A USB-based fan controller with official Linux support, enabling independent control and monitoring of up to ten cooling fans through an open-source kernel driver.
ARCTIC introduced its Fan Controller – a USB peripheral intended to control and monitor up to ten independent PWM fans. Unlike traditional fan controllers that use a single control signal sent to all fans at once, the fan controller allows separate configuration of fan channels which allows better control of cooling performance and system acoustics. This product comes together with an open source Linux hardware monitoring (HWMON) driver written by ARCTIC and included in the Linux kernel.
This driver allows the controller to provide real-time fan speed monitoring and manual PWM adjustment using standard Linux HWMON API. Fan speed information is reported once per second, while PWM duty cycle can be set individually for each of the ten available fan channels. The fan controller is implemented as a USB HID device and supports hot-plugging.
ARCTIC did not use community-developed drivers, but instead developed the Linux driver internally and submitted it to be included in the mainline Linux kernel before releasing this product.
The Linux driver also handles communication between the operating system and the controller by reporting fan speeds and user-defined PWM values. It maintains cached control settings and requires users to reapply their fan profiles after system resumption since the controller may revert to its default configuration. The controller is designed for use with desktop machines that require independent cooling control.
With the multi-channel USB fan controller coupled with Linux kernel upstream, ARCTIC has created an open solution for advanced cooling management. With the platform, Linux users can have a standardized mechanism to monitor and control several fans with long-term kernel support and compatibility with hardware monitoring tools.
