Circuit board assembly with separable first and second...

Details Circuit board assembly with separable first and second... Circuit board assembly with separable first and second...

2002-12-31

2004-12-21

Cuneo, Kamand (Department: 2841)

Electricity: electrical systems and devices

Housing or mounting assemblies with diverse electrical...

For electronic systems and devices

C361S785000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06833998

ABSTRACT:

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
This application claims priority of Taiwanese application no. 091218429, filed on Nov. 15, 2002.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a circuit board assembly, more particularly to a circuit board assembly with separable first and second circuit board devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electronic devices, such as a personal computer, a portable computer, a personal digital assistant, etc., incorporate a single circuit board device that includes a printed circuit board, and electronic components mounted on the printed circuit board and coupled electrically to each other by means of traces on the printed circuit board.
As shown in
FIG. 1
, a conventional circuit board device includes a printed circuit board
3
, a north bridge chipset
31
mounted on the printed circuit board
3
, and a south bridge chipset
35
mounted on the printed circuit board
3
and coupled electrically to the north bridge chipset
31
. The north bridge chipset
31
bridges a memory module
33
and a display interface
34
to a central processing unit (CPU)
32
. The south bridge chipset
35
bridges peripheral devices connected to a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) port
36
, a universal serial bus (USB) port
37
, an extended capability (EC) port
38
, an integrated drive electronics (IDE) port
39
, a small computer system interface (SCSI) port
40
, a serial port
41
, a parallel port
42
, and other peripheral interfaces (not shown), to the north bridge chipset
31
.
However, since the north and south bridge chipsets
31
,
35
are mounted on the same printed circuit board
3
, when the north/south bridge chipset
31
,
35
needs to be upgraded, the entire circuit board device has to be replaced with a new one. As such, the south
orth bridge chipset
35
,
31
, which can still be used, is discarded along with the north/south bridge chipset
31
,
35
. This results in higher costs and additional burden to the environment.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Therefore, the object of the present invention is to provide a circuit board assembly that includes a first circuit board device and a second circuit board device separate from the first circuit board device so as to overcome the aforesaid drawbacks of the prior art.
According to the present invention, a circuit board assembly comprises first and second circuit board devices. The first circuit board device includes a printed circuit board, a first controller mounted on the first printed circuit board, and a first communications unit mounted on the first printed circuit board and connected electrically to the first controller. The second circuit board device includes a second printed circuit board separate from the first printed circuit board, a second controller mounted on the second printed circuit board, and a second communications unit mounted on the second printed circuit board and connected electrically to the second controller. The second communications unit cooperates with the first communications unit to establish a communications link between the first and second controllers while maintaining separability between the first and second printed circuit boards.


REFERENCES:
patent: 5488541 (1996-01-01), Mistry et al.
patent: 5827074 (1998-10-01), Gatti
patent: 6324071 (2001-11-01), Weber et al.
patent: 6496376 (2002-12-01), Plunkett et al.

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