Electricity: electrical systems and devices – Housing or mounting assemblies with diverse electrical... – For electronic systems and devices
Reexamination Certificate
2000-11-06
2002-04-23
Gandhi, Jayprakash N. (Department: 2841)
Electricity: electrical systems and devices
Housing or mounting assemblies with diverse electrical...
For electronic systems and devices
C361S689000, C361S784000, C361S788000, C439S062000, C439S928100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06377471
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND
This invention relates to the interfacing of a disk drive with a computer system. More particularly, an apparatus and method are provided for directly interfacing disk drives having non-standard or varied spacing between their power and signal connectors.
Disk drives are often connected to a host computer system via cables—usually one set of cables or a ribbon cable for a power connection and another set for a signal connection. The installation of multiple disk drives in one computer system may lead to a Gordian knot of cables, thereby making subsequent peripheral installations or removals, or other system maintenance difficult. Further, the tangle of cables may disrupt the flow of air through the computer system (e.g., for cooling). Yet further, cables provide another point of failure in that they may break or become loose.
Thus, it could make operation of a computer system more reliable, maintenance easier and possibly reduce the cost of system manufacture if disk drives could be installed and operated without the use of conventional power and/or signal cables. However, disk drives are often constructed with non-standard power and signal connector layouts, thus making the direct connection of a disk drive to a printed circuit board (PCB) or backplane problematic. In particular, the spacing between a disk drive's power and signal connectors often varies from one drive to another and from one manufacturer to another. Although standards have been promulgated, not all drives are designed in conformance with them.
Some disk drive manufacturers attempt to reduce the number of cables needed to interface a disk drive to a computer system. Resulting drives, particularly SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) and Fibre Channel, employ Single Connector Attachments (SCA) that provide unified power and signal connections. However, many disk drives are manufactured with separate power and signal connectors instead of SCAs. Even an interposer card, which provides an SCA connector for disk drives having separate power and signal connectors, typically requires one or more cables to complete a connection between the disk drive and the interposer card.
Therefore, what is needed is an apparatus and method for directly interfacing a disk drive (having separate power and signal connectors) with a computer system, without the use of conventional power or signal cabling, wherein the apparatus can accommodate disk drives having a range of spacing (e.g., non-standard or variable) between their power and signal connectors.
SUMMARY
In one embodiment of the invention a disk drive interface assembly is provided for directly connecting to one or more disk drives and interfacing the disk drives with a computer system. More particularly, power and signal connectors of the assembly are configured to directly connect to corresponding connectors of a disk drive without requiring conventional power or signal cables or wires.
The power and/or signal connectors of the assembly are translatable (e.g., slidably movable) to allow for variable spacing between the types of connectors. Thus, disk drives having a range of spacing between their power and signal connectors can be accommodated. Any or all of the connectors may be movable in different embodiments, such as just the power connectors, just the signal connectors, a subset of the power connectors, etc.
In one embodiment of the invention, a power or signal connector may be movable only along an axis that aligns the power and signal connectors. However, in another embodiment a movable connector may be movable in two or even three dimensions.
In an embodiment of the invention in which power connectors are translatable, the assembly may comprise two or more printed circuit boards (PCB) or backplanes. In this embodiment the signal connectors are mounted on one PCB and the power connectors are mounted on one or more other boards. The signal board is situated closest to the disk drive(s) and includes a set of apertures through which the power connectors of the other board(s) may pass to meet the disk drives. As described above, within an aperture a power connector is movable in at least one dimension in order to allow for variable spacing between it and a matching signal connector.
The power and signal boards may be electrically coupled, in which case the assembly may present a combined power/signal connection interface to the computer system.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5017146 (1991-05-01), Uehara et al.
patent: 5650911 (1997-07-01), Scholder et al.
patent: 5808876 (1998-09-01), Mullenbach et al.
patent: 6091609 (2000-07-01), Hutson et al.
AMP Incorporated,CHAMP .050 Series I Blindmate, Single Connector Attachment(SCA 2)For SCSI Disk Drives, printed on Oct. 5, 2000 from http://connect.amp.com (linked from http://www.commcon.com).
Jeff Apodaca,Drive Docking Connectors Simplify Drive Designs, 4 pages, printed Nov. 5, 2000 from http://www.commcon.com/main.
Comm Con Connectors, Inc.Disk Drive Adapters, 2 pages, printed Nov. 5, 2000 from http://www.commcon.com/main/driveadapters.html.
Chong, Jr. Fay
Grouell William L.
Gandhi Jayprakash N.
Sun Microsystems Inc.
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