Compaq Computer Corporation, Inc.

Alexander C Ekrot

William C Galloway

Jeffrey S Autor

John M Hemphill

James H Singer

Dennis J Alexander

Siamak Tavallaei

Darren John Cepulis

Bassam N Elkhoury

James P Shero

A data bus structure is disclosed. The structure includes a data bus having a bus agent connection point and a bus switch to selectively connect or disconnect the connection point to or from the data bus. A method of reconfiguring a data bus structure is also disclosed. The method includes providing two bus agent connection points on a data bus and a bus switch between the bus agent connection points and selecting the number of bus agent connection points on the bus by controlling the state of the bus switch.

Data bus having switch for selectively connecting and disconnecting

A computer server unit has a closely spaced series of parallel, facing processor modules with inner edge portions thereof being operatively and removably received in socket connectors on a main system board within the server unit housing. Voltage regulation modules, in the form of power converter cards, are interdigitated with the series of processor modules, with each power converter card being operatively coupled to an associated one of the processor modules. To permit the efficient dissipation of operating heat from the closely spaced processor modules and voltage regulation modules, each removable processor module has a specially designed cooling module supported thereon for removal therewith from the system board. Each cooling module includes an evaporator plate secured to a side surface of one of the processor modules, a plurality of heat pipes extending parallel to the evaporator plate and having first end portions conductively secured to he evaporator plate and second end portions extending outwardly past an outer edge portion of the processor module and connected to a finned heat exchanger. Operating heat from each processor module is transferred through its evaporator plate and heat pipes to its finned heat exchanger. A fan system is provided to flow cooling air through the finned heat exchangers which are positioned outside of the spaces between the processor modules, thereby permitting the processor modules to be more closely spaced than they could be if conventional heat sink structures were mounted on side surfaces thereof.

Electronic apparatus having removable processor/heat pipe cooling device

A primary server/standby server network configuration according to the invention includes a primary server executing network operating system software and a standby server monitoring for the proper operation of the primary server, where both the primary server and the standby server are connected to a storage system. If the primary server fails, the standby server instructs the storage system to switch its hardware connections to the standby server, allowing the standby server to boot the operating system. This instruction is done via in-band signaling. Further, multiple primary servers can be backed up by a single standby server.

Multi-server fault tolerance using in-band signalling

A printed circuit board that includes contact slider regions between conductive pads on the printed circuit board is disclosed. The printed circuit board is particularly suited for high density situations. According to one embodiment, a printed circuit board according to the invention includes a connection edge for insertion into a connector, a first row of conductive pads disposed on one or both sides of the printed circuit board proximate to the connection edge and extending away therefrom in a predetermined direction, and a row of slider regions disposed on one or both sides of the printed circuit board proximate to the connection edge and extending away therefrom in the predetermined direction, the slider regions being interposed between the conductive pads of the first row. The printed circuit board according to the invention is not only more reliable and easier to manufacture, but it also wears substantially better than previously designed high density circuit boards.

Growing community of inventors

Humble, TX, United States of America

Alexander C Ekrot