POWER BUS CURRENT BOUNDING USING LOCAL CURRENT-LIMITING SOFT-SWITCHES AND DEVICE REQUIREMENTS INFORMATION

摘要

An energy management control method and controller reduce power supply current and/or subsystem cooling overhead that reduces system efficiency, may reduce system reliability and may increase ambient noise. Multiple device connectors are supplied from corresponding soft switches that are programmed to provide a current level that is sufficient to supply the maximum current for the device installed in the corresponding device connector. The current level may be determined from device information provided from the device during initialization, which may directly specify a maximum current requirement. Alternatively, the maximum current requirement can be determined from other device-identifying information such as a unique device identifier. As a result a guaranteed maximum current or power and power dissipation can be determined, and multiple power supplies and/or cooling devices such as air movement devices (AMDs) may be enabled, disabled or otherwise controlled accordingly.