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:
Feb. 26, 2002
Filed:
Jan. 26, 1999
Jenwei Hsieh, Austin, TX (US);
Truc Nguyen, Round Rock, TX (US);
Dell USA, L.P., Round Rock, TX (US);
Abstract
Method and apparatus is described herein for accommodating two types of hard disks, for example, SCSI disks and FC-AL disks, using a single, dual-purpose backplane. The dual-purpose backplane includes a plurality of drive bays each including a first connector for receiving a complementary connector of an SCSI disk and a second connector for receiving a complementary connector of an FC-AL disk. In a computer system, one or the other of the first and second connectors is mounted upside down to avoid overlapping and structural interference with connection of other hard disks to the backplane. In an external storage system, hard disks are inserted sideways, and thus one connector type is mounted on the backplane in an orientation rotated 180 degrees from the other connector type.