Hewlett-Packard Company

Jay R Forkas

Michael J Greenside

A card cage having a series of circuit board slots may be modified using various components of a circuit board adapter. The card cage has a series of slots, each slot having common dimensions and including card guides adapted to house a full height circuit board card by holding a top end and a bottom end of the full height circuit board card. Each modified slot also includes a set of cooperating vertical support member guides located within the slot which cooperate to house the vertical support member within the slot by holding the top end and the bottom end thereof. The vertical support member supports an intermediate card guide which cooperates with at least one of the card guides to house a smaller circuit board within the slot by holding a top end and a bottom end therebetween. Thus, when the intermediate card guide is removed from the slot, a full vertical height circuit board card may be inserted within the slot. When the intermediate card guides are located within the slot, one or more smaller vertical height circuit card guides may be housed within the slot. As an example, a 6U compact PCI circuit board slot can be converted to house two 3U sized compact PCI circuit board cards. This is accomplished without impinging upon the dimensions of any of the adjacent slots. The circuit board adapter may be provided as an adapter kit for use in modifying a circuit board slot. In addition, a circuit board slot may be provided with a set of standard circuit board card guides and a set of vertical support member guides to allow its selective use with alternately sized circuit board cards. A method is also provided for adapting a circuit board slot to accommodate one or more smaller vertical height circuit boards utilizing the various components of the adapter.

Multiple circuit board adapter

A method and apparatus to retain mounting hardware on a heat-sink or heat-pipe. One embodiment of the invention involves a method to assemble a component having a heat dissipation device with a plurality of heat dissipation fins on a substrate. A second embodiment of the invention involves a method to assemble an electrical component having a heat dissipation device with a plurality of heat dissipation fins on a substrate. A third embodiment of the invention involves an assembled substrate, an electrical component, and a heat dissipation device attached to the electrical component, wherein the heat dissipation device includes heat dissipation fins with holes to contain and shims (or clips) to make captive within the holes, the hardware used to attach the heat dissipation device to the substrate.

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Rocklin, CA, United States of America

Jay R Forkas