JP2001085882A - Method of cooling electronics - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method of cooling electronics which achieves power consumption of a cooling device suppressed to an appropriate level, a long life of the cooling device, minimal noises, electronics cooled to an appropriate temperature, simple design with a compact design and high reliability. SOLUTION: In a method of cooling components of electronics, components of the electronics are divided into functionally independent blocks 5. There are provided cooling devices 11, 12 for cooling the components and a control device 6 for adjusting individual cooling performance of the cooling devices by judging required cooling amount from operating situations of the blocks 5, so that only necessary cooling is performed for the electronics.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method of cooling electronic equipment, such as a network equipment and an electronic computer, in which the amount of heat generated varies according to the function in operation, and which cools each component to a minimum. is there.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, the degree of integration of transistors has been increased due to the progress of semiconductor technology, and the number of components realizing very high-performance circuits within a small area and small volume has increased. On the other hand, at present, the reduction in power consumption of transistors is delayed compared to the increase in integration. For this reason, high-performance electronic devices have a large heat generation density.

[0003] In general, components used in electronic equipment are more likely to fail as the temperature rises. Therefore, in order to obtain a sufficient life in an electronic device, each component must be cooled to a certain temperature or lower.

In the case of electronic equipment having a small heat generation density, the components can be sufficiently cooled by natural cooling depending on natural convection and radiation.

[0005] However, in the case of electronic equipment having a large heat generation density, a forced cooling device such as a fan, a blower, a water cooler, or a Peltier element must be provided to ensure necessary cooling performance. When designing an electronic device including such a forced cooling device, it is necessary to ensure that the components can be sufficiently cooled even at the maximum ambient temperature at which the use of the electronic device is expected.

In some electronic devices, the amount of heat generated by each component may vary greatly depending on the function being operated. Also,
Even in the same model, the amount of heat generated by those components may vary greatly depending on the operation target and the operation frequency.

In the case described above, in the conventional electronic equipment,
All cooling devices were to operate at maximum cooling performance.

As described above, when all the cooling devices of the electronic device are operated at the maximum performance, the power consumption of the cooling device increases, and the operation of the cooling device increases the heat generation of the entire electronic device. become.

Further, if the cooling device is always operated at the maximum performance, the reliability of the cooling device decreases. Cooling devices generally tend to have short lifetimes, which can be a bottleneck in the reliability of electronic equipment.

Further, in an electronic device employing a cooling device that generates noise such as a fan or a blower, a loud noise is always generated when the device is always operated at the maximum performance.
In some cases, the user felt discomfort or pain and discontinued use.

When the heat generation at the minimum load is much smaller than the heat generation at the maximum load, if the cooling device is operated with the cooling performance adapted to the maximum load, the cooling is performed more than necessary, and the parts operate. It may fall below the lowest possible temperature. In this case, some or all of the functions of the electronic device will be defective. In addition, dew condensation occurs when the temperature of the components or the substrate falls below the zero point, which may cause a short circuit or the like, causing a permanent failure of the electronic device.

Furthermore, when a new function is added to an electronic device, the cooling performance assumed at the time of designing the electronic device may be different from the cooling performance required after the addition of the new function. If the device is continuously used in such a state, a problem or a permanent failure may occur due to overheating or excessive cooling as described above.

Therefore, as a means for solving these problems, there has been a method of adjusting the cooling capacity by measuring the temperature of a specific point on an electronic device. FIG. 2 illustrates this method. As shown in the figure, the electronic device is provided with cooling devices 53 and 54 for cooling blocks 51 and 52 and a temperature sensor 55 for measuring the temperature of a specific point on the electronic device. This temperature sensor 55 is connected to a cooling device adjustment circuit 56. The cooling device adjusting circuit 56 determines the cooling performance of the cooling devices 53 and 54 according to the temperature detected by the temperature sensor 55, and issues a signal for operating the cooling devices 53 and 54.

[0014]

However, in the above-described method for cooling an electronic device, the temperature sensor 55 is provided on the electronic device. However, a design for associating the temperature at that position with the component temperature is required. Become. To make this association, you must prototype the electronics and measure the temperature,
It took a lot of trouble.

Further, since the reliability of the temperature sensor 55 is lower than other components in the electronic device,
There has been a problem that the expensive electronic device is damaged by the failure.

