Abstract: Example embodiments of the present invention relate to an apparatus comprising a zip-locker receiver. The zip-locker receiver is configured to ratchetably receive a zip-locker and comprises an aperture and a pawl disposed within the aperture configured to complement and cooperate with the ratchet teeth of the zip-locker to prevent removal of the zip-locker from the aperture of the zip-locker receiver at times the pawl of the zip-locker receiver is engaged with the ratchet teeth of the zip-locker.

Abstract: An electronic equipment chassis in one embodiment comprises a housing having a front portion and a rear portion, at least one row of dual in-line memory modules disposed at one of an upper level and a lower level of the front portion, and a plurality of storage devices arranged in the front portion adjacent the at least one row of dual in-line memory modules. At least a subset of the dual in-line memory modules and the storage devices are configured so as to be removable from the chassis through a vertical plane of the front portion of the housing.

Abstract: A rack unit for providing a server to be mounted within a storage rack is provided. The rack unit includes a set of low-profile drawer slides configured for mounting the rack unit within the storage rack, the set of low-profile drawer slides configured for mounting upon rails; wherein, the chassis includes at least one wide section for housing computer components. A server and a storage rack are described.

Abstract: An electronic equipment chassis in one embodiment comprises a housing having a front portion and a rear portion, first and second rows of cooling modules disposed at respective upper and lower levels of the front portion, and a plurality of storage devices arranged in the front portion between the first and second rows of cooling modules. At least a subset of the cooling modules and the storage devices are configured so as to be removable from the chassis through a vertical plane of the front portion of the housing.

Abstract: Example embodiments of the present invention relate to a system comprising a zip-locker and a zip-locker receiver. The zip-locker comprises a first portion and a second portion configured to fasten to an interconnect, at least one of the first portion and the second portion having ratchet teeth formed and extending longitudinally on an outer surface thereof. The zip-locker receiver is configured to ratchetably receive the zip-locker and comprises an aperture and a pawl disposed within the aperture configured to complement and cooperate with the ratchet teeth of the zip-locker to prevent removal of the zip-locker from the aperture of the zip-locker receiver at times the pawl of the zip-locker receiver is engaged with the ratchet teeth of the zip-locker.

Abstract: A computing system includes a low-profile chassis a motherboard disposed therein and at least one full-size circuit board coupled to the motherboard within the chassis. A method and another computing system are disclosed.

Abstract: Disclosed are ways of providing a highly flexible high availability storage system. Disk drive carriers for insertion into enclosures in a storage system include several disk drives. The enclosures accept carriers that include drives of different sizes, and drives compatible with different storage technologies, for instance Fibre Channel, SATA, or SAS. Drives oriented in their carriers in a manner that allows them to be connected to a common medium via identical flex circuits that are configured based on the orientation of the drives. Redundant controllers include redundant serial buses for transferring management information to the carriers. The carriers include a controller for monitoring the multiple serial buses and producing storage technology specific management commands for the disk drives.

Abstract: A connection assembly has a midplane, first midplane connectors and second midplane connectors. The midplane is divided into an airflow section and a connector section by a dividing line. The midplane defines a first side and a second side which faces away from the first side. The airflow section provides airflow passageways connecting spaces on both sides of the midplane. The connector section provides (i) first mounting locations which are confined to the connector section on the first side and (ii) second mounting locations which are confined to the connector section on the second side. The first midplane connectors are arranged to connect to first circuit board modules, and are mounted over the first mounting locations on the first side. The set of second midplane connectors are arranged to connect to second circuit board modules, and are mounted over the second mounting locations on the second side.

Abstract: Described is a midplane-less storage system comprising an enclosure including a control board having an electrical connector attached thereto and a processing unit. The enclosure also includes a disk drive module with a disk drive for storing data and an adapter board electrically connected to the disk drive. The adapter board has a controller and an electrical connector that is mated to the electrical connector of the control board. A communication bus extends from the control board to the disk drive module through the mated electrical connectors. The processing unit of the control board communicates with the controller of the adapter board over the communication bus in accordance with a communication protocol in order to control operation of the disk drive.

Abstract: Described is a storage system comprising a communication bus, a disk drive, a control board having a processing unit connected to the communication bus, and an adapter board in electrical communication with the disk drive. The adapter board has a controller connected to the communication bus. The controller receives instructions over the communication bus from the processing unit and communicates with the disk drive in response to the instructions. Optionally, the storage system has a midplane having a first connector connected to an electrical connector of the control board and a second connector connected to an electrical connector of the adapter board. Attached to opposite sides of the midplane, the first and second connectors are aligned with and electrically connected to each other through the midplane. An electrical signal transmitted between the control board and the adapter board passes directly through the midplane through the first and second midplane connectors.

Abstract: An improved redundant computing apparatus has a chassis assembly configured to (i) mount to a standard electronic equipment rack and (ii) consume substantially 1U of space in a particular direction within the standard electronic equipment rