Electricity: electrical systems and devices – Housing or mounting assemblies with diverse electrical... – For electronic systems and devices
Reexamination Certificate
2003-02-05
2004-10-12
Duong, Hung Van (Department: 2835)
Electricity: electrical systems and devices
Housing or mounting assemblies with diverse electrical...
For electronic systems and devices
C361S704000, C165S011200, C174S015200
Reexamination Certificate
active
06804114
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF INVENTION
BACKGROUND
An electronic system is group of electronic components that are designed to work harmoniously as a collective whole; and, are housed within a mechanical package. Examples of electronic systems include networking systems (e.g., large scale or small scale routers, switches, wireless base stations, etc.) as well as computing systems (e.g., mainframes, workstations, servers, personal computers, etc.). An exemplary electronic system
130
is shown in FIG.
1
.
Electronic components are typically mounted on cards (or “blades”) which are plugged into a motherboard or backplane (e.g., via a card connector that is affixed to the motherboard or backplane). For example, as seen in
FIG. 1
, cards
102
a
through
102
i
are plugged into the surface
101
of a backplane or motherboard. Note that the number, shape, size, and positioning of the cards
102
a
through
102
i
and the backplane/motherboard
101
as seen in
FIG. 1
are exemplary and may vary from embodiment to embodiment.
Frequently, each of the cards
102
a
through
102
i
are designed to perform a specific function that is consistent with the architecture and use of the system
130
. For example, if the system
130
of
FIG. 1
corresponds to a networking system, most of the individual cards
102
a
through
102
i
correspond to a networking adapter card which provides for one or more networking line connections to be made to the system
130
. For example, card
102
a
may provide connections for 8 different Ethernet lines; card
102
b
may provide connections for 8 different T
3
lines; card
102
c
may provide for 8 Synchronous Optical NETwork (SONET) lines, etc. Note that that the individual network lines are not drawn in
FIG. 1
for simplicity.
During normal operation of the system
103
, networking traffic (e.g., data, voice, etc.) received on a first networking line by a first card may be routed over the backplane or motherboard for transmission on a second line by a second card. For example, continuing with the exemplary networking system just described above, networking traffic that is received (within an Ethernet format) on a first line offered by card
102
a
may be routed over the backplane or motherboard to card
102
c
from where it is transmitted (within a SONET format) on a second networking line (that is offered by card
102
c
).
The backplane/motherboard
101
typically manages and/or transports the communications that transpire between the various cards
102
a
through
102
i
. The networking function of the system (e.g., the management and handling as to which networking line(s) the received traffic is retransmitted from) is typically distributed amongst the various cards
102
a
through
102
i
, or handled within one or more cards dedicated to this function (e.g., a routing card that corresponds to card
102
e
), or designed upon the motherboard/backplane
101
, or designed with some combination of these techniques.
With respect to computing systems, the motherboard/backplane
101
typically house one or more processor semiconductor chips that execute the system's software (although it is possible that computing machines may be constructed with processors distributed onto the cards
102
a
through
102
i
themselves) as well as manages or transports the communications that transpire between the various cards
102
a
through
102
i
. With respect to computing systems, cards
102
a
through
102
i
typically correspond to some combination of networking adapter cards (as discussed above), disk drives, memory expansions cards, video processing cards, etc.
Regardless if the system
130
is a networking, computing or other type of electronic system, however, the cards
102
a
through
102
i
and the motherboard or backplane
101
typically include electronic components such as integrated circuit (IC) semiconductor chips, discrete active devices (such as transistors) and discrete passive devices (such as capacitors, inductors, relays, transformers, etc.) that are cooperatively related according to an electronic circuit design. The electronic components on the cards
102
a
through
102
i
and the motherboard/backplane
101
are commonly surrounded by (and mounted to at various locations) a mechanical package
100
such as a metallic box-like or frame-like structure.
The electronic components, by the nature of their operation, are responsible for the consumption of electrical energy by the cards
102
a
through
102
i
and/or motherboard/backplane
101
. The consumption of electronic energy results in the dissipation of heat. Electronic components are typically specified according to the temperature range of their surrounding environment (i.e. their “ambient”). That is, minimum and maximum ambient temperatures are defined between which the electronic components are expected to maintain proper operation.
As proper operation of a system depends upon maintaining the ambient temperature of its electronic components within their specified ranges, the thermal environment within the mechanical package
100
becomes an important part of a system's design.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5390077 (1995-02-01), Paterson
patent: 6038128 (2000-03-01), Hood et al.
patent: 6115250 (2000-09-01), Schmitt
patent: 6377452 (2002-04-01), Sasaki et al.
patent: 6538883 (2003-03-01), Greer
Blakely , Sokoloff, Taylor & Zafman LLP
Duong Hung Van
Turin Networks
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