Intel Patents Fan Speed Control to Cool CPUs

[Guest]

Intel has been granted a patent which ties cooling fan speed to CPU leakage power.

Intel Patents Fan Speed Control to Cool CPUs : Read more

 

[crisan_tiberiu]

lmao, how can u pattent this? so, now if i want to control a fan to cool a CPU i have to pay intel a fee? lame..

 

[Goldengoose]

Can't see any negatives to this in all honesty.

Anyone heard anything more about the fan that will rotate backwards at full speed for a few seconds to clear dust? Has it been implemented into the commercial field yet?

 

[DjEaZy]

... wat'tha'funck? Need to hurry up and patent breathing... o'snap... intel already did it...

 

[Goldengoose]

[citation][nom]crisan_tiberiu[/nom]lmao, how can u pattent this? so, now if i want to control a fan to cool a CPU i have to pay intel a fee? lame..[/citation]

I think the difference is this will focus on saving power and changing based on power going to CPU as well as tempreture. slight difference in just changing based on current tempreture. Means it can combat incomming heat increases.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

I am inclined to agree with goldengoose.

 

[vir_cotto]

They are protecting themselves from Apple.

 

[gilbertfh]

This isn't exactly rocket science.

 

[willard]

[citation][nom]crisan_tiberiu[/nom]lmao, how can u pattent this? so, now if i want to control a fan to cool a CPU i have to pay intel a fee? lame..[/citation]
I guess your righteous indignation prevented you from actually reading the article. Because if you had, you'd have seen that Intel isn't patenting controlling fan speed, it's patenting calculating the optimal power usage split between a fan and CPU to produce the lowest temperatures possible in low voltage, low fan speed chips.

I think I need to stop expecting posters on Tom's to use their brains when the word "patent" shows up in an article.

 

[CaedenV]

So now that they are getting out CPUs that hardly need a fan (even my i7 stays plenty cool unless under a heavy load at low fan settings, and even then the dinky stock cooler was adequate... though I still replaced it) they are finally getting to the point where there is really intelligent fan control. Where was this tech back in the days of the P3 and P4 CPUs where even the entry level offerings could cook you a nice breakfast and warm the water for your shower in the morning?

At any rate, Goose is right, it is basing the fan speed on usage, and then calculating if it takes less power to let the fan stay at idle, or to crank it up to prevent leakage, which is quite different than saying 'at temp X set fan at RPM Y' which is how we currently do things.

 

[xenol]

I did this for my solo senior project. In fact, everyone had to. How is this patentable?

Okay, so maybe not in the same manner as Intel, but still.

 

[willard]

[citation][nom]xenol[/nom]I did this for my solo senior project. In fact, everyone had to. How is this patentable?Okay, so maybe not in the same manner as Intel, but still.[/citation]
I'm going to guess your senior project was nothing but a simple fan speed controller based on temperature. That's not at all what Intel patented. They patented calculating optimal power draw based on predicting the power draw and temperature of the chip and fan together to minimize things like current leak and result in the lowest possible temperature and power use.

I really doubt you did anything remotely similar to that.

 

[zzz_b]

Next someone will patent the hole in macaroni :-D

 

[drumsrule786]

[citation][nom]goldengoose[/nom]Can't see any negatives to this in all honesty.Anyone heard anything more about the fan that will rotate backwards at full speed for a few seconds to clear dust? Has it been implemented into the commercial field yet?[/citation]

If I remember correctly MSI did this on a few of their graphics cards

 

[nurgletheunclean]

Yay, another crazy patent to sue over! There can never be too many of these.

 

[Tab54o]

This is some horseshit. Speed control has been used FOREVER.

 

[Tab54o]

I dont get how you can take an idea that's already widely used and then apply it to something else and patent that. This is even worse because its been done on cpus way before 2008.

 

[maxinexus]

I should patent my bowel moment sequence. My way uses the least pushing

 

[freggo]

It's a neat piece of engineering, but patent... a bit thin I think.
I'd call it common engineering sense.

 

[rantoc]

Who don't understand that this is more about pre-emtive cooling control to keep the cpu temperatures more stable (IE spin up the fan already before the heat starts to accumilate in the cpu or spin it down slightly when the needs drop even when the temp is slightly elevated). Its like predicting your car will need additional cooling when it starts to draw additional gas
rather than start when it raises a certain temperature threshold).

It have NOTHING to do with patenting the normal active heat fan controllers that reacts to heat AFTER its have raised. Its a new idea and unless someone done it before - This is a new approach to tackle the problem, if you understand the underlaying mechanics of it i'm sure you agree. Its not like patenting round corners of the layout of a menu and the like.

 

[willard]

[citation][nom]rantoc[/nom]This is a new approach to tackle the problem, if you understand the underlaying mechanics of it i'm sure you agree. Its not like patenting round corners of the layout of a menu and the like.[/citation]
Good luck getting anybody on Tom's to say anything other than "ZOMG CORPORATIONS AND PATENTS ARE EVIL AND STUPID I SHOULD PATENT X LOL".

My opinion of the users on Tom's drops steadily every day. 99% of them just want to whine about corporate America, prices and how it's like, totally unfair that they can't afford bleeding edge technology on their allowance. I'm not really sure why I post here anymore.

 

[Guest]

The real question is, if this really is a patent on a process relating to the laws of thermodynamics, how does it fair in the face of last Tuesday's Supreme Court decision in Mayo Collaborative Services and Mayo Clinic Rochester v. Prometheus Laboratories, Inc.?

 

[victorious 3930k]

Sorry if I'm wrong, but they're patenting PWM?

 

[willard]

[citation][nom]victorious 3930k[/nom]Sorry if I'm wrong, but they're patenting PWM?[/citation]
No, they aren't.

It's been stated over and over again in the comments, but Intel is not patenting controlling fan speed. They are patenting a specific process of determining ideal fan speed not based on instantaneous temperature measurements.

 

[Guest]

Minimizing power consumption (i.e. battery powered equipment) means minimizing power consumption of the system under a certain operating condition. I can't see how this can be patented.