Patent ID: 9047360
Filing Date: 2015-06-02
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A computer system comprising: at least two power supply units that provide an output-side operating voltage from at least one input-side supply voltage, at least one power-consuming component which can be operated in at least one normal operating mode with a first power consumption and in a restricted operating mode with at least one second power consumption which is lower than the first power consumption, the power-consuming component being electrically coupled to the at least two power supply units, wherein the at least one power-consuming component comprises at least two processor cores; control means coupled to the at least two power supply units and to the power-consuming component and set up to monitor the function of the at least two power supply units and switch the power-consuming component from the normal operating mode into the restricted operating mode immediately upon failure of at least one power supply unit to reduce the power consumption of the power-consuming component, wherein the control means comprise at least one monitoring apparatus in the form of a hardware circuit to generate a predetermined hardware control signal upon occurrence of a failure or upon exceeding of a threshold level of at least one power supply unit and a throttle apparatus coupled to the monitoring apparatus, the throttle apparatus comprises a clock generation circuit that supplies the at least two processor cores with an operating clock, the at least two processor cores being supplied with a first operating clock in the normal operating mode by the clock generation circuit and being supplied with a second, lower operating clock in the restricted operating mode; and at least one management component coupled to the control means and set up to detect a fault state when at least one power supply component fails and to subsequently change a configuration of the computer system by software operations upon detecting the fault state to reduce a power consumption of the computer system, wherein changing the configuration comprises transferring a process executed on a second processor core of the at least two processor cores to a first processor core of the at least two processor cores and deactivating the second processor core; and withdrawing the predetermined hardware control signal, if the power consumption of the computer system has been reduced to such an extent that a reliable power supply is ensured using the remaining operational power supply units.