The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 28, 2000
Filed:
Dec. 05, 1997
Dilip Amin, San Jose, CA (US);
Silicon Graphics, Inc., Mountain View, CA (US);
Abstract
A system and method for minimizing disruption of operating power in a high-availability computer as new power supplies are hot-inserted. In the preferred embodiment, the high-availability computer includes a plurality hot-plug power supplies, a logic circuit system, and a power distribution system for distributing operating power from the power supplies to the logic circuit system. Preferably, the output capacitance of each power supply is significantly less than the total capacitance of the logic circuit system and the power distribution system, such that, as each power supply is hot-inserted into the computer, only a minute amount of electric charges will be transferred from the power distribution system and the logic circuit system to the power supply. As a small amount of charge transfer would generate only a small voltage drop, any glitch produced by hot-insertion would be significantly reduced. In order to compensate for an increased glitch recovery time attributable to the increased capacitance, the power supply of the present invention may use a poly-phase voltage regulator. Further, the computer system of the present invention may include a timer for indicating to the service person that the power supply of the present invention has been successfully installed on an operating computer.