Systems and methods for forward compatibility of custom thermal settings
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing information handling systems face challenges in providing power and thermal budget support for third-party resources, requiring reconfiguration or recompilation of management controller firmware and leading to suboptimal performance, especially when custom thermal settings are overridden by firmware updates.
Innovation Solution
An information handling system with a management controller that stores power and thermal tables, along with a personality module, uses attributes to select and write conflicting thermal parameters to final settings, ensuring forward compatibility and optimal performance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If management controller firmware is updated to add support for new information handling resources, then power and thermal budget support is improved, but reconfiguration or recompilation of firmware is required which delays shipment or release
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the firmware structure into a base firmware component and separate personality modules. Each personality module contains vendor-specific or device-specific power and thermal budget parameters that can be independently loaded without recompiling the base firmware. This allows new information handling resources to be supported by simply adding or updating personality modules rather than reconfiguring the entire firmware.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent pre-configures multiple personality modules with different power and thermal budget settings for various information handling resources. These modules are prepared in advance and can be selectively loaded based on the specific hardware configuration, eliminating the need for firmware reconfiguration when supporting new resources.
2Adaptability or versatility
If personality module information is used to provide custom thermal settings, then customized parameters are achieved, but subsequent firmware updates may not be used as personality module information may override such updates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a dynamic loading mechanism where personality modules are loaded at runtime based on the detected hardware configuration rather than being statically embedded. The management controller identifies the installed information handling resources and loads the appropriate personality module parameters dynamically, allowing firmware updates to take effect while still providing custom thermal settings when needed.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent incorporates a feedback mechanism where the management controller detects the actual hardware configuration and uses this information to determine whether to apply personality module parameters or rely on firmware-default parameters. This feedback loop ensures that custom settings are applied only when appropriate and do not conflict with necessary firmware updates.
Data Source
AI summary
When conflicting thermal parameters for thermal control exist in both of a personality module and one of a power table and a thermal table, wherein the power table comprises a plurality of entries each setting forth supported parameters for power management of one or more information handling resources, wherein the thermal table comprises a plurality of entries each setting forth parameters for thermal management of the one or more information handling resources, and wherein a personality module comprises a plurality of entries each setting forth custom parameters for system-specific power/thermal management of the one or more information handling resources, each entry of the personality module including an attribute associated with the custom parameters, a method may perform selecting one of the conflicting thermal parameters as a selected thermal parameter based on the at least one attribute; and writing an entry associated with the selected thermal parameter to final thermal.