Electricity: electrical systems and devices – Housing or mounting assemblies with diverse electrical... – For electronic systems and devices
Reexamination Certificate
2002-12-13
2004-03-23
Duong, Hung Van (Department: 2835)
Electricity: electrical systems and devices
Housing or mounting assemblies with diverse electrical...
For electronic systems and devices
C361S695000, C165S080300, C174S016100, C062S259200
Reexamination Certificate
active
06711014
ABSTRACT:
FIELD AND BACKGROUND OF INVENTION
The present invention relates to a personal computer system including a portable modular personal computer (hereinafter referred to as a “modular PC”). More specifically, the present invention relates to a modular PC, which is designed such that a side face of a housing is cooled by a cooling air flow from outside instead of providing cooling means such as a cooling fan inside the modular PC in order to enhance portability thereof, and that the inside and outside of the modular PC are cooled simultaneously by drawing out air utilizing negative pressure generated by a diffuser designed to generate differential pressure. The present invention also relates to a connection device for effectuating efficient cooling of the modular PC by connecting to the modular PC, a method of cooling the modular PC, and a personal computer system including the modular PC and the connection device.
Portable personal computer terminals such as pagers or personal digital assistants are widely used in recent years. More recently, in order to enhance usability of the above-mentioned portable personal computer terminals, there is proposed a modular PC using elements such as a central processing unit (CPU), hard disk drive and memory while separating a display unit. The modular PC is constituted as detachable from a portable connection device including displaying means such as a liquid crystal display device, or from a desktop connection device for effectuating display on a desktop display device (such a desktop connection device is hereinafter referred to as a docking station in this specification). Such a system is connected to the portable connection device or to the desktop connection device disposed on the top of a desk for performing high-level processing, as necessary, to enhance user-friendliness.
As described above, a modular PC includes elements such as a CPU, memory and small hard disk drive therein. Some important issues on the modular PC include, achievement in down-sizing to enhance portability, energy designs therefor, and efficient measures against heat generated from a heat source such as the CPU considering the life of internal elements accommodated in a housing.
As disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-165077, it has been proposed to cool the inside of a personal computer using an external cooling device to generate an air flow within the personal computer by blowing air into the inside of the personal computer and drawing out the air from the inside with cooling means such as a cooling fan.
However, according to the cooling method disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-165077, it is necessary to flow a large amount of air for cooling the entire computer. Accordingly, when a user works on the personal computer by disposing a docking station on the top of a desk for connecting the down-sized modular PC, noises attributable to the cooling fan are increased when the user enhances the capability of the cooling fan in order to supply a larger air flow to the modular PC. Therefore, there is inconvenience that a countermeasure against the noises is required.
Further, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-227823 discloses a method of cooling the inside of a personal computer by using an air flow generated with a cooling fan disposed inside the personal computer, and also using the Bernoulli theorem.
FIG. 16
illustrates the method of cooling the inside of a personal computer disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-227823.
As shown in
FIG. 16
of the accompanying drawings, air inside a personal computer
80
is discharged to the outside of the personal computer
80
in a direction indicated by an arrow A by a cooling fan
82
disposed therein. However, in a lower region inside the personal computer
80
partitioned by a printed circuit board
84
, the cooling fan
84
cannot generate or supply a sufficient air flow, whereby heat tends to remain in the region. Therefore, according to the method disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-227823 as illustrated in
FIG. 16
, an opening
86
is provided in the vicinity of the cooling fan
82
, and a diffuser
88
is disposed so as to cover the opening
86
. With such a configuration, static pressure is reduced in the vicinity of the opening
86
according to the Bernoulli theorem. Therefore, even in the region where the airflow caused by the cooling fan
82
cannot be supplied sufficiently inside the personal computer
80
, the air therein is drawn out in a direction indicated by an arrow B, and cooling efficiency is thereby improved.
Although the cooling method disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-227823 can cool the region where the cooling fan cannot generate the air flow efficiently, it is not applicable to a modular PC which requires enhanced portability, long-term drive with low power consumption, and achievement of smaller size and lighter weight. Further, simply disposing the external cooling device as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-165077, it is inevitable to increase a capacity of the cooling fan unnecessarily larger as described above. Accordingly, when the modular PC is used with it being connected to the desktop connection device placed on the top of a desk, a separate measure should be taken to reduce loud noise generated by the cooling fan, which causes inconvenience that portability and compactness of the modular PC are lowered.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of the above, it is an object of the present invention to provide a modular PC, a connection device usable in combination with the modular PC, a method of cooling the modular PC, and a personal computer system using the cooling method, in which the personal computer system is composed of separate modules such as the modular PC and a desktop connection device, and the inside of the modular PC is efficiently cooled while maintaining portability and compactness of each module.
The present invention cools a modular PC by cooling an outside wall thereof, and also creates negative pressure inside the modular PC by means of cooling air flowing along the outside wall so that the cooling air flow is drawn in. The present invention is based on the finding that cooling efficiency can be considerably improved if the air flow thus drawn in is usable for cooling a heat source such as a CPU. Thus, the present invention performs cooling by first creating the air flow along the outside wall of the modular PC, so as to enhance the cooling efficiency of the inside of the modular PC by use of cooling means such as a cooling fan provided, for example, in a desktop connection device placed on the top of a desk.
The modular PC is provided with inlet and outlet openings for the cooling air flow for cooling the inside of the modular PC. In the present invention, a diffuser functioning as differential pressure generating means is formed, which extends near the outlet opening for the cooling air flow and across the direction of the air flow flowing along the outside wall. The diffuser can be disposed either on the modular PC side or on a docking station side.
As the air flow moves along an outside wall surface of the modular PC and thereby flows through the diffuser, static pressure in the vicinity of the diffuser is reduced according to the Bernoulli's theorem. It is possible to draw out the air flow from the inside of the modular PC by positioning the outlet opening in a region where the static pressure is reduced. Negative pressure inside the modular PC thus created allows the cooling air flow to be introduced into the modular PC through the inlet opening. The air flow thus created passes through air passages, which are formed inside the modular PC so as to overlap the CPU, enabling the internal cooling of the modular PC.
Specifically, the present invention provides a personal computer system including a portable module, which comprises a modular personal computer including at least a storage device and a central
Anzai Masato
Kanada Yoshihisa
Noda Shinsuke
Tanaka Ken'ichi
Duong Hung Van
International Business Machines - Corporation
McKinley Martin J.
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