Super Micro Computer, Inc.

Manhtien V Phan

Mau-Lin Chou

Chih-Hao Lee

John Chen

A printed circuit board (PCB) has electronic components of an electrical circuit mounted thereon. The PCB includes a wire that is coiled through the PCB one or more turns to form a coil of an inductor or an antenna that is integrated with the PCB. The PCB can include a cutout for accepting an inductor core. The shape and/or size of the inductor core can be varied to achieve a target inductance. Both ends of the wire can be electrically connected to corresponding nodes of the electrical circuit. One end of the wire can be electrically connected to a node of the electrical circuit, and the other end of the wire can be electrically connected to an antenna body.

Printed circuit boards with integrated inductors and antennas

A circuit board has an edge connector with signal traces. The signal traces are formed on a dielectric layer of the circuit board. A reference trace is formed within the dielectric layer or on another surface of the dielectric layer. Parameters of the reference trace are adjusted to set an impedance of a single-ended signal trace or a differential impedance of two adjacent signal traces.

Setting the impedance of signal traces of a circuit board using a reference trace

A circuit board has an electrical circuit and a connector that is attached to the circuit board. The connector has metal contacts. A housing of the connector has an embedded reference metal layer that is disposed under a single-ended metal contact or differential metal contacts. The reference metal layer sets the impedance of the single-ended metal contact or the differential metal contacts.

Reference metal layer for setting the impedance of metal contacts of a connector

A cable assembly has a cable with a transceiver module on one end. The transceiver module is plugged into an interface connector of a circuit card, which also has a network interface controller chip, an onboard non-volatile memory, and a control unit. The control unit reads cable assembly data stored in a non-volatile memory of the transceiver module over a serial bus and copies the cable assembly data to the onboard non-volatile memory. The control unit initiates transfer of the cable assembly data from the onboard non-volatile memory to a communication port of the network interface controller chip over another serial bus.

Circuit card with onboard non-volatile memory for providing cable assembly data to network interface controller chips

Techniques pertaining to powering multiple platforms with a minimum impact on air passage in a predefined environment are disclosed. Instead of connecting each of the platforms in a chassis to a power supply therein, embodiments of the present invention uses what is referred to as cascading powering to power all platforms within minimum cable delivery. According to one embodiment of the present invention, a motherboard is disposed between two power supply units that are used to power the motherboard. The motherboard has power connectors located towards or near the power supply units so that only short cables are needed to power the platform.

Method and system for powering multiple computer platforms in symmetric configuration

Techniques pertaining to powering multiple platforms with a minimum impact on air passage in a predefined environment are disclosed. Instead of connecting each of the platforms in a chassis to a power supply therein, the present invention uses what is referred to as cascading powering to power all platforms within minimum cable delivery. According to one embodiment of the present invention, a power supply is disposed between two groups of platforms and powers them at the same time. At least one of the platforms has a power connector located towards or near the power supply so that only a short cable is needed to power the platform.

Techniques pertaining to powering multiple platforms with a minimum impact on air passage in a predefined environment are disclosed. Instead of connecting each of the platforms in a chassis to a power supply therein, the present invention uses what is referred to as cascading powering to power all platforms within minimum cable delivery. According to one embodiment of the present invention, each platform is provided with a pair of power connectors. At least one of the platforms has a power connector located towards or near a power supply so that only a short cable is needed to power the platform. The power is serially provided to an adjacent platform via a pair of corresponding connectors, each located on one of the two adjacent platforms. Such configuration is extended to the remaining platforms. As a result, all platforms are powered by the same power supply without using individual cables directly to the power supply.

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Morgan Hill, CA, United States of America

Manhtien V Phan