FIC M295 User Manual

Page of 175
 
Software Functional Overview 
The granularity of 
ΔP is determined by the CPU duty width of the system. A detailed 
explanation of this thermal feedback equation is beyond the scope of this specification. 
 
3.6.6  Critical Shutdown 
When the heat reaches the temperature indicated by _CRT, the OS must immediately 
shutdown the system. The system must disable the power either after the temperature reaches 
some hardware-determined level above _CRT or after a predetermined time has passed. 
Before disabling power, platform designers should incorporate some time that allows the OS 
to run its critical shutdown operation. There is no requirement for a minimum shutdown 
operation window that commences immediately after the temperature reaches _CRT.  This is 
because 
 
−  Heat might rise rapidly in some systems and slower on others, depending on casing 
design and environmental factors. 
−  Shutdown can take several minutes on a server and only a few short seconds on a 
hand-held device. 
 
Because of this indistinct discrepancy and the fact that a critical heat situation is a remarkably 
rare occurrence, ACPI does not specify a target window for a safe shutdown. It is entirely up 
to the OEM to build in a safe buffer that it sees fit for the target platform. 
 
3.6.7  Other Implementation of Thermal Controllable 
Devices 
The ACPI thermal event model is flexible enough to accommodate control of almost any 
system device capable of controlling heat. For example, if a mobile PC requires the battery 
charger to reduce the charging rate in order to reduce heat it can be seamlessly implemented 
as an ACPI cooling device. Associating the charger as an active cooling device and reporting 
to the OS target temperatures that will enable or disable the power resource to the device do 
this.  Figure as following illustrates the implementation. Because the example does not create 
noise, this will be an implementation of silence mode. 
 
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
55
60
75
80
85
90
_AC0
_PSV
_CRT
_AC1
Throttle CPU
Fan on/off
Reduce charge
rate
 
 
 
FIC M295 / M296 Service Manual 
3-31