CN1782945A - Heating device and method for computer system - Google Patents

Abstract

A heating device and method for computer system is disclosed, in which the heating device includes an embedded controller and a heating and control unit. The embedded controller can output the heating control signal before the computer system completes the boot program. The heating and control unit heats at least one internal device (such as a hard disk) in the computer system according to whether the heating control signal is enabled or not.

Description

Heating device and method for computer system

technical field

The invention relates to a heating device and method, in particular to a heating device and method of a computer system.

Background technique

Computer systems must operate within a certain temperature range to ensure correct operation. However, sometimes the computer system must work in a low-temperature environment (such as military and industrial computer systems), so the internal temperature of the computer system must be kept above the minimum operating temperature. Since the internal circuits of today's computer systems generate heat during normal operation, it is usually sufficient to keep the internal temperature of the computer system above the minimum operating temperature.

However, when the computer is turned on in a low-temperature environment (for example, below 0 degrees Celsius), some internal devices in the computer system may not reach the operating temperature, resulting in poor system startup or even damage to the components themselves. For example, most general hard disk drives (hard disks, or hard disks) can only work in an environment above 0 degrees Celsius. If the temperature is lower than 0 degrees Celsius, there is a risk of data loss, or even hard disk damage. Although heat energy is generated inside the computer system during normal operation, the hard disk can be kept at a working temperature above 0 degrees Celsius. But the problem is that before the system is turned on, the system itself does not generate heat energy. If the ambient temperature is too low at this time, the temperature of the hard disk will of course be too low. If it is turned on at this time, the risk of hard disk damage will easily occur.

Contents of the invention

The purpose of the present invention is to provide a heating device for a computer system, so that when the user presses the power switch when the ambient temperature is too low, the heating device will preheat the computer system first, so that the internal device reaches an appropriate temperature before turning it on . Therefore, it is possible to prevent internal device damage due to low-temperature start-up.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a method for heating a computer system, so that the computer system can be preheated at a low temperature to prevent internal devices from being damaged due to low temperature startup.

The invention provides a heating device for a computer system, which includes an embedded controller and a heating and control unit. The embedded controller outputs a heating control signal before the computer system completes the boot process. The heating and control unit heats at least one internal device in the computer system according to whether the heating control signal is enabled.

According to the heating device for a computer system according to an embodiment of the present invention, the above-mentioned embedded controller is coupled to a power switch of the computer system, and determines whether to perform a boot process according to the on-off state of the power switch. Wherein, the embedded controller determines whether to enable the heating control signal according to the sensing result of at least one temperature sensing device in the computer system before performing the boot procedure.

In the heating device for a computer system according to an embodiment of the present invention, when the embedded controller enables the heating control signal, the embedded controller suspends the booting process. And, when the heating and control unit heats the internal device to a predetermined temperature according to whether the heating control signal is enabled, the heating and control unit stops heating and outputs a heating completion message to the embedded controller. Wherein, when the embedded controller receives the heating completion message, it continues to complete the booting procedure.

According to the heating device of the computer system described in an embodiment of the present invention, when the above-mentioned heating and control unit does not heat up to the predetermined temperature within a predetermined time, the heating and control unit stops heating and outputs a heating failure message to the embedded controller . In the embodiment of the present invention, when the embedded controller receives the heating failure message, it continues to complete the booting procedure. In another embodiment of the present invention, when the embedded controller receives the heating failure message, it stops the boot process and shuts down the computer system.

According to the heating device of the computer system according to an embodiment of the present invention, the above-mentioned heating and control unit includes a heating controller, at least one heating component and at least one heating monitoring component. The heating component heats the corresponding internal device according to the control of the heating controller. The heating monitoring component is used for monitoring the temperature of the corresponding internal device. The heating controller is coupled to the embedded controller, the heating element and the heating monitoring element, and is used to drive the heating element according to whether the heating control signal is enabled, and to determine whether to stop driving the heating by monitoring the temperature of the internal device through the heating monitoring element components.

The present invention also proposes a heating method for a computer system, which includes the following steps. First, the heating control signal is generated before the computer system completes the boot process. Then at least one internal device of the computer system is heated according to whether the heating control signal is enabled.

The heating method for a computer system according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention further includes the following steps. The temperature of the computer system is sensed before the boot process is performed. When the temperature of the computer system is higher than the maximum operating temperature, the computer system is shut down.

According to the computer system heating method according to an embodiment of the present invention, the above-mentioned step of generating the heating control signal includes sensing the temperature of the computer system before the boot process; and when the temperature of the computer system is lower than the minimum operating temperature, enabling Heating control signal.

