Patent Application
20170242465
Datacenters typically include a large number of servers, network storage devices, and other types of computing or communications components housed in racks, cabinets, containers, or other types of enclosures. Each server can include one or more processors, memories, storage devices, or other types of electrical/mechanical components. During operation, the servers in datacenters can execute instructions, transmit messages, or perform other operations in order to provide desired cloud computing services to remote users.
This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter.
Inaccurate time keeping on servers or computers can negatively impact proper operations in datacenters. Inaccurate time on a server can cause authentication errors, login failures, or other operating issues. Inaccurate time can also cause a server to perform computations, programming updates, maintenance operations, or other operations at incorrect times. To ensure accurate timing, servers and computers typically include a clock circuitry (e.g., a real time clock) powered by a coin-type lithium ion battery. Thus, even when a main power source becomes unavailable or a server is turned off, the clock circuitry can continue to maintain accurate time.
However, coin-type lithium ion batteries can have high failure rates, for example, greater than three percent. Replacing failed coin-type lithium ion batteries can be labor intensive and costly. Typically, a maintenance person has to physically remove a server from a rack, disassemble the server, remove a failed battery, install a new battery, reassemble the server, reconnect the server to the rack, and power up the server. Each datacenter can have thousands if not millions of servers. Thus, replacing failed coin-type lithium ion batteries in large datacenters can incur significant operating costs and a loss of service to users.
Several embodiments of the disclosed technology are directed to replacing coin-type lithium ion batteries on individual servers with a centralized power source. In certain embodiments, a server can be provided with a power supply that supplies power to a processor of the server at a first voltage (e.g., about 12 volts). The power supply can also include a rechargeable battery and a voltage regulator configured to convert power from the rechargeable battery to a second voltage (e.g., about 3 volts) suitable for a clock circuitry on the server. Thus, when power is cycled on the processor of the server, the rechargeable battery can still supply power to the clock circuitry via the voltage regulator, and thus enabling the clock circuitry to continue maintaining accurate time.
Several embodiments of the disclosed technology can reduce maintenance costs and a loss of service in datacenters when compared to conventional techniques. For example, instead of utilizing a coin-type lithium ion battery with high failure rates, the rechargeable battery with much higher reliability and capacity than coin-type lithium ion batteries can provide power to a clock circuitry on individual servers. Such rechargeable batteries can typically have a life span much longer than that of the individual servers. As such, the rechargeable batteries may not require replacement for the life of the servers. Thus, maintenance costs and a loss of service associated with replacing failed coin-type lithium ion batteries on servers can be eliminated or at least reduced.
Certain embodiments of systems, devices, components, and modules for providing centralized power sources to servers or other suitable computing devices are described below. In the following description, specific details of components are included to provide a thorough understanding of certain embodiments of the disclosed technology. A person skilled in the relevant art will also understand that the technology can have additional embodiments. The technology can also be practiced without several of the details of the embodiments described below with reference to
As used herein, the term “processing unit” generally refers to a computer assembly that has one or more computing devices housed in a case, frame, or other suitable structure. The computing devices can be individually configured to perform logic comparisons, arithmetic calculations, electronic communications transactions, electronic input/output, and other suitable types of computing functions. Example computing devices can include servers, computers, programmable logic controllers, network routers, network switches, network interface cards, data storage devices, or other suitable types of apparatus.
Also used herein, the term “power distribution unit” or “PDU” generally refers to an apparatus having a power inlet and multiple power outlets that are configured to distribute electrical power from a main power source (e.g., a power grid) to multiple processing units. The term “power inlet” generally refers to an electrical interface through which electrical power is received. A power inlet can include one or more appliance inlets, electrical switches, circuit breakers, voltage selectors, electromagnetic interference filters, surge protectors, ground fault interrupters, and/or other suitable electrical/mechanical components. A power outlet generally refers to an electrical interface through which electrical power is provided to, for example, a processing unit. A power outlet can include one or more of plugs, sockets, ground-fault interrupters, power wiring terminals, solenoids, electrical contacts, and/or other suitable electrical/mechanical components.
Inaccurate time keeping on computers or servers in datacenters can disrupt provision of cloud computing servers to users. Typically, servers in datacenters can each contain a clock circuitry that keeps accurate time. To ensure continued operation of the clock circuitry even when a server is powered down, the clock circuitry is normally powered by a coin-type lithium ion battery. However, the inventors have recognized that the coin-type lithium ion batteries can have significant failure rates. In a large datacenter with thousands and even millions of servers, replacing each failed coin-type lithium ion battery can be labor intensive and disruptive of normal operation of the datacenter. Several embodiments of the disclosed technology are directed to providing power to a clock circuitry on a server from a centralized power source instead of from a coin-type lithium ion battery, and thus reducing or even eliminating the costs associated with replacing coin-type lithium ion batteries.
