Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Ajit Justin

Gregory Nielsen

Rajagopal Venkatachalam

Mika Juhani Rintamaeki

Francisco Cantu De La Garza

Adam Matthew Mahood

Thirupathaiah Annapureddy

Bhushan Mehendale

A method of thermal and power control in a computing device includes, at the computing device, initializing a thermal module of the computing device, receiving data at the thermal module from a first component assigned to an interface of the thermal module, and sending an output to a second component from the thermal module based on the data. Initializing the thermal module includes detecting a presence of a plurality of potential components of the computing device; querying each of the plurality of potential components to determine capabilities of each component; in response to the querying, for each of at least a subset of the plurality of potential components receiving identification information for the component and, based on the received identification information, configuring one or more interfaces of the plurality of predefined interfaces of the thermal module to establish communication with the sub set of components.

Systems and methods for thermal system management

A multi-battery system implements operations to equalize discharge path impedance. The system includes first and second batteries of different capacities each coupled to a battery rail that supports source load electronics. The system includes charge control electronics configured to decouple the first battery from the battery rail when the discharge path of the first battery and the discharge path of the second battery have unequal impedance and to recouple the first battery to the battery rail when the discharge path of the first battery and the discharge path of the second battery have substantially equal impedance.

Balanced discharge in multi-battery system

A method of thermal and power control in a computing device includes, at the computing device, initializing a thermal module of the computing device, receiving data at the thermal module from a first component assigned to an interface of the thermal module, and sending an output to a second component from the thermal module based on the data. Initializing the thermal module includes detecting a presence of a plurality of potential components of the computing device; querying each of the plurality of potential components to determine capabilities of each component; in response to the querying, for each of at least a subset of the plurality of potential components receiving identification information for the component and, based on the received identification information, configuring one or more interfaces of the plurality of predefined interfaces of the thermal module to establish communication with the subset of components.

In a computing device that includes multiple device sections, one or more rechargeable battery power sources can be placed in each device section. Not only does this approach provide valuable space for multiple batteries, but it can also present the option of powering each device section from any one or both of the battery power sources. However, using multiple battery power sources in a computing device can present challenges in effectively charging the battery power sources using an external power source. This technology adds an independent common charge controller that may bypass the charge circuits for each battery pack based on outputs from fuel gauges internal to each of the battery packs. This permits fast battery charging, while remaining within current and voltage limits that are dependent on the battery state of charge to preserve battery life.

Common charge controller for electronic devices with multiple batteries

Variables utilized in device firmware that provides various boot and runtime services are repaved in a fault-tolerant manner within a secure store in a durable, non-volatile device memory during an FOTA update process. A spare region in the secure store is utilized to temporarily hold a back-up of a primary region in which the firmware variables are written. Using a transaction-based fault-tolerant write (FTW) process, the variables in the primary region can be repaved with variables contained in a firmware update payload that is delivered from a remote service. In the event of a fault in the variable region repaving process, either the primary or spare region will remain valid so that firmware in a known good state can be utilized to enable the device to boot successfully and the variable region repaving in the FOTA update process may be restarted.

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Sammamish, WA, United States of America

Ajit Justin