Automatic fan speed with passive Xeon Phi

[Andrey_Vladimirov]

At this point, are there any means within the OS to make the system fan spin faster when the temperature of a passively cooled Xeon Phi increases to dangerous levels?

[TaylorIoTKidd]

I can't speak for the OS, but there are ways of obtaining the temperature from various sensors around the card. See the datasheet, http://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/datasheets/xeon-phi-coprocessor-datasheet.pdf.

You can use the micsmc utility to find the values of these sensors. See my blog, http://software.intel.com/en-us/blogs/2014/01/31/intel-xeon-phi-coprocessor-power-management-configuration-using-the-micsmc-command.

I'm sure there are lower-level APIs, perhaps via SCIF, that allow you to obtain this information. I don't know them right off my head.

When I do a search for "linux fan control", I find a variety of references. Of course, taking manual control of your fan is very risky and can have disastrous consequences.

Regards

--
Taylor

[Andrey_Vladimirov]

Thanks Taylor!

In fact, I don't want manual control. I want the system to control the fan for me. So far what I have seen is when I put some load on a passive-cooling card, the system fan does not change speed, and the card overheats and starts throttling. The only solution I know is to go into the BIOS and adjust the system fan settings so that they are on full blow all the time. This is not really satisfactory, because in idling, the systems make too much noise and draw unnecessary energy.

[TaylorIoTKidd]

Unfortunately, I strongly suspect that there isn't a ready made solution unless your OEM offers one.

[Andrey_Vladimirov]

Ok, thanks! At least, in this case, I am not the only one with this issue.