According to the computer system heating method according to an embodiment of the present invention, the above-mentioned step of heating the internal device includes monitoring the temperature of the internal device. The internal device is heated when the temperature of the internal device is less than the minimum operating temperature. And, when the temperature of the internal device reaches a predetermined temperature, stop heating the internal device and generate a heating completion message.

The computer system heating method according to an embodiment of the present invention further includes: when the heating control signal is enabled, the computer system suspends the boot process; and when the heating completion message is generated, the computer system continues to complete the boot process.

According to the computer system heating method according to an embodiment of the present invention, the above-mentioned step of heating the internal device further includes stopping heating and generating a heating failure message when the heating fails to reach a predetermined temperature within a predetermined time. In one embodiment, when the heating failure message is generated, the computer system continues to complete the boot process. In another embodiment, when the heating failure message is generated, the computer system stops the boot process and shuts down the computer system.

With the present invention, when the ambient temperature is too low, when the user presses the power switch, the heating device will preheat the computer system first, so that the internal device reaches an appropriate temperature before turning on the computer. Therefore, it is possible to prevent internal device damage due to low-temperature start-up. Furthermore, since the system itself will generate heat energy after it is turned on, the heating device will be turned off after the internal device reaches the working temperature, so that the system can be prevented from overheating.

In order to make the above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention more comprehensible, the following specific embodiments are described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Description of drawings

FIG. 1 is a heating device of a computer system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of a heating method of a computer system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Description of reference symbols

110: Power switch

111, 121: start signal

120: Embedded Controller

122: heating control signal

130: Main system

140: Heating and control unit

142: heating controller

144: heating element

146: Heating monitoring component

150: temperature sensing device

160: Internal devices to be preheated

S202-S224: Steps of a computer system heating method according to an embodiment of the present invention

Detailed ways

General computer systems work within an appropriate temperature range. However, for example, military and industrial computer systems often have to work in a low-temperature environment, so the interior of the computer system must be kept above the minimum operating temperature. The internal devices and circuits of today's computer systems generate a lot of heat during normal operation, so it is usually enough for the computer system to keep the internal temperature above the minimum operating temperature in a low temperature environment.

However, when the computer is turned on in a low-temperature environment such as below 0 degrees Celsius, the system may fail to start because the internal devices of the computer system have not reached the working temperature, and even the components themselves may be damaged. For example, most general hard disk drives (or hard disks) can only work in an environment above 0 degrees Celsius. If the temperature is lower than 0 degrees Celsius, there is a risk of data loss, and even the hard disk is damaged. For the convenience of description, in the following embodiments, only hard disks will be used to represent the internal devices in the computer system that need to be preheated. Those skilled in the art can select the objects to be preheated according to the characteristics and requirements of each internal device in the computer system.

Before the system is turned on, the system itself does not generate heat energy. If the ambient temperature is too low, the hard disk temperature will of course be too low. If the system is turned on at this time, the risk of hard disk damage will easily occur. The following embodiments will illustrate that when the user presses the power switch, the system booting process will be stopped, so that the system temperature can be checked at this time, and the system can be heated to a workable temperature at an appropriate time before the normal booting process can be performed.

In this embodiment, the steps of checking the system temperature and system heating will be added to the initial power sequence of the system boot process, and the designer can also check the system temperature and system temperature at any time before the system boot process is completed. Steps for system heating. Since it takes very little time to check the temperature of the system, and the general system also takes some time to execute the power-on procedure, after the computer system is added with the heating device of this embodiment, the time spent on starting up the computer system will not be harmful to the user. cause confusion and inconvenience.

FIG. 1 is a heating device of a computer system according to an embodiment of the present invention. Please refer to FIG. 1 , for the convenience of description, only a portable computer (such as a notebook computer) is taken as an example to illustrate the embodiment of the present invention. In the booting process of a general notebook computer, the user first presses the power switch 110 to generate a booting signal 111 . When the power-on signal 111 is input to the embedded controller 120, the embedded controller 120 starts the boot process. Here, the embedded controller 120, for example, performs a power-on procedure at the initial stage of the system boot-up procedure, and immediately generates a boot signal 121 to the main system 130 (usually the south bridge chip receives the boot signal 121 ) after the power-on procedure is completed. After receiving the boot signal 111 , the main system 130 immediately performs other steps of the system boot process (such as loading the operating system).