The present invention has been devised to solve the above problems, and has as its object the purpose of suppressing the power consumption of a cooling device to an appropriate level, extending the life of the cooling device, reducing the noise, An object of the present invention is to provide a method for cooling an electronic device, which cools the electronic device to an appropriate temperature, is simple in design, has good visibility, and has high reliability.

[0017]

According to the present invention, there is provided a cooling method for cooling each component of an electronic device, wherein each component of the electronic device is divided into functionally independent blocks. A cooling device for cooling the components, and a control device for individually adjusting the cooling performance of the cooling device by determining the required cooling amount from the operation state of the block,
This is a method of cooling the electronic device, which performs the minimum necessary cooling of the electronic device.

According to the above method, the required cooling amount is determined based on the operation state of the block, and the minimum necessary cooling of the electronic device is performed, so that overheating and excessive cooling of parts can be prevented. The electronic device can be cooled to an appropriate temperature. In addition, the power consumption of the cooling device is kept to an appropriate level,
The cooling unit has a long service life and minimal noise. further,
Since a temperature sensor is not used, reliability is high, and it is possible to eliminate the trouble of prototypes of electronic devices and actual measurement of temperature for associating the temperature at the position of the temperature sensor with the temperature of components as in the past. .

[0019] It is preferable that the control device detects the number of components of each of the electronic devices in operation and thereby determines the required amount of cooling of the components, thereby cooling the electronic devices.

Further, the electronic device has a transmission / reception LSI and a communication port group, and the control device sets the voltage supplied to the cooling device to V, and cools the transmission / reception LSI when no communication is performed. Assuming that the voltage that can be generated is V ₀ , the number of communication ports performing communication is n, and the voltage that can cool one communication port being communicated is V ₁ , the cooling device is defined as V = V ₀ + nV ₁ Formula for determining the voltage to be supplied to the
A method for cooling an electronic device holding a table or a circuit is preferred.

Further, a calculation formula held by the control device,
A table or circuit is preferably updated in accordance with the addition of a new function of the electronic device, and a cooling method for the electronic device in which the required cooling amount of the component is determined.

Further, when the electronic device communicates with another electronic device, the control device determines the number of communication partners, communication standard, communication amount, communication distance, communication quality, communication content, or model of the communication partner. It is preferable to use a cooling method for an electronic device in which the required amount of cooling of the above-mentioned components is determined according to the content of the electronic component.

[0023]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment in which the method for cooling an electronic device according to the present invention is applied to a communication repeater.

As shown in the figure, transmission / reception LSIs 1 and 2 are provided in the electronic equipment of the communication repeater. Communication port groups 3 and 4 are connected to the transmission / reception LSIs 1 and 2, respectively, and the communication port groups 3 and 4 are divided into a plurality of blocks for each communication port 5 which is a component of the communication port groups. .

The transmission / reception LSIs 1 and 2 are connected to a control device 6 for judging the required cooling amount of the above components. And
The transmission / reception LSIs 1 and 2 detect the number of communication ports (blocks) 5 connected to the communication port groups 3 and 4 and operating, and
A signal is transmitted to the control device 6.

The control device 6 comprises a control unit 7 and voltage adjustment circuits 8 and 9. The voltage adjustment circuits 8 and 9 include transmission / reception LSIs 1 and 2 and cooling of the communication port groups 3 and 4. Cooling fans 11 and 12, which are cooling devices, are connected.

The cooling fans 11 and 12 are a transmission / reception LSI
The cooling air is distributed to the transmission / reception LSIs 1 and 2 and the communication port groups 3 and 4, respectively.

In order to determine the required cooling amount of the component, the function being operated is detected from the number of connected communication ports 5 transmitted to the control unit 7, and the control unit 7 supplies the function to the cooling fans 11 and 12. The voltage to be calculated is calculated.

More specifically, the voltage to be supplied to the cooling fans 11 and 12 is obtained by the following formula.

[0031] The calculation formula is the voltage supplied to the cooling fan 11 and 12 is V, and the voltage can be cooled transceiver LSI1,2 and communication port group 3 and 4 when no communication is performed with V _0, Communication port 5 in operation with communication
The number of n, shown a voltage that can cool a single communication port 5 being communicated when the V _1, as V = V ₀ + nV _1.

