Patent Application
20070293137
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention. The embodiments illustrated herein are presently preferred, it being understood, however, that the invention is not limited to the precise arrangements and instrumentalities shown, wherein:
Referring to
The SPC chassis 260 may be configured to retain the modules for the devices 204 and 206. In certain aspects, the devices 204 and 206 are hot pluggable into the SPC chassis 260. In addition, the SPC chassis 260 may be configured to plug into the main chassis 250. In particular, the SPC chassis 260 can be retained in the second cavity 212 of the main chassis 250. A common plenum 240 may be positioned between the modules for the devices 204 and 206 and between the blowers 207, 209. The upper plenum 220 may be formed above the SPC chassis 260 and between the SPC chassis 260 and the main chassis 250. The lower plenum 230 may be formed below the SPC chassis 260. In certain aspects, the upper plenum 220 and the lower plenum 230 are formed within the SPC chassis 260.
The midplane 270 may be a printed circuit board to which the blade servers 202 and devices 204 and 206 connect. In addition, the midplane 270 may include apertures 276 in a central portion of the midplane 270. The apertures 272 and 274 provide a path for air from the blades 202 to the first plenum 220 and second plenum 230, respectively. As shown by the arrows 280, 282, and 284, air used to cool the blades 202 may be split between the first plenum 220, the second plenum 230, and the common plenum 240.
Referring to
In many circumstances, however, the maximum amount of airflow through the system 200 is not required because optional subsystems may not be installed and the installed subsystems may not be fully utilized.
Although certain of the redirection devices 400A, 400B may be associated with specific blades 202 or peripheral devices 204, the system 200 is not limited in this manner. Certain of the redirection devices 400C may be associated with a specific plenum and/or a specific grouping of blades 202 and/or peripheral devices 204. In this manner, the redirection of air from certain devices may be accomplished globally rather than individually.
By redirecting airflow from one particular blade 202 or peripheral device 204, 206, for the same total cooling flow through the system 200, the airflow to the other blades 202 or other peripheral devices 204, 206 within the system 200 may be increased. Moreover, when the cooling flow to one (or more) devices is reduced, the airflow to the other devices within the system 200 may be maintained and the total cooling flow through the system 200 may be decreased by reducing the speed of one or more of the blowers 207, 209. The reduction in speed of the blowers 207, 209 also reduces the acoustic output of the blowers 207, 209. In this manner, the redirection devices 400 may be used to increase airflow to certain devices and/or reduce the acoustic output of the blowers 207, 209.
Referring to
The management module 216 makes the determination that a particular subsystem requires additional cooling or does not require the amount of cooling being provided. Many different manners of directly or indirectly determining the temperature of a particular device are known, and the management module 216 is not limited as to any manner so capable. For example, the management module 216 may employ a sensor to determine the temperature at a particular location relative to the subsystem. Other examples include reading a temperature of a CPU within the subsystem, determining power consumption of the subsystem, determining the utilization of the CPU within the subsystem and/or determining the temperature of a power supply within the server 12.
Additionally, the management module 216 may determine that a particular subsystem does not require cooling through an indication that the subsystem is not present. For example, positioning a particular blade 202 in a slot may register on a sensor, and if the sensor does register the blade 202 within the slot, the management module 216 may determine that the particular subsystem is not present.
Once the management module 216 makes the determination that a particular subsystem is overheating and requires additional cooling, the management module 216 controls the redirection devices 400 and/or the speed of the blowers 207, 209 to redirect airflow to the overheating subsystem and/or increase the total airflow within the system 200. Conversely, if the management module 216 makes the determination that a particular system does not require a full complement of airflow for cooling (e.g., the subsystem is running cooler than necessary), the management module 216 controls the redirection devices 400 and/or the blowers 207, 209 to redirect airflow away from the subsystem and/or decrease the total airflow within the system 200.
Since certain of the subsystems may be in parallel and/or series airflow paths with one another, the management module 216 may take into account how changing the airflow to one particular subsystem may effect the airflow to another particular subsystem. The manner and/or algorithms used by the management module 216 to take into account the effects of changing the airflow to one particular subsystem may effect the airflow to another particular system is not limited to a particular type.
In this manner, the management module 216 may control the redirection devices 400 and/or the speed of the blowers 207, 209 to provide sufficient airflow to all of the subsystems to meet the cooling requirements of the subsystems while reducing the amount of acoustic noise generated by the blowers 207, 209. Since the thermal loads created by the subsystems may constantly vary, the management module 216 may be configured to constantly update the configuration of the redirection devices 400 and/or the speed of the blowers 207, 209 to compensate for the changing cooling requirements of the subsystems.
Certain of the functional units described in this specification have been labeled as modules, in order to more particularly emphasize their implementation independence. For example, a module may be implemented as a hardware circuit comprising custom circuits or gate arrays, off-the-shelf semiconductors such as logic chips, transistors, or other discrete components. A module may also be implemented in programmable hardware devices such as field programmable gate arrays, programmable array logic, programmable logic devices or the like.
Modules may also be implemented in software for execution by various types of processors. An identified module of executable code may, for instance, comprise one or more physical or logical blocks of computer instructions which may, for instance, be organized as an object, procedure, or function. Nevertheless, the executables of an identified module need not be physically located together, but may comprise disparate instructions stored in different locations which, when joined logically together, comprise the module and achieve the stated purpose for the module.
A module of executable code could be a single instruction, or many instructions, and may even be distributed over several different code segments, among different programs, and across several memory devices. Similarly, operational data may be identified and illustrated herein within modules, and may be embodied in any suitable form and organized within any suitable type of data structure. The operational data may be collected as a single data set, or may be distributed over different locations including over different storage devices, and may exist, at least partially, merely as electronic signals on a system or network.
Many types of redirection devices 400 are known capable of redirecting the airflow, and the present system 200 is not limited in the manner or particular device in which the airflow is modified. For example, devices such as, programmable louvers, dampers, or shutters may be used to increase the airflow to certain subsystems and/or to increase the airflow to other subsystems. An example a redirection device 400 is illustrated in
Although not limited in this manner, the redirection device 400 may be incorporated into the midplane 270. The midplane 270 includes apertures 276 through which air flows from the blades 202 to the blowers 207, 209, and each aperture 276 may be fitted with a shutter 402 that partially and/or completely covers the aperture 276. Each aperture 276 may be associated with a particular blade 202 so that the partial or complete closure of the aperture 276 by a shutter 402 reduces the airflow to that particular blade 202. In
The partial and/or complete covering of the aperture 276 by the shutters 402 is not limited in a particular manner. For example, an electromagnetic may be mounted on the top of the aperture 276, and a permanent magnet may be mounted in the shutter. A controller may then be used to vary the supply of electricity to the electromagnetic. Depending upon the polarity and amount of electricity to the electromagnet, the shutters 402 may be completely and/or partially opened or closed. Alternatively, the shutter 402 may be completely and/or partially closed through the use of a servo.
As another example, instead of shutters 402, the redirection device 400 may include a pair of adjacent perforated sheets (not shown) that slide relative to one another. The perforations in the sheet can be sized and positioned such that the a particular relative movement of one sheet to the other sheet changes the amount of cooling flow through the redirection device 400. In this manner, the cooling flow may be completely or partially redirected.