In order to prevent the computer from being turned on in a low-temperature environment, the internal devices 160 such as the hard disk may not reach the operating temperature, which may cause poor system startup, or even cause damage to the hard disk itself. Therefore, it is necessary to preheat the internal device 160 such as the hard disk before completing the boot process. FIG. 2 is a flowchart of a heating method of a computer system according to an embodiment of the present invention. Please refer to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 at the same time. In this embodiment, when the user presses the power switch, a power-on signal 111 is generated (step S202). After receiving the power-on signal 111, the embedded controller 120 will suspend the system boot process and Use this time to sense the temperature of the computer system (step S204). Here, a plurality of system temperature sensing devices 150 configured in the computer system are used to sense the temperature of the computer system (such as the temperature of the central processing unit, etc.), so in step S204 the embedded controller 120 can receive each The system temperature sensing device 150 monitors the computer system temperature, and compares whether the computer system temperature exceeds the maximum operating temperature (step S206) to determine whether to make the system issue a temperature warning (step S208) and shut down the computer system (step S210). Therefore, it is possible to avoid system damage caused by the computer system working in a high temperature environment. Wherein, the judgment criterion of the above step S206 may be, for example, "whether the system temperatures monitored by all system temperature sensing devices are greater than the maximum operating temperature".

When the computer system temperature does not exceed the maximum operating temperature, proceed to step S212, that is, the embedded controller 120 determines whether the computer system temperature monitored by each system temperature sensing device 150 is lower than the minimum operating temperature. If the system temperature monitored by the system temperature sensing device 150 is not lower than the minimum operating temperature, the embedded controller 120 disables the heating control signal 122 (that is, disables the heating and control unit 140) and continues the power-on procedure (step S222). After the power-on procedure is completed, the embedded controller 120 then outputs a boot signal 121 to the main system 130 (ie, the south bridge chip) for subsequent system boot-up procedures (step S224 ). Wherein, the judgment criterion of the above step S212 may be, for example, "whether the system temperatures monitored by all system temperature sensing devices are not lower than the minimum operating temperature".

If the system temperature monitored by any system temperature sensing device is lower than the minimum operating temperature, the embedded controller 120 enables the heating control signal 122 and outputs it to the heating and control unit 140, and at the same time, the embedded controller 120 suspends The start-up procedure (ie, the power-on procedure) is carried out. The heating and control unit 140 heats at least one internal device (such as a hard disk) 160 in the computer system according to whether the heating control signal 122 is enabled. In this embodiment, the heating and control unit 140 includes, for example, a heating controller 142, a heating component 144, and a heating monitoring component 146, wherein the number of the heating component 144 and the heating monitoring component 146 corresponds to the number of the internal devices 160 to be heated. For example, an internal device 160 to be heated can be equipped with a heating component 144 and a heating monitoring component 146 .

When the heating controller 142 receives the enabling heating control signal 122, it detects the temperature of the internal device 160 to be heated through the heating monitoring component 146 (step S214), so as to determine whether the temperature of the internal device 160 to be heated is lower than the predetermined temperature. (step S216). Usually, the aforementioned predetermined temperature is slightly higher than the lowest operating temperature of the internal device 160 to be heated. If the temperature of the internal device 160 to be heated is lower than the predetermined temperature, the heating controller 142 drives the heating element 144 to start heating the internal device 160 (step S218 ). Wherein, the heating element 144 is, for example, a resistive heater. In this embodiment, each time step S218 is performed, for example, the heating is only for 0.5 seconds, but those skilled in the art can determine the heating time according to the requirements and the characteristics of the internal device to be heated.

Step S220 is performed immediately after step S218 is completed, that is, the heating controller 142 judges whether the total heating time exceeds a predetermined time (here, for example, 5 minutes). If the total heating time has not exceeded the predetermined time, steps S214 to S220 are repeated until the heating controller 142 detects that the temperature of the internal device 160 has exceeded the predetermined temperature through the heating monitoring component 146 (step S216), and the heating and control unit 140 immediately The heating is stopped (that is, the heating controller 142 stops driving the heating element 144 ) and outputs a heating completion message to the embedded controller 120 . After the embedded controller 120 receives the heating completion message, it continues to complete the power-on procedure (step S222 ). And, when the embedded controller 120 completes the power-on procedure, it outputs the boot signal 121 to the main system 130 (ie, the south bridge chip) for subsequent system boot-up procedure (step S224 ).