The voltage V ₁ is the transmission / reception LS at the time of the maximum communication connection.
Voltage can require sufficiently cool the I1,2 V _max = V ₀ + n
It is back-calculated from the value of _max V _1.

The above voltage value is determined by the cooling fans 11, 1
2, the relationship between the voltage and the air flow, the cooling effect of the air flow of the cooling fans 11 and 12 on the transmission and reception LSIs 1 and 2, and the amount of heat generated by the transmission and reception LSIs 1 and 2 according to the number of connected communication ports 5. This is a value calculated from the information data provided by.

The above calculation formula indicates that if the voltage supplied to the cooling fans 11 and 12 is within a predetermined range, the cooling fan 1
The amount of air blows 1 and 12 depends on the voltage and utilizes the characteristic that the cooling performance is determined accordingly.

Then, the control unit 7 sends the signal to the voltage adjusting circuits 8 and 9 to supply appropriate voltages to the cooling fans 11 and 12 so that the transmitting and receiving LSIs 1 and 2 and the communication port groups 3 and 4 are set to the minimum required. Cool to a minimum.

When the amount of heat generated by the transmission / reception LSIs 1 and 2 varies depending on the type of connection, as in the case where the transmission / reception LSIs 1 and 2 support both low-speed and high-speed communication standards, The control unit 7 also detects the type of connection (low or high) in addition to the number of communication ports 5 being connected,
Set respectively voltages V ₁ which can be cooled communication port 5 one being communicated calculation formula in accordance with this and for slow and fast communication standard for communication standard, the number of communication ports 5 for the connection in , The voltage V supplied to the cooling fans 11 and 12 is calculated.

Further, the number of communication partners, communication standard, communication amount,
When the calorific value of the transmission / reception LSIs 1 and 2 changes due to a difference in communication distance, communication quality, communication content or communication partner model, the control unit 7 detects the contents of the above information,
The voltages V ₁ which can be cooled communication port 5 one being communicated calculation formula according to which a plurality set, the voltage supplied to the cooling fan 11 in accordance with the number of communication ports 5 for the connection in This is handled by calculating V.

Further, when the transmission / reception LSIs 1 and 2 perform different types of communication, the control unit 7 controls the voltage adjustment circuits 8 and
9 is applied to each of the cooling fans 11 and 12 by applying a different calculation formula.
Can be supplied to

Even when there are three or more transmission / reception LSIs instead of two as in this embodiment, similar effects can be obtained by applying different calculation formulas.

Also, in the case of mounting LSIs having different functions other than the transmission / reception LSIs 1 and 2 in addition to or instead of the transmission / reception LSIs 1 and 2, if a calculation formula suitable for those LSIs is set, The same effect can be obtained.

Even if the transmission / reception LSIs 1 and 2 are not a single LSI but are blocks such as an LSI group, a board, a board group, a housing or a housing group, a calculation formula suitable for each block may be set.

Instead of the calorific value calculation formula, the transmitting / receiving LSI is represented by a table that associates the function under operation with the calorific value.
The control unit 7 may be changed so as to determine the required cooling amounts 1 and 2. In addition, transmission / reception LS is performed based on an input signal to the control unit 7.
Other circuits that determine the required cooling amounts of I1 and I2 and generate output signals to the voltage adjustment circuits 8 and 9 may be provided in the control unit 7.

The control unit 7 may not be directly connected to the transmission / reception LSIs 1 and 2 but may detect the operation status from another part on the communication repeater or another device.

According to the scale and design policy of the communication repeater,
The present invention is applicable even if there are a plurality of control units 7 for controlling the individual cooling fans 11 and 12. In this case, the calculation formulas, which are held by the respective control units 7 and associate the function during operation with the heat generation amount, may also be different.

When there is a possibility that a new function may be added, for example, in response to communication of a new standard, the calculation formula is updated to cope with a change in the amount of heat generation, so that the determination of the required cooling amount can be appropriately determined. You should keep it. In order to realize this, the control unit 7 stores several calculation expressions in advance, and has a function of selecting one appropriate calculation expression from them according to the new function to be added. Further, a function of rewriting the calculation formula held by the control unit 7 via the communication port 5 may be provided. Further, some or all of the components corresponding to the control unit 7 may be replaced.

