International Business Machines Corporation

Will Eugene Hamel

William V Cranston, Iii

John E McCloskey

Jochem K Koenig

Stuart Thomas Adams

Stephen Eugene Still

Ray Garcia

Kendall A Honeycutt

Apparatus for monitoring fan speeds within a computing system includes a tachometer turning with the fan, providing a tachometer signal including a number of pulses during each revolution of the fan. This tachometer signal is provided as an input to a signal generator in the form of a flip-flop, which generates a square-wave signal having transitions between high and low levels corresponding to tachometer signal pulses. The square-wave signals are provided as inputs to separate input ports of a microprocessor. These input ports are sequentially sampled at a rate providing at least two samples per period of the fastest square-wave signal, so that transitions of each square wave signal during a predetermined time interval can be detected and counted. For each input port, the number of counted transitions is compared to a stored acceptable value to establish whether the fan is operating in an acceptable speed range.

Apparatus and method for monitoring fan speeds within a computing system

The locking member of a ZIF socket, which is movable between a locked position, in which high contact forces are present between contact springs within the socket and pins extending from an electronic module into the socket, and an unlocked position, in which the pins are released from the contact springs, is held in the locked position by means of a portion of a clamping spring inserted into a gap between the locking member and a portion of the housing of the ZIF socket. The clamping spring also holds a heat sink in place on the electronic module.

Heat sink clamping string additionally holding a ZIF socket locked

Heat sink clamping spring additionally holding a ZIF socket locked

Growing community of inventors

Parkland, FL, United States of America

Will Eugene Hamel