The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 02, 2008
Filed:
Dec. 19, 2006
Angela Beth Dalton, Austin, TX (US);
Richard Edwin Harper, Chapel Hilll, NC (US);
William Joseph Piazza, Holly Springs, NC (US);
Angela Beth Dalton, Austin, TX (US);
Richard Edwin Harper, Chapel Hilll, NC (US);
William Joseph Piazza, Holly Springs, NC (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
Thermal diagnostic systems and methods are provided for improved detection of airflow anomalies in a computer system. In particular, processor load is selectively increased to amplify the effects caused by any airflow anomaly that may be present in the computer system. Workload migration may be used to shift processor load from another node to a target node. Artificial load may also be generated on the target node. The processor load increased to a level sufficient that an airflow anomaly would cause a detectable temperature difference at the selected node. The processor load may be increased by an amount computed to generate this detectable temperature difference. Alternatively, the processor load may be increased by a predetermined amount of between 40% and 100% of full processor utilization. While at the increased processor load, actual temperature sensed by temperature sensors may be compared to temperatures predicted from the model to detect the presence or absence of an airflow anomaly.