The operation of the present invention will be described below.

As described above, by detecting the number n of the communication ports 5 in communication and operating and calculating the voltage V to be supplied to the cooling fans 11 and 12 from the value by the calculation formula. In addition, overheating and excessive cooling of parts can be prevented, and electronic equipment can be cooled to an appropriate temperature. As a result, it is possible to prevent a failure or a permanent failure of the electronic device, thereby improving reliability. Therefore, an electronic device that can be incorporated in a system that requires high reliability can be provided.

Further, since the minimum required cooling is performed, it is possible to achieve energy saving without consuming unnecessary electric power and to reduce running cost.

Further, since the time during which the cooling device is operated at the maximum capacity is reduced, the load on the cooling device is reduced, and the life of the cooling device can be extended. As a result, the life of the entire electronic device is prolonged, and the reliability is improved. Furthermore, noise generated by the rotation of the cooling fans 11 and 12 can be suppressed to the minimum necessary, and discomfort and pain of the user can be reduced.

From the information data provided by each manufacturer,
Since the calculation formula is derived, it is possible to easily associate the function during operation with the cooling performance of the cooling device before actually manufacturing the electronic device. As a result, a cooling device capable of performing the minimum necessary cooling for the electronic device with a simple design is manufactured.
Also, in electronic devices that require high reliability, even when it is essential to measure the effect of cooling performance by trial production in designing, design and trial production with good prospects by estimating the required cooling performance in advance. be able to.

By updating a calculation formula, a table or a circuit for associating the operation status of the electronic equipment with the heat generation amount of the component according to the addition of the new function, the electronic equipment which always performs appropriate minimum necessary cooling can be provided. Can be provided.

Since the temperature sensor is not used, the reliability of the electronic device can be improved, and a prototype of the electronic device for associating the temperature at the position of the temperature sensor with the temperature of the component as in the related art and the actual measurement of the temperature can be obtained. Can be eliminated.

In the above embodiment, the cooling fans 11 and 12 are applied as cooling devices, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, a water cooler, a Peltier device, or the like may be applied.

[0054]

In summary, according to the present invention, it is possible to cool an electronic device to an appropriate temperature so that the power consumption of the cooling device can be suppressed to an appropriate level, and to prolong the life of the cooling device and reduce noise. In addition to this, an excellent effect is achieved in that the design of the electronic device is simplified and the reliability is improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment in which a method for cooling an electronic device according to the present invention is applied to a communication repeater.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a conventional method for cooling an electronic device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1, 2 transmission / reception LSI 3, 4 communication port group 5 communication port (block) 6 control device 11, 12 cooling fan (cooling device)

Claims (5)

[Claims] In a cooling method for cooling each component of an electronic device, each component of the electronic device is divided into functionally independent blocks, and a cooling device that cools the component and an operation state of the block based on an operation state of the block. Provide a control device that determines the required cooling amount and individually adjusts the cooling performance of the cooling device,
A method of cooling an electronic device, wherein the electronic device is cooled to a required minimum. 2. The method of cooling an electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the control device determines a required amount of cooling of the electronic device by detecting the number of operating components of the electronic device. 3. The electronic device has a transmission / reception LSI and a communication port group, and the control device sets a voltage supplied to the cooling device to V, and cools the transmission / reception LSI when communication is not performed. Assuming that the voltage that can be generated is V ₀ , the number of communication ports performing communication is n, and the voltage that can cool one communication port being communicated is V ₁ , the cooling device is defined as V = V ₀ + nV ₁ Formula for determining the voltage to be supplied to the
3. The method for cooling an electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the table or the circuit is held. 4. The electronic device according to claim 3, wherein the calculation formula, the table, or the circuit held by the control device is updated in accordance with the addition of a new function of the electronic device, and the required cooling amount of the component is determined. Cooling method. 5. When the electronic device communicates with another electronic device, the control device determines the number of communication partners, a communication standard, a communication amount, a communication distance, a communication quality, a communication content, or a model of the communication partner. The method for cooling an electronic device according to claim 1, wherein a required amount of cooling of the component is determined according to the content of the detected information.