is, as shown in the block diagram of FIG. 3, data is loaded into a cooled part 11 mainly composed of an integrated circuit, a power supply part 12, an operation control part 13, and a digital integrated circuit of the cooled part 11. External storage unit 14 that saves or saves data from there
With respect to the electronic device 10 including the heat exchanger 31a, the tank 31b,
A cooling mechanism including a circulation pump 31c and a refrigerant conduit 31d,
Monitoring / control section 32, internal monitoring / control line 33, security signal line
A cooling device 30 including 34 and 34 is installed.

The monitoring / control unit 32 in the cooling device 30 controls the operations while monitoring the operating states of the respective parts of the cooling mechanism such as the heat exchanger 31a and the circulation pump 31c via the internal monitoring / control line 33, and controls them. Immediately after detecting the occurrence of an abnormal operation that is difficult to control, a power-off command is sent to the security signal line 34. The operation control unit 13 in the electronic device 10 uses the security signal line
When a power-off command appears on 34, the power-supply unit 12 is commanded to stop the supply of operating power to the cooled unit 11.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) In the above-described conventional cooling device, as soon as an abnormality occurs in the cooling mechanism, power supply to the integrated circuit of the electronic device is stopped.
Therefore, when an abnormality occurs, the data being processed or held in the logic integrated circuit or the memory integrated circuit in the cooled portion 11 is destroyed, and great effort and time must be spent to recover the data after the abnormality recovery. There is a problem of not becoming.

(Means for Solving the Problem) A cooling device for an electronic device according to the present invention includes a temperature sensor that detects an operating temperature of a cooled part of the electronic device and notifies the monitoring / controlling part of the operating temperature. The monitoring unit instructs the electronic device to save the data from the cooled unit to the external storage device when the temperature detected by the temperature sensor is equal to or lower than a predetermined upper limit value when the operation abnormality of the cooling mechanism is detected, When an abnormality of the cooling mechanism is detected and the temperature detected by the temperature sensor exceeds the predetermined upper limit value, a means for instructing the electronic device to stop the supply of operating power to the cooled portion by the power supply unit is provided. There is.

That is, according to the cooling device of the present invention, attention is paid to the fact that the thermal time constant of the cooling system is generally a large value as compared with the time required for the operation of the digital integrated circuit. Abnormal recovery by saving the data being processed or held in the digital integrated circuit of the cooled part to the external storage device such as a timed disk by using the gap until the upper limit temperature at which operation must be stopped is reached It is designed to save the effort and time of later data recovery.

Hereinafter, the operation of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to Examples.

(Embodiment) FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a 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 part 11 mainly composed of a digital integrated circuit such as a logic circuit and a storage circuit, and a power supply part 12 for supplying DC power for operation to the cooled part 11.
And an operation control unit 13 that controls the operating states of the power supply unit 12 and the cooled unit 11, and a magnetic disk that loads data to be processed into the cooled unit 10 and saves data that is being processed or held there. An external storage unit 14 including a device and the like is provided.

The cooling device 20 for the electronic device 10 includes a cooling mechanism including a heat exchanger 21a, a tank 21b, a circulation pump 21c, and a refrigerant conduit 21d, a monitoring / control unit 22, an internal monitoring / control line 23, and a safety signal. In addition to the line 24, a temperature sensor 25 installed in the cooled portion 11 of the electronic device 10 for detecting its operating temperature, and a signal line 26 for transmitting the detected temperature of the temperature sensor 25 to the monitoring / controlling portion 22. The operation control unit 13 of the electronic device 10 is provided with a control signal line 27 for issuing a data save command.

As shown in the block diagram of FIG. 2, the monitoring / control unit 22 in the cooling device 10 is composed of a microprocessor 22a, an input port 22b, and an output port 22c.

