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:
Apr. 25, 2000
Filed:
Apr. 06, 1998
Bradley W Bartilson, Houston, TX (US);
Cray Research, Inc., Eagan, MN (US);
Abstract
The invention is a computer module for scalably adding computing power and cooling capacity to a computer system. Computing power can be added by merely adding additional printed circuit cards to the computing module. Cooling capability is added by adding heat pipes to the computer module. The computing module for a computer includes a first heat pipe assembly. The first heat pipe assembly has an evaporator plate with an evaporator surface. The first heat pipe also has a condenser in fluid communication with the evaporator plate. The evaporator plate is positioned adjacent one side of a printed circuit board populated with at least one electronic component. The computing module may use a printed circuit board which has two sides populated with electronic components. When a printed circuit board having components on two sides is used, a second heat pipe having the same construction, namely an evaporator plate with an evaporator surface and a condenser in fluid communication with said evaporator plate, is positioned adjacent the other side of said printed circuit board so that the electronic components on the other side are positioned adjacent said evaporator surface of said second heat pipe. The evaporator plate of each heat pipe is connected to the condenser by a plurality of necked-down regions. This forms at least one window between the condenser and the evaporator plate of each heat pipe. When more than one heat pipe is used in the computing module, the windows of the various heat pipes align. Electrical connector components can be routed through the windows. The connector component connects the edge of the printed circuit board positioned near the windows. Additional building blocks, comprising one additional heat pipe and one additional populated printed circuit card can be added to further scale up or upgrade a computer system.