Patent ID: 7330990

Claim:
An information processing apparatus comprising: an electric power supply part that is directly and continuously connected to a plurality of power supplies to provide, for the information processing apparatus, electric power output by the power supplies; a communication part connected directly to each of the plurality of power supplies for exchanging information with the power supplies connected to the electric power supply part; a monitoring part for monitoring states of the power supplies connected to the electric power supply part, based on the information that is transmitted to the communication part by the power supplies; and a control part for generating control information for controlling the state of at least one of the power supplies connected to the electric power supply part based on monitoring results obtained by the monitoring part, and for permitting the communication part to transmit the control information to the power supply that is to be controlled, wherein each of the plurality of power supplies not having experienced an abnormality provides electric power to the information processing apparatus, a state shift part for, when an abnormality has occurred at an input power source for at least one of the power supplies connected to the electric power supply part and when, as a result, it is determined that the number of power supplies for which input power sources are in the normal state is smaller than a predetermined number by the monitoring part, performing a processing wherein the information processing apparatus stops a currently performed processing and in accordance with predetermined procedures, the state of the information processing apparatus is shifted from an operating state to a state that is not affected by the cutoff of electric power supplied by the electric power supply part, and for, when the determination result obtained by the monitoring part indicates the other cases, performing a processing wherein the operating state of the information processing apparatus is maintained, wherein, when the monitoring part determines that an abnormality has occurred at the input power source of at least one of the power supplies connected to the electric power supply part, the control part generates, as control information, a stop instruction for shifting the power supply from an operating state in which the output of electric power is performed, to a stopped state in which the output of electric power is stopped, and wherein, before the state shift part begins a processing the control part permits the communication part to transmit a stop instruction to a power supply for which it has been determined that an abnormality has occurred at the input power source.