Digital Equipment Corporation

Lucent Technologies Inc.

Other

Mark F Amberg

Dwayne Howard Swanson

Charles R Lindemulder

Frank M Nemeth

Michael L Nienaber

William K Miller

Theodore Ernst Bruning

Benjamin Alma Young

Thomas Alvin McKoon

Robert Leonard Bryant, Jr

The present low cost pin retention socket comprises a set of holes that are machined into a printed wiring board and selective surfaces thereof plated to thereby form an inexpensive socket that is integral to the printed wiring board yet absent the need for springs, sockets and the associated manufacturing and assembly costs of existing socket apparatus. The present low cost pin retention socket comprises a center hole into which the printed wiring board connector pin is inserted. Surrounding the center hole and intersecting the center hole are a plurality of other holes formed in the printed wiring board to thereby enable a certain amount of plastic deformation of the center hole in response to the insertion therein of a printed wiring board connector pin. The electrical connection between the printed wiring board connector pin and the wiring on the printed wiring board is effected be plating the sides of the center hole to thereby contact the printed wiring board connector pin. Thus, the present low cost pin retention socket requires little manufacturing cost and yet performs the function of the existing backplane electrical sockets.

Low cost pin retention socket

In a modular tower building block system for containing computing system devices, an I/O bus is incorporated into the modular blocks of the building block system by using a printed circuit board to carry the I/O bus in each modular block. The printed circuit board is mounted and positioned in each modular block to electrically connect with a printed circuit board in a next adjacent modular block when two modular blocks are stacked on each other. Also, there are a plurality of I/O buses on the printed circuit boards and only one I/O bus is distributed from each modular block. The printed circuit board is precisely located in each modular block at a predetermined position. Alignment pins and receivers provide alignment between stacked modular blocks to precisely position one modular block to the other modular block. This also aligns electrical connectors on the printed circuit boards of the stacked blocks so that the connectors on the printed circuit boards from two blocks mate when the two blocks are stacked.

Input/output bus system in a tower building block system

The low profile backplane jumper board is mounted over the connector pins on the circuit pack side of the backplane to thereby selectively interconnect designated conductors in the connectors. These interconnections among connector conductors can be within a single connector or can span multiple connecters. The low profile backplane jumper board comprises a circuit board that contains holes for each of the backplane connector pins over which it is inserted. The ones of these holes that require an electrical connection to the associated backplane connector conductor are filled with a miniature spring socket assembly contact which is soldered to or press fit into the plated hole and associated conductors formed on the surface of the circuit board to interconnect a plurality of the holes formed in the circuit board. The thickness of the circuit board is selected to be of sufficient thinness to not interfere with the connection of the circuit packs to the associated connectors.

Low profile backplane jumper board

In a modular tower building block system for containing computing system devices, a power bus is incorporated into the modular blocks of the building block system by using a printed circuit board to carry the power bus in each modular block. The printed circuit board is mounted and positioned in each modular block to electrically connect with a printed circuit board in a next adjacent modular block when two modular blocks are stacked on each other. Also, there are a plurality of three-phase power buses on the printed circuit boards and only one phase of each power bus is distributed from each modular block. The printed circuit board is precisely located in each modular block at a predetermined position. Alignment pins and receivers provide alignment between stacked modular blocks to precisely position one modular block to the other modular block. This also aligns electrical connectors on the printed circuit boards of the stacked blocks so that the connectors on the printed circuit boards from two blocks mate when the two blocks are stacked.

Power bus system in a tower building block system

The present method and apparatus for installing fiber optic jumper cables in an equipment enclosure enables the simple installation of fiber optic jumper cables in an equipment enclosure that is provisioned with traditional wire jumper cables and connectors. This apparatus includes a fiber optic pass through tool that enables the craftsperson to thread the fiber optic jumper cables through the equipment enclosure with minimal effort and avoids damage to the fiber optic jumper cable. The fiber optic pass through tool comprises two parts: an extender and a hybrid fiber optic coupling adapter. The extender provides the craftsperson with sufficient reach to pull the fiber optic jumper cable through the entire length of the equipment enclosure, with sufficient flexibility to bend the tool around comers, and yet with sufficient stiffness to control the passage of the tool through the equipment enclosure. A hybrid fiber optic coupling adapter is attached in a snap fit manner to the extender and provides a secure means of connecting the fiber optic jumper cable to the extender without the need for fasteners. The fiber optic jumper cable can then be pulled back through the equipment enclosure to the front of the fiber optic circuit pack using the fiber optic pass through tool. The hybrid fiber optic coupling adapter is then disconnected from the handle, mounted on the equipment enclosure bulkhead and used to terminate the fiber optic jumper cable.

Method and apparatus for installing fiber optic jumper cables in an

Racks of modules especially useful for retaining disk drives, tape drives, controllers, computers and the like are fabricated via use of tower building blocks. Each block contains a latch arrangement for securing it to another block, a base unit or a cap unit with the latch effecting interlocking of the blocks so as to form a sturdy assembled structure. Power and/or electrical communication lines are provided in each block with power passing through one vertical array of blocks and electrical communications passing through the other so as to reduce the need for shielding one from the other. An arrangement of alignment pins and mating receptacle holes in conjunction with selected placement of sliding latch elements can facilitate proper coupling of blocks which have similar electrical path boards therein.

Tower building block system

A system for assigning addresses to devices interconnected on a small computer system interface (SCSI) bus. A device address bus independent of the SCSI bus interconnects address assignable devices on the SCSI bus. The devices, each of which has a SCSI ID by which it is identified and being set with default bus address information representing the SCSI ID, are connected to one or more address lines on the device address bus. A system user can selectively reconfigure the bus addresses of the devices by utilizing a personality unit to override one or more bits of the bus address information. The personality unit includes a bus address selector, coupled to the device address bus, which selects address lines according to user input. The selecting of an address line effects a change in the default bus address information associated with the one or more devices connected to the selected address line.

Growing community of inventors

Littleton, CO, United States of America

Mark F Amberg