As shown in
The processing units 104 can be configured to implement one or more computations, network communications, input/output capabilities, and/or other suitable functionalities, for example, as requested by the users 101. In certain embodiments, the processing units 104 can individually include a web server, application server, database server, and/or other suitable computing component. In other embodiments, the processing units 104 can also include routers, network switches, analog/digital input/output modules, modems, and/or other suitable components. Even though three processing units 104a-104c are shown in
A computer network 108 interconnects the processing units 104 to one another and to one or more client devices 103 (e.g., desktop computers) individually associated with corresponding users 101. The computer network 108 can include a wired medium (e.g., twisted pair, coaxial, untwisted pair, or optic fiber), a wireless medium (e.g., terrestrial microwave, cellular systems, WI-FI, wireless LANs, Bluetooth, infrared, near field communication, ultra-wide band, or free space optics), or a combination of wired and wireless media. The computer network 108 can also include routers, switches, modems, and/or other suitable computing and/or communications components operate according to Ethernet, token ring, asynchronous transfer mode, and/or other suitable protocols. In one embodiment, the computer network 108 can include, at least partially, the Internet. In other embodiments, the computer network 108 can include a wide area network, local area network, or other suitable types of computer network.
The PDU 114 can be configured to distribute electrical power from the main power source 107 to the individual processing units 104 in the enclosure 102. As shown in
In certain embodiments, the enclosure controller 105 can include a standalone computer, server, programmable logic controller, or other suitable types of computing device. In other embodiments, the enclosure controller 105 can be generally similar to one or more of the processing units 104. In further embodiments, the enclosure controller 105 can be implemented as a computing service provided by, for instance, one of the processing units 104 or a remote server (not shown).
The enclosure controller 105 can be configured to control certain operations inside the enclosure 102. For example, in certain embodiments, the enclosure controller 105 can be configured to receive a temperature reading from the temperature sensor 118. If the temperature reading indicates an internal temperature in the enclosure 102 to be above a threshold (e.g., 30° C.), the enclosure controller 105 can instruct the air mover 116 to start introducing cooling air into and/or exhausting warm air from the enclosure 102. In other embodiments, the enclosure controller 105 can also be operatively coupled to the processing units 104 via, for example, RS232 or other suitable out-of-band connections that allow the enclosure controller 105 to turn on/off power, synchronize time keeping, or perform other operations to the processing units 104, as described in more detail below with reference to
As described in more detail below with reference to
In the illustrated embodiment, the motherboard 120 can include sockets, pins, or other suitable components (not shown) configured to receive and carry a processor 122 (e.g., a CPU), memory 124 (e.g., RAM), and storage device (e.g., a hard drive disk). Even though only one processor 122 is shown in
As shown in
The clock circuitry 130 can be configured to maintain time and provide a signal thereof to, for instance, the processor 122 and/or the memory 124. In one embodiment, the clock circuitry 130 can include a real time clock based on a crystal oscillator. In another embodiment, the clock circuitry 130 can also include a real time clock that utilizes a power line frequency. In further embodiments, the clock circuitry 130 can also include other suitable circuits for maintaining accurate time. As described in more detail below, unlike in conventional computer systems, the processing unit 104 does not include a coin-type lithium ion battery configured to supply power to the clock circuitry 130. Instead, the power supply 121 is configured as a centralized power source to supply power to both the computing components of the processing unit 104 and the clock circuitry 130.
As shown in
In certain embodiments, the battery 132 can include a rechargeable lithium ion battery with a greater capacity and reliability than coin-type lithium ion batteries. For example, a suitable rechargeable lithium ion battery can have a capacity of 1000 mAh, 2000 mAh, 3000 mAh, 4000 mAh or other suitable capacity levels. In other embodiments, the battery 132 can also include lead-acid, nickel cadmium (NiCd), nickel metal hydride (NiMH), lithium ion polymer, or other suitable types of rechargeable battery. In the illustrated embodiment, the power converter 131 supplies power to charge the battery 132 and to power the startup controller 128 via a first rail 138a. In other embodiments, the battery 132 can supply power at the first voltage to the startup controller 128 in addition to or in lieu of the power converter 131 via an optional rail 138a′. In further embodiments, the optional rail 138a′ may be omitted.