The microprocessor 22a monitors the operating state of the cooling mechanism such as the heat exchanger 21a and the circulation pump 21c via the internal monitoring / control line 23 and the output port 22b, and at the same time outputs the output port 22
The operation of each part of this cooling mechanism is controlled via c and the monitoring / control line 23. The tank 21b is for absorbing the expansion and contraction of the volume due to the temperature change of the refrigerant. Further, the microprocessor 22a detects the operating temperature of the cooled portion 11 output from the temperature sensor 25 on the signal line 26, and if this operating temperature is higher than the control target value, the heat exchanger 21a The cooling function is strengthened by increasing the flow rate of the secondary cooling water or increasing the liquid feed amount of the pump 21c of the cooling mechanism.

When the microprocessor 22a detects that an abnormal operation which is difficult to control such as supply stop of the secondary cooling water to the heat exchanger 21a in the cooling mechanism and operation stop of the pump has occurred, the signal line is detected.
It is determined whether the operating temperature read from 26 exceeds the predetermined upper limit value. If the operating temperature does not exceed the above specified upper limit value, the microprocessor 22a
A data save command is sent to the operation control unit 13 of the electronic device 10 via the control line 26 and the control line 26. Upon receiving this command, the operation control unit 13 commands the logical integrated circuit and the memory integrated circuit forming the cooled unit 11 to stop the normal operation and save the data to the external storage unit 14.

Subsequently, the microprocessor 22a reads the operating temperature of the cooled portion 11 output from the temperature sensor 25 by shortening the reading cycle as compared with the normal time, and determines whether or not the operating temperature exceeds a predetermined upper limit value. Microprocessor 22a
When the operating temperature exceeds a predetermined upper limit value, the data processing device 1 is connected via the output port 22c and the security signal line 24.
A power-off command is output to the operation control unit 13 of 0. The operation control unit 13 receiving this power-off command instructs the power supply unit 12 to stop the supply of operating power to the cooling unit 11.

The configuration for controlling the operation when an abnormality occurs via the operation control unit 13 in the electronic device 10 has been illustrated above. However, the configuration may be such that the cooled portion 11 is directly instructed to start saving data, and the power supply portion 12 is directly instructed to stop the power supply, without using the operation control portion 13.

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

(Effects of the Invention) As described 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 as compared with the time required for operation of the digital integrated circuit. Focusing on the above, since it is a configuration for saving data to an external storage device such as a magnetic disk using a gap from when an abnormality occurs in the cooling mechanism until the operating temperature of the cooled portion reaches a predetermined upper limit temperature, The effect that the labor and time for data recovery after abnormal recovery is significantly reduced is achieved.

In addition, since the cooling device of the present invention includes a temperature sensor for directly reading the operating temperature of the cooled portion in the electronic device,
By utilizing this, it is possible to perform highly accurate feedback temperature control during normal operation.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a cooling device according to an embodiment of the present invention together with an electronic device to be cooled, and FIG.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of the monitoring / control unit 22 in FIG. 3, and FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a conventional electric cooling device together with an electronic device to be cooled. 10 ... Electronic device to be cooled, 11 ... Cooled part, 12 ... Power supply part, 14 ... External storage part, 20 ... Cooling device, 21a ... Heat exchanger, 21c ... Pump, 22 ... Monitoring / control section, 23 ……
Internal monitoring / control line, 24 ... Security signal line, 25 ... Temperature sensor, 27 ... Control line for sending data save command.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A cooled unit mainly comprising a digital integrated circuit, a power supply unit for supplying operating power to the cooled unit, and an external storage unit for saving data in the cooled unit. A cooling device for an electronic device, wherein the electronic device has a cooling mechanism that radiates a refrigerant through a cooled portion of the electronic device, a monitoring / control unit that monitors and controls the operation of the cooling mechanism, A temperature sensor for detecting the operating temperature of the cooled part and notifying the cooling / monitoring part, and the control / monitoring part detects a temperature detected by the temperature sensor when an abnormality in the operation of the cooling mechanism is detected. When it is less than or equal to the upper limit value, the electronic device is instructed to save the data from the cooled part to the external storage device, and when the abnormality of the cooling mechanism is detected, the temperature detected by the temperature sensor is Serial predetermined cooling device of an electronic device when exceeding the upper limit, characterized in that it comprises means for commanding the stopping of the supply of operating power to the object to be cooled by the power supply unit to the electronic device.