International Business Machines Corporation

Noboru Tsurukawa

Shigefumi Odaohhara

Izuru Narita

Keiji Suzuki

Toshitsugu Mito

Hiroshi Nakagawa

Tomonori Nishio

A main battery used as an electric power unit for a computer is provided with a memory that stores capacity information denoting the total capacity of a battery and compensation information representing the total capacity of the battery as a function of a battery charging cycle count. A CPU detects a cycle count of the battery according to an integrated charged capacity of the battery, thereby obtaining the total capacity with respect to this cycle count from the compensation information so as to compensate the capacity information according to the obtained total capacity.

Electronic power unit with a battery and a compensator for calculating the actual charge capacity of the battery

A power supply unit includes a rechargeable battery for supplying power to a body circuit of an electrical apparatus, a current measurement circuit for measuring a currently-discharged current value, a voltage measurement circuit for measuring a currently-discharged voltage value, and a controller for detecting whether a memory effect occurs by determining whether a currently-discharged voltage value measured at a currently-discharged current value is lower than a predetermined voltage value when a detected battery capacity is equal to or less than a predetermined capacity.

Power supply unit, battery electrical apparatus, and memory effect detection method

To make it possible to supply to a battery a charging current having a sufficient capacity which enables a short-time charge while supplying a drive current for usual operation to a battery operable electronic device, without making construction large-sized and complicated. The present invention is intended to be able to delicately vary a charging current of a battery according to the variation of power consumption of load on an electronic device, by providing constant power feedback control means for performing feedback control of the outputted power so as to cause a constant power or a nearly constant power, based on a current feedback value and a voltage feedback value.

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Fujisawa, Japan

Noboru Tsurukawa