Electrical transmission or interconnection systems – Plural load circuit systems – Control of current or power
Reexamination Certificate
2000-07-11
2004-07-27
Sircus, Brian (Department: 2836)
Electrical transmission or interconnection systems
Plural load circuit systems
Control of current or power
C307S125000, C713S300000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06768222
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to computing systems, and, more particularly, to a system and method for delaying power-up of a power supply.
2. Description of the Related Art
Turning now to
FIG. 1A
, a computer system
100
A is powered by a 110V, 60 Hz alternating current (AC) delivered through an electrical outlet
115
via a power plug
110
and a power cord
105
. The computer system
100
A may be a typical desktop computer configured to run one of the x86 operating systems. A computer system
100
B of
FIG. 1B
is powered from a battery
120
, typically 12V direct current (DC). The computer system
100
B may also accept a power cord
105
, similar to the computer system
100
A, to supply electrical power, when there is an electrical outlet
115
available.
Turning now to
FIG. 2
, a portion of the internal components of the computer system
100
A is shown. Electrical power is provided through the power cord
105
to a power supply
210
to provide electrical power to the computer system
100
A. The power supply
210
converts the provided AC electrical power to the DC voltages and amperages necessary for powering the computer system
100
. Electrical and control signals are provided from the power supply
210
to power planes (not shown) in a motherboard
205
(also called a main board or back plane) through a plurality of wires
215
connected to a plurality of pins (e.g.
FIG. 3
) in an electrical connector
220
A, which mates with a corresponding electrical connector
220
B on the surface of the motherboard
205
. Illustrative components on the motherboard
205
include one or more integrated circuits
230
and one or more cards
240
, which may mate to the motherboard
205
through a connector
245
. Examples of integrated circuits
230
include processors, cache memory chips, chip sets (e.g. north bridges and south bridges), controller chips, etc. Examples of cards
240
include those that conform to the Industry Standard Architecture (ISA), Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA), Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI), etc. bus definitions. Main memory, in the form of random access memory (DRAM, SDRAM, RDRAM, etc.), may also be connected to the motherboard
205
through the cards
240
.
FIG. 3
shows the various signals carried in one embodiment of the power connector
220
A, a 20-pin ATX power connector. Pins
1
,
2
, and
11
are 3.3V. Pins
4
,
6
,
19
, and
20
are +5V, while pin
18
is −5V. Pin
9
is 5VSB (stand-by), a +5 V power signal that is always on when the power supply is energized, even while the other power lines (pins
1
,
2
,
4
,
6
,
10
-
12
, and
18
-
20
) are off. Pin
10
is +12V, while pin
12
is −12V. Pins
3
,
5
,
7
,
13
,
15
,
16
, and
17
are ground (also referred to as common). Two signal pins provide signaling. Pin
8
is for a power-OK signal. Pin
14
is a power supply-on (PS-ON#) pin that signals the power supply
210
to provide power when the PS-ON# pin is made active low.
Turning now to
FIG. 4
, an exemplary computer system layout
400
, is shown. The computer system
400
includes a processor
402
, a north bridge
404
, main memory
406
, Advanced Graphics Port (AGP) memory
408
, a PCI bus
410
, a south bridge
412
, a back-up battery
413
, an AT Attachment (ATA) interface
414
(more commonly known as an Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) interface), a universal serial bus (USB) interface
416
, a Low Pin Count (LPC) bus
418
, an input/output controller chip (SuperI/O™)
420
A, and BIOS memory
422
. It is noted that the north bridge
404
and the south bridge
412
may include only a single chip or a plurality of chips, leading to the collective term “chipset.” It is also noted that other buses, devices, and/or subsystems may be included in the computer system
400
as desired, e.g. caches, modems, parallel or serial interfaces, SCSI interfaces, network interface cards, etc. [“SuperI/O” is a trademark of National Semiconductor Corporation of Santa Clara, Calif.]
The south bridge
412
, as shown, includes a power control module
415
. The power control module
415
is configured to provide electrical and battery power control and regulation functions for the computer system
400
. The power control module
415
may operate according to the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface Specification (ACPI Specification). Revision 1.0b of Feb. 2, 1999 of the ACPI Specification is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. An alternative embodiment of the SuperI/O™ chip
420
B may include the power control module
415
, instead of the south bridge
412
. The power control module
415
may also be divided between the south bridge
412
and the Super I/O™ chip
420
B, as desired.
The processor
402
is coupled to the north bridge
404
. The north bridge
404
provides an interface between the processor
402
, the main memory
406
, the AGP memory
408
, and the PCI bus
410
. The south bridge
412
provides an interface between the PCI bus
410
and the peripherals, devices, and subsystems coupled to the IDE interface
414
, the USB interface
416
, and the LPC bus
418
. The Super I/O™ chip
420
A is coupled to the LPC bus
418
.
The north bridge
404
provides communications access between and/or among the processor
402
, the main memory
406
, the AGP memory
408
, devices coupled to the PCI bus
410
, and devices and subsystems coupled to the south bridge
412
. Typically, removable peripheral devices (e.g. cards) are inserted into PCI “slots” (not shown) that connect to the PCI bus
410
to couple to the computer system
400
. Alternatively, devices located on a motherboard may be directly connected to the PCI bus
410
.
The south bridge
412
provides an interface between the PCI bus
410
and various devices and subsystems, such as a modem, a printer, keyboard, mouse, etc., which are generally coupled to the computer system
400
through the LPC bus
418
(or its predecessors, such as an X-bus or the ISA bus). The south bridge
412
includes the logic used to interface the devices to the rest of computer system
400
through the IDE interface
414
, the USB, interface
416
, and the LPC bus
418
.
Devices that couple to the USB or ATA interfaces may also be powered through the power planes of the motherboard
205
. Secondary power supply connectors (not shown) often connect directly to hard drives or CD ROM drives that transmit data through the ATA interface. USB devices may be powered through the USB interface or through an external power supply.
During testing of computer systems, such as the computer system
100
A, it is common to unplug the power connector
220
A from the power connector
220
B on the motherboard
205
before swapping out integrated circuits
230
or cards
240
. Unplugging the power connector
220
A removes electrical power from the computer system
100
A and allows for removal and insertion of components that use electrical power from the computer system
100
A with less likelihood that they will be damaged by stray voltages, or inadvertent or intermittent electrical connections. It is noted that semiconductor devices, such as integrated circuits
230
, are prone to electrical damage (e.g. punch-through or lockup) from stray electrical signals, even from static electricity.
Turning to
FIG. 5A
, the proper orientation of the power connector
220
A to the power connector
220
B during insertion is shown. The plurality of wires
215
is shown connected to the power connector
220
A. The connector
220
B is shown below the power connector
220
A, ready to accept and mate with power connector
220
A. Note that the plane of incidence
510
A of the power connector
220
A is parallel to the plane of incidence
510
B of the power connector
220
B. Upon contact, where the plane of incidence
510
A coincides with the plane of incidence
510
B, the angle of incidence is substantially zero degrees. When the power connector
220
A is inserted into the power connector
220
B as shown h
Advanced Micro Devices , Inc.
Rios Roberto J
Sircus Brian
Williams Morgan & Amerson P.C.
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