The power supply 121 can also include a voltage regulator 134 coupled to the battery 132. The voltage regulator 134 can include one or more buck/boost circuits, dropdown resistors, capacitors, and/or other suitable electrical components configured to produce power at a second voltage (e.g., about 3 volts) from the power from the battery 132 at the first voltage. The voltage regulator 134 can then supply the power at the second voltage to the clock circuitry 130 on the motherboard 120. In the illustrated embodiment, the voltage regulator 134 is directly and electrically coupled to the battery 132. In other embodiments, the voltage regulator 134 can also be electrically coupled to the power converter 131 to receive power from the power converter 131. The voltage regulator 134 can also include a sensor (e.g., a resistor, not shown) to sense a loss of power from the power converter 131 and a switch (not shown) to switch from being connected to the power converter 131 to the battery 132.
In accordance with certain aspects of the disclosed technology, power at the second voltage supplied to the clock circuitry 130 can be maintained even if power to the power supply 121 is lost or if the power supply is turn off, for instance, during a power cycle of the processing unit 104. As shown in
Even though the power supply 121 and the motherboard 120 are shown in
Also, as shown in
In certain embodiments, as shown in
Depending on the desired configuration, the processor 204 can be of any type including but not limited to a microprocessor (μP), a microcontroller (μC), a digital signal processor (DSP), or any combination thereof. The processor 204 can include one more levels of caching, such as a level-one cache 210 and a level-two cache 212, a processor core 214, and registers 216. An example processor core 214 can include an arithmetic logic unit (ALU), a floating point unit (FPU), a digital signal processing core (DSP Core), or any combination thereof. An example memory controller 218 can also be used with processor 204, or in some implementations memory controller 218 can be an internal part of processor 204.
Depending on the desired configuration, the system memory 206 can be of any type including but not limited to volatile memory (such as RAM), non-volatile memory (such as ROM, flash memory, etc.) or any combination thereof. The system memory 206 can include an operating system 220, one or more applications 222, and program data 224. This described basic configuration 202 is illustrated in
The computing device 200 can have additional features or functionality, and additional interfaces to facilitate communications between basic configuration 202 and any other devices and interfaces. For example, a bus/interface controller 230 can be used to facilitate communications between the basic configuration 202 and one or more data storage devices 232 via a storage interface bus 234. The data storage devices 232 can be removable storage devices 236, non-removable storage devices 238, or a combination thereof. Examples of removable storage and non-removable storage devices include magnetic disk devices such as flexible disk drives and hard-disk drives (HDD), optical disk drives such as compact disk (CD) drives or digital versatile disk (DVD) drives, solid state drives (SSD), and tape drives to name a few. Example computer storage media can include volatile and nonvolatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information, such as computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules, or other data. The term “computer readable storage media” or “computer readable storage device” excludes propagated signals and communication media.
The system memory 206, removable storage devices 236, and non-removable storage devices 238 are examples of computer readable storage media. Computer readable storage media include, but not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (DVD) or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other media which can be used to store the desired information and which can be accessed by computing device 200. Any such computer readable storage media can be a part of computing device 200. The term “computer readable storage medium” excludes propagated signals and communication media.
The computing device 200 can also include an interface bus 240 for facilitating communication from various interface devices (e.g., output devices 242, peripheral interfaces 244, and communication devices 246) to the basic configuration 202 via bus/interface controller 230. Example output devices 242 include a graphics processing unit 248 and an audio processing unit 250, which can be configured to communicate to various external devices such as a display or speakers via one or more A/V ports 252. Example peripheral interfaces 244 include a serial interface controller 254 or a parallel interface controller 256, which can be configured to communicate with external devices such as input devices (e.g., keyboard, mouse, pen, voice input device, touch input device, etc.) or other peripheral devices (e.g., printer, scanner, etc.) via one or more I/O ports 258. An example communication device 246 includes a network controller 260, which can be arranged to facilitate communications with one or more other computing devices 262 over a network communication link via one or more communication ports 264.
The network communication link can be one example of a communication media. Communication media can typically be embodied by computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules, or other data in a modulated data signal, such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism, and can include any information delivery media. A “modulated data signal” can be a signal that has one or more of its characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode information in the signal. By way of example, and not limitation, communication media can include wired media such as a wired network or direct-wired connection, and wireless media such as acoustic, radio frequency (RF), microwave, infrared (IR) and other wireless media. The term computer readable media as used herein can include both storage media and communication media.
The computing device 200 can be implemented as a portion of a small-form factor portable (or mobile) electronic device such as a cell phone, a personal data assistant (PDA), a personal media player device, a wireless web-watch device, a personal headset device, an application specific device, or a hybrid device that include any of the above functions. The computing device 200 can also be implemented as a personal computer including both laptop computer and non-laptop computer configurations.
Specific embodiments of the technology have been described above for purposes of illustration. However, various modifications can be made without deviating from the foregoing disclosure. In addition, many of the elements of one embodiment can be combined with other embodiments in addition to or in lieu of the elements of the other embodiments. Accordingly, the technology is not limited except as by the appended claims.
