Patent application number | Description | Published |
20110278928 | WIND-POWERED DATA CENTER - This document describes various techniques for powering a computer data center using a wind-powered generator. The computer data center may include network connected servers that are electrically connected to, and powered by, the wind-powered generator. | 11-17-2011 |
20110296155 | AUTOMATICALLY STARTING SERVERS AT LOW TEMPERATURES - This document describes various techniques for automatically starting servers at low temperatures. A server may be powered on into a heating mode responsive to determining that a temperature of the server is below an operational temperature range. The server may then be restarted when the temperature of the server has increased to a temperature that is within the operational temperature range. | 12-01-2011 |
20110304211 | Rack-Based Uninterruptible Power Supply - A rack power unit is configured to be inserted into a device rack of a data center. The rack power unit includes one or more power supplies and one or more battery packs. The one or more power supplies are each configured to receive power (e.g., AC power) when the apparatus is in the device rack, and convert the received power to a DC power. The one or more power supplies are further configured to output the DC power to a DC power bus of the device rack. The one or more battery packs are each configured to provide, in response to an interruption in the received power, DC power to the DC power bus of the device rack. | 12-15-2011 |
20110316338 | Hierarchical Power Smoothing - Power is provided to one or more devices in a system that includes a hierarchical power smoothing environment having multiple tiers. In response to a peak in power usage by the one or more devices, power is provided from a first power smoothing component in a first tier of the multiple tiers. Additionally, power is provided to the one or more devices from power smoothing components in each of other tiers of the multiple tiers if the power smoothing component in a next lower tier of the multiple tiers is unable to provide sufficient power for the peak in power usage. If the power smoothing components in the multiple tiers are unable to provide sufficient power for the peak in power usage, then performance of at least one of the one or more devices is reduced in response to the peak in power usage. | 12-29-2011 |
20120065788 | MANAGING COMPUTATIONAL WORKLOADS OF COMPUTING APPARATUSES POWERED BY RENEWABLE RESOURCES - A method described herein includes an act of receiving data that is indicative of predicted weather conditions for a particular geographic region, wherein the particular geographic region has an energy generation system therein, and wherein the energy generation system utilizes at least one renewable energy resource to generate electrical power. The method also includes the act of scheduling a computational workload for at least one computer in a data center based at least in part upon the data that is indicative of the predicted weather conditions for the particular geographic region. | 03-15-2012 |
20120098343 | CHASSIS SLOTS ACCEPTING BATTERY MODULES AND OTHER MODULE TYPES - A chassis includes a component interconnect board having multiple multi-function slots coupled thereto. Each of the multi-function slots is configured to accept different types of modules, including a battery module and one or more other types of modules, such as server modules or storage modules. The component interconnect board also includes a power bus coupled to receive external power and route the external power to the multiple multi-function slots. | 04-26-2012 |
20120140404 | CONTROLLING MINIMUM AIR INLET TEMPERATURE USING WASTE HEAT - An electronic device has a ventilation system with an inlet section that receives inlet air that travels past components of the computing device to be cooled and exits at an outlet section. The air carries heat away from the components. A liquid heat transfer system captures heat generated by the components and transfers the captured heat to the inlet section of the ventilation system to warm the inlet air before it travels past the components to be cooled. | 06-07-2012 |
20120151886 | SELF CLEANING FAN ASSEMBLY - This patent pertains to self-cleaning fan assemblies. One implementation includes electronic components positioned in an enclosure. This implementation also includes a fan assembly that is configured to impart rotational force on air to move the air from outside the enclosure to inside the enclosure and around the electronic components. The fan assembly is further configured to separate contaminants from the air based upon differences in density between the contaminants and the air. | 06-21-2012 |
20120155704 | LOCALIZED WEATHER PREDICTION THROUGH UTILIZATION OF CAMERAS - Described herein are various technologies pertaining to predicting an amount of electrical power that is to be generated by a power system at a future point in time, wherein the power system utilizes a renewable energy resource to generate electrical power. A camera is positioned to capture an image of sky over a geographic region of interest. The image is analyzed to predict an amount of solar radiation that is to be received by the power source at a future point in time. The predicted solar radiation is used to predict an amount of electrical power that will be output by the power system at the future point in time. A computational resource of a data center that is powered by way of the power source is managed as a function of the predicted amount of power. | 06-21-2012 |
20120168145 | DEICING LOUVERS FOR DATACENTER APPLICATIONS - A datacenter may use heat collected from a heat exchanger at the exhaust portion of a cooling system to heat inlet louvers for an atmospheric intake. The louvers may have fluid passages through which heated fluid may pass and cause the louvers to heat up. The heated louvers may operate during periods of snow, rain, high humidity, or other conditions to eliminate condensation, snow and ice buildup, or other problems. In some embodiments, a liquid may be passed through the louvers, while in other embodiments, heated air or other gas may be passed through conductive paths in the louvers. In a heated air system, holes in the louvers may allow the heated air to enter the incoming airstream to regulate the incoming temperature to the datacenter. | 07-05-2012 |