However, when the heating and control unit 140 cannot heat the internal device 160 to a predetermined temperature within a predetermined time (that is, the total heating time exceeds the predetermined time in step S220), the heating and control unit 140 stops heating and is controlled by the heating controller 142. Outputting a heating failure message to the embedded controller 120 . Designers can design the embedded controller 120 according to requirements, so that when the embedded controller 120 receives the heating failure message, it continues to complete the power-on and boot procedures (steps S222 and S224), or, when the embedded controller 120 receives When the heating failure message is received, the system issues a temperature warning (step S208) and the computer system is shut down (step S210).

Those skilled in the art can also design the embedded controller 120 according to the spirit of the present invention to perform step S220, that is, when the embedded controller 120 outputs the heating control signal and has not received the heating output by the heating controller 142 for more than a predetermined time When completing the message (step S216), make the embedded controller 120 stop waiting for the heating completion message and continue to complete the power-on and boot procedures (steps S222 and S224); or, make the embedded controller 120 stop waiting for the heating completion message to enable The system issues a temperature warning (step S208) and shuts down the computer system (step S210).

To sum up, before the system is turned on, the system itself does not generate heat energy. If the ambient temperature is too low at this time, the temperature of internal devices such as hard disks will of course be too low. At this time, the risk of damage will easily occur if the system is turned on. . With the heating device of the present invention, when the user presses the power switch, the temperature of the system can be checked without affecting the start-up time. When the temperature of the internal device (such as the hard disk) is lower than the minimum operating temperature, the booting process is suspended and the system is heated to a workable temperature before the normal booting process is performed. After the computer system is turned on, the heat energy generated inside the computer system during normal operation can be used to keep the hard disk and other internal devices within the normal operating temperature range. Therefore, it is possible to prevent internal device damage due to low-temperature start-up. Furthermore, since the system itself will generate heat energy after it is turned on, the heating device will be turned off after the internal device reaches the working temperature, so that the system can be prevented from overheating.

Although the present invention only discloses the above embodiments, it is not intended to limit the present invention. Those skilled in the art can make some changes and modifications without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Therefore, the protection scope of the present invention The claims of the present invention shall prevail.

Claims (14)

1. A heating device located in a computer system, comprising: an embedded controller for outputting a heating control signal before the computer system completes a boot process; and A heating and control unit, coupled to the embedded controller, is used for heating at least one internal device of the computer system according to whether the heating control signal is enabled. 2. The heating device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the embedded controller is coupled to a power switch of the computer system, and determines whether to perform the boot process according to the on-off state of the power switch. 3. The heating device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the embedded controller is coupled to at least one temperature sensing device in the computer system, and determines whether to enable the heating control according to the sensing result of the temperature sensing device signal. 4. The heating device of the computer system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the internal device is a hard disk drive. 5. The heating device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the heating and control unit comprises: at least one heating element for heating the corresponding internal device; at least one heating monitoring component for monitoring the corresponding temperature of the internal device; and A heating controller, coupled to the embedded controller, the heating element and the heating monitoring element, is used to drive the heating element according to whether the heating control signal is enabled, and monitor the internal heating element through the heating monitoring element The temperature of the device to decide whether to stop driving the heating element. 6. The heating device as claimed in claim 5, wherein the heating element is a resistive heater. 7. A heating method for heating a computer system comprising: generating a heating control signal before the computer system completes a boot process; and At least one internal device of the computer system is heated according to whether the heating control signal is enabled. 8. The heating method according to claim 7, further comprising: sensing the temperature of the computer system prior to performing the boot procedure; and When the temperature of the computer system is higher than a maximum operating temperature, the computer system is shut down. 9. The heating method as claimed in claim 7, wherein the step of generating the heating control signal comprises: sensing the temperature of the computer system prior to performing the boot procedure; and When the temperature of the computer system is lower than a minimum operating temperature, the heating control signal is enabled. 10. The heating method of claim 7, wherein the step of heating the internal device comprises: monitor the temperature of the internal device; heating the internal device when the temperature of the internal device is less than a minimum operating temperature; and When the temperature of the internal device reaches a predetermined temperature, the heating of the internal device is stopped and a heating completion message is generated. 11. The heating method of claim 10, further comprising: When the heating control signal is enabled, the computer system suspends the boot process; and When the heating completion message is generated, the computer system continues to complete the boot procedure. 12. The heating method according to claim 10, wherein the step of heating the internal device further comprises: When the heating fails to reach the predetermined temperature within a predetermined time, the heating is stopped and a heating failure message is generated. 13. The heating method according to claim 12, wherein the step of heating the internal device further comprises: When the heating failure message is generated, the computer system continues to complete the booting procedure. 14. The heating method according to claim 12, wherein the step of heating the internal device further comprises: When the heating failure message is generated, the computer system stops the boot process and shuts down the computer system.

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