Intel Patents Fan Speed Control to Cool CPUs
Intel has been granted a patent which ties cooling fan speed to CPU leakage power.
The document, originally filed in September 2008 and approved by the USPTO on March 27, 2012, describes a process to calculate the fan speed that will decrease platform power the most.
The patent specifically refers to CPUs that operate in a low temperature state with a fan running at low speed. According to Intel, the power used to operate a fan can be offset by saved processor power. The process to determine the perfect fan speed would include
- measuring the processor power and the fan power when it is initially determined that the processor is operating in a low temperature state prior to any fan speed adjustments
- calculating the system power prior to any fan speed adjustments
- increasing the fan speed
- measuring the processor power and the fan power for the increased fan speed
- calculating the system power for the increased fan speed
- dynamically adjusting the fan speed based on changes to the system power
- measuring the processor power and the fan power for the dynamically adjusted fan speed
- calculating the system power for the dynamically adjusted fan speed
- selecting the preferred speed when the system power is determined to be substantially at lowest value
It is interesting to note that this patent highlights a scenario in which a fan is not just used to bring the temperature of a CPU down from a certain exceeded threshold, but is leveraged as an almost-always-on option to reduce the power consumption of a CPU platform. The idea obviously refers especially to the problem of leakage power that can be reduced by containing the CPU temperature.

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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
Okay, so maybe not in the same manner as Intel, but still.
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.
If I remember correctly MSI did this on a few of their graphics cards
I'd call it common engineering sense.
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.
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.