20120324245 | WIRELESS CLOUD-BASED COMPUTING FOR RURAL AND DEVELOPING AREAS - A framework that enables a local computing cloud infrastructure for rural (and third world) populations with the ability to connect into the global cloud. The framework include is a low cost architecture of long distance, wireless based, renewable energy powered, and small datacenter (DC) (referred to as a pico-DC) nodes that can fully operate off-grid, both power-wise and Internet connection-wise at a very low cost. Additionally, the framework includes power management and storage techniques that effectively enable low power and efficient power use. Thus, systems are self-sufficient, low maintenance and weather proof with no need for power or data connections. | 12-20-2012 |
20130120941 | MODULAR EQUIPMENT RACK SYSTEM FOR DATA CENTER - Various technologies described herein pertain to racking equipment in a data center. A modular equipment rack system can include an upper track, a lower track, a vertical support, a power and network distribution unit, and a tray. The upper track and the lower track can respectively include incrementally spaced mounting locations at which the vertical support and the power and network distribution unit can be attachable. The tray can be attachable to the vertical support and the power and network distribution unit when the vertical support is attached to the upper track at a first upper mounting location and attached to the lower track at a corresponding first lower mounting location, and the power and network distribution unit is attached to the upper track at a second upper mounting location and attached to the lower track at a corresponding second lower mounting location. | 05-16-2013 |
20130138935 | AUTOMATICALLY STARTING SERVERS AT LOW TEMPERATURES - This document describes various techniques for automatically starting servers at low temperatures. A server may be powered on into a heating mode responsive to determining that a temperature of the server is below an operational temperature range. The server may then be restarted when the temperature of the server has increased to a temperature that is within the operational temperature range. | 05-30-2013 |
20130257160 | Transformer Coupled Current Capping Power Supply Topology - Described is a technology by which magnetic flux is used to provide backup power. A transformer has a line power source controllably coupled to a first input winding, and secondary power source controllably coupled to a second input winding. A controller monitors the line power and switches to the secondary power source if the line power voltage drops too low, or uses the secondary power source to augment the line power source if the line power current gets too high. Also described is incrementally transitioning from the secondary power source back to the line power source. | 10-03-2013 |
20130295834 | MULTI-CHASSIS CLIMATE REGULATOR PLENUM - Climate regulation within a chassis of an electronics enclosure (e.g., a workstation case or a server cabinet) may be achieved through an airflow regulated by at least one climate regulator devices (e.g., a variable-speed fan array) and a plenum configured to direct the airflow at the components of the enclosure. The enclosure may store a set of chassis, each having a dedicated plenum and climate regulator devices. However, this architecture may be less efficient than an architecture wherein adjacently mounted chassis may connect plenums (e.g., directly connecting an exhaust of one plenum with an inlet of the adjacent plenum) to unify the airflow directed through several chassis. Additionally, the chassis may feature a removable portion of the plenum wall that provides access to the plenum, and the climate regulator devices may be mounted on the removable portion, such that detachment enables withdrawal and servicing of the climate regulator devices. | 11-07-2013 |
20130335907 | TRAY AND CHASSIS BLADE SERVER ARCHITECTURE - In computing scenarios involving an aggregation of multiple computational units into a server or computer set, many architectures may be devised to provide physical storage and logical aggregation of the computational units. Presented herein are variations of one such architecture, comprising a chassis having a set of slots, into which may be inserted a tray storing the computational units of one or more blades. Respective trays and chassis slots comprise a power connector and a network connector that are positioned to connect directly (i.e., without a cable or manual interaction) when a tray is inserted into a slot. The chassis stores a set of power supplies, and may connect each blade with a power supply, optionally providing power routing and failover capabilities. The chassis may also provide a management component that connects to and provides management capabilities of the blades of the trays, power supplies, and climate regulating components. | 12-19-2013 |
20130342968 | ENCLOSURE POWER DISTRIBUTION ARCHITECTURES - Computational enclosures may be designed to distribute power from power supplies to load units (e.g., processors, storage devices, or network routers). The architecture may affect the efficiency, cost, modularity, accessibility, and space utilization of the components within the enclosure. Presented herein are power distribution architectures involving a distribution board oriented along a first (e.g., vertical) axis within the enclosure, comprising a power interconnect configured to distribute power among a set of load boards oriented along a second (e.g., lateral) axis and respectively connecting with a set of load units oriented along a third (e.g., sagittal) axis, and a set of power supplies also oriented along the third axis. This orientation may compactly and proximately position the loads near the power supplies in the distribution system, and result in a comparatively low local current that enables the use of printed circuit boards for the distribution board and load boards. | 12-26-2013 |
20130344794 | CLIMATE REGULATOR CONTROL FOR DEVICE ENCLOSURES - Climate regulation within an enclosure (e.g., a case of a workstation or a rack or cabinet of servers) may be achieved through a climate regulator featuring several selectable climate regulator settings (e.g., a variable-speed fan array). Controllers of such climate regulators often select climate regulator settings based on current conditions inside the enclosure, such as the temperature of one or more processors operating within the enclosure. However, such control fails to account for the climate of air outside the enclosure that is drawn in to provide climate regulation, even though the climate properties of inlet air may significantly affect the effectiveness of climate regulation. Accordingly, a controller of a climate regulator may be configured to detect inlet climate properties of air directed into the enclosure, and to map the inlet climate properties (alone or in combination with other factors) to a selected climate regulator setting for the climate regulator. | 12-26-2013 |
20140036452 | MODULAR EQUIPMENT RACK SYSTEM FOR DATA CENTER - Various technologies described herein pertain to racking equipment in a data center. A modular equipment rack system can include an upper track, a lower track, a vertical support, a power and network distribution unit, and a tray. The upper track and the lower track can respectively include incrementally spaced mounting locations at which the vertical support and the power and network distribution unit can be attachable. The tray can be attachable to the vertical support and the power and network distribution unit when the vertical support is attached to the upper track at a first upper mounting location and attached to the lower track at a corresponding first lower mounting location, and the power and network distribution unit is attached to the upper track at a second upper mounting location and attached to the lower track at a corresponding second lower mounting location. | 02-06-2014 |
20140169211 | DIRECT NETWORK HAVING PLURAL DISTRIBUTED CONNECTIONS TO EACH RESOURCE - A direct network is described in which each resource is connected to a switching fabric via a set of two or more routing nodes. The routing nodes are distributed so as to satisfy at least one inter-node separation criterion. In one case, the separation criterion specifies that, for each resource, a number of routing nodes that share a same coordinate value with another routing node in the set (in a same coordinate dimension) is to be minimized. In some network topologies, such as a torus network, this means a number of unique loops of the direct network to which each resource is connected is to be maximized. The routing provisions described herein offer various performance benefits, such as improved latency-related performance. | 06-19-2014 |
20140170865 | SUBSTANTIALLY RIGID INTERCONNECTION STRUCTURE FOR DEVICES - A substantially cable-free board connection assembly may include a plurality of printed circuit boards (PCBs) forming an interconnect plane for a plurality of electronic devices respectively attached to a plurality of plane boards included in the interconnect plane. An insertion direction for substantially all connectors is substantially perpendicular to a face of the interconnect plane. At least a portion of the board connection assembly is mounted to a support structure via a flexible connection. | 06-19-2014 |
20140195366 | INCREMENTAL VALUATION BASED NETWORK CAPACITY ALLOCATION - A bid-based network sells network capacity on a transaction-by-transaction basis in accordance with bids placed on transactions. A transaction is the transmission of a quantum of data across at least some portion of the network, where the quantum of data can be as small as a single packet. Bids for network capacity are ranked in order of monetary value, or other criteria relevant to the network service provider. The amount charged to the highest bidder is based on the maximum bid of the next highest bidder. Bids are evaluated on a real-time basis at the time when the link is ready to transmit data. An automated system makes individual bids at each link through which data is transmitted and can take into account additional criteria that can be specified as part of the bid information, including latency and routing requirements. Bid information is passed with data through the network. | 07-10-2014 |
20140280669 | Memory Sharing Over A Network - Memory is shared among physically distinct, networked computing devices. Each computing device comprises a Remote Memory Interface (RMI) accepting commands from locally executing processes and translating such commands into forms transmittable to a remote computing device. The RMI also accepts remote communications directed to it and translates those into commands directed to local memory. The amount of storage capacity shared is informed by a centralized controller, either a single controller, a hierarchical collection of controllers, or a peer-to-peer negotiation. Requests that are directed to remote high-speed non-volatile storage media are detected or flagged and the process generating the request is suspended such that it can be efficiently revived. The storage capacity provided by remote memory is mapped into the process space of processes executing locally. | 09-18-2014 |
20150029643 | ENCLOSURE POWER DISTRIBUTION ARCHITECTURES - Computational enclosures may be designed to distribute power from power supplies to load units (e.g., processors, storage devices, or network routers). The architecture may affect the efficiency, cost, modularity, accessibility, and space utilization of the components within the enclosure. Presented herein are power distribution architectures involving a distribution board oriented along a first (e.g., vertical) axis within the enclosure, comprising a power interconnect configured to distribute power among a set of load boards oriented along a second (e.g., lateral) axis and respectively connecting with a set of load units oriented along a third (e.g., sagittal) axis, and a set of power supplies also oriented along the third axis. This orientation may compactly and proximately position the loads near the power supplies in the distribution system, and result in a comparatively low local current that enables the use of printed circuit boards for the distribution board and load boards. | 01-29-2015 |
20150032286 | LOW COST STORAGE FOR RARELY READ DATA - Low cost storage for write once read rarely data is described. In an embodiment a storage device comprises a plurality of hard disk drives connected to a server via an interconnect fabric. The storage device comprises a cooling system which is only capable of cooling a first subset of the hard disk drives and a power supply system which is only capable of powering a second subset of the hard disk drives and in some examples, the interconnect fabric may be only capable of providing full bandwidth for a third subset of the hard disk drives. Each subset may comprise only a small fraction of hard disk drives. A control mechanism, which may be implemented in software, is provided which controls which hard disk drives are active at any time in order that the constraints set by the cooling and power supply systems and interconnect fabric are not violated. | 01-29-2015 |