International Business Machines Corporation

Darryl C Newell

Jay H Neer

Rocco J Noschese

Bruce James Wilkie

Ronald V Davidge

Ronald P Sidor

Todd A McClurg

Karl F Schroeder

Brian Ashley Carpenter

Heinz Piorunneck

Girish Chandra Johari

Richard J Nelson

Kevin M Silk

Aspects for reporting faults in a redundant power converter are described. An exemplary method aspect includes monitoring at least one node within the redundant power converter. The method further includes tracking values of the at least one node during a predetermined time period, and predicting when a specification of the redundant power converter will be exceeded based on the tracked values.

Fault reporting in a redundant power converter

A daughter card is provided with an insertion portion, including a row of contact pads on each side of an edge prepared for insertion into the slot of card edge connector, and a contact structure extending from one or both sides of the card. Contact terminals of the contact structure extend parallel to the insertion portion of the card, being electrically connected to circuits within the card. On a mother board, a connector is provided with a first slot for removably receiving the insertion portion of the daughter card, and with one or two slots for removably receiving the contact terminals. The mother board and the daughter card include essential circuits, which are connected through the contact pads, and non-essential circuits, which are connected through the contact terminals. The daughter card may be plugged into a standard type of card edge connector, having only a single, central card-receiving slot, with the contact terminals extending outside the outer surfaces of the connector. A standard type of daughter card, with contact pads on an insertion portion but without the contact terminals extending outward from the card, can be plugged into the first slot of the connector.

High density interconnection system

An electronic connector is configured to removably receive either a circuit card of a first type, having one row of contacts per side, on an insertion tab adjacent to an insertion edge, or a circuit card of a second type, having two rows of contacts per side. Two rows of spring contacts are provided for this purpose on each side of a central card-receiving slot. Interposing means are also provided to prevent contact between a daughter card of the first type fully inserted in this slot and one of these rows on each side. These interposing means may consist of a slotted interposer structure slid over a portion of the insertion tab of the card, or alternately of a pair of pivotable interposers mounted along the length of the connector, to be pivoted by sections of daughter cards of the first type so that vanes extending from these interposers will push these springs away from the card. An electronic device, such as a connector of this type, includes solder tails for attachment within holes of a mother board, aligned in several parallel rows. Individual solder tails in each row are displaced by a first distance. Individual solder tails in adjacent rows are displaced by a second distance, which is a submultiple of the first distance less than half the first distance. This second distance may also be a multiple of the first distance divided by the number of rows.

High density circuit connector

The invention is a software reconfigurable cross point switch which selectively interconnects a plurality of phone lines and a plurality of shared resources such as call progress monitors, dual tone multifrequency (DTMF) receivers, DTMF automatic dialers and automatic answer tone detectors. The invention achieves its objective of enhanced switching efficiency and greater flexibility in the connectivity between diverse communications elements, by independently switching two separate switching planes of the cross point switch so as to enable different paths to be taken by the transmit portion and the receive portion of a particular telephone connection. The cross point switch architecture invention flexibly allows for many applications, one in particular being conference summing. By providing a plurality of build-out resistors connected to the separate inputs of one plane of the cross point switch, and connecting the corresponding outputs from the cross point switch to a single input of the summing amplifier, a conference summing function can be performed.

Dual plane cross point switch architecture for a micro-PBX

The invention includes a first switch and a second switch serially connected between a telephone network line and a local telephone line which can be selectively connected to alternately either an auto answer modem or a human answer telephone set. A control register is associated with the local telephone line, having data contents representing whether the local telephone line is connected to the auto answer modem or alternately to the human answer telephone set. A billing delay element has an output connected to a control input of the first switch, for delaying the closure of the first switch for a predetermined interval after an answer tone is received over the telephone network line when the control register, which is connected to the control input of the first switch, indicates that the auto answer modem is connected to the local telephone line. A tone overload detector has an input connected to the local telephone line and an output connected to the control input of the first switch, for interrupting the connection between the local telephone line and the telephone network line if tones generated on the local telephone line have a voltage greater than a predetermined amplitude when the control register, indicates that the auto answer modem is connected to the local telephone line. The control register controls the closure of the first switch when the contents of the register indicate that the local telephone line is connected to the human answer telephone set. In this manner, either the auto answer data operations or alternately the human voice signals can be selectively transmitted.

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Boca Raton, FL, United States of America

Darryl C Newell