Storage controller super capacitor adaptive life monitor

Abstract

a storage device controller having a capacitor bank for storing electrical energy to provide power when main power is interrupted, a temperature sensor capable of sensing the temperature of the capacitor bank, and a central processing unit, repeatedly: at times when the capacitor bank is operating receiving a temperature in the interval, judging that the capacitor bank has a capacitance storing at least a predetermined amount of electric energy, and if the capacitor bank is operated at the temperature during the lifetime, the guaranteed life of the capacitor bank is relative to the judged Normalize the time interval by the ratio of lifetimes of , and add the normalized time interval to the cumulative normalized operating time. The operating voltage of the capacitor bank can also be sampled to determine the lifetime. The preset amount of electric energy may be the electric energy required for backing up the volatile memory to the nonvolatile memory when the main power supply is interrupted.

Description

[0001] This case claims the priority of US application No. 60 / 705,997 d filed on 8 / 4 / 2005. [0002] This case relates to the following U.S. applications: [0003] (case number) filing date Invention name (CHAP.0133) Storage Device Controller Ultracapacitor Dynamic Voltage Scaling (DH0136) Storage Device Controller Dynamic Write Cache Based on Supercapacitor The size adjustment of the capacitance technical field [0004] The technical field of the invention relates to the use of a capacitor bank as a rechargeable backup power supply in memory controllers, and more particularly to monitoring the life of the capacitor bank. Background technique [0005] Disk array (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disk / RAID) has become the mainstream of large-capacity storage systems for most computer systems on the market today. It is mostly used in applications that require high performance, large storage space, and / or high data availab...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

First, the battery is undoubtedly an expensive additional component to the disk array controller

Second, the current battery-related technology also shows that the power that the battery can maintain will begin to weaken after 2 to 3 years, and this life is also shorter than the expected life of the disk array controller

It also increases the cost of the disk array controller

Third, the operating temperature range without compromising battery life and degrading performance is quite narrow

Fourth, when the battery is depleted to compensate for a mains power shortage, the disk array controller will have to operate in an inefficient write-through cache mode until the battery is recharged, which takes a relatively long time to charge the battery. long

Therefore, when the service life of a capacitor bank can be greatly changed, how to provide a method to make the capacitor bank better meet the storage device controller manufacturer guarantees the user's service life is also an appeal

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