International Business Machines Corporation

Fred David Parnell

Richard Hunter Harris

Jeff David Thomas

Jeffrey Buchanan Williams

James Gabriel Brewington

Craig W Turner

David Campbell Brower

Herbert Gene Leonard

John Joseph Carey

A computer display includes a pivotally mounted upper housing having a display screen, a brake used to retard pivoting motion of this upper housing, and a release mechanism for releasing the brake so that the upper housing can be freely moved. The display screen is preferably a touchscreen, which is touched to indicate a selection made by the user, with the brake resisting a tilting movement of the screen as it is touched. In a first version, two brakes are used to retard motion in both directions, with a single release wheel being turned in one direction to allow rearward motion of the upper housing and in another direction to allow forward motion of the upper housing. In a second version, a single brake is released by stopping motion of a release mandrel to unwrap a clutch spring. In a third version, two brakes, operating near opposite edges of the upper housing to stop downward movement of the upper housing, provide a particularly stiff mechanism for mounting the upper housing, and are simultaneously released by turning a knob to pivot a shaft.

Brake mechanism for controlling the tilt of a computer display

An adapter is configured to be installed on an existing cable, extending along a connector of the cable to present a latching surface on a flexible arm of the adapter for engagement with a latching surface within a latching member adjacent a port connector of a device. When these latching surfaces are engaged with one another, the cable connector is held in engagement with the port connector. The flexible arm may then be manually depressed to release the engagement of these latching surfaces. The adapter is installed on the existing cable by placing the cord of the cable between a pair of hooks extending in opposite directions from the adapter, and by then turning the adapter on the cord so that the hooks are brought into position to extend partly around the cord.

Latching adapter for installation on a cable connector

A circuit senses an insertion of an adapter card into a connector coupled to a processor by an MCA bus and signals control logic, which forces all other adapter cards coupled to the MCA bus off of the bus with a preempt signal, driving the bus into an arbitration mode. This may be done while the system is powered. An analog switch divides the preempt signal into one that goes to the adapter cards and a second one that is sent to the processor so that it can perform memory refresh cycles.

Hot plugging of an adapter card

Growing community of inventors

Raleigh, NC, United States of America

Fred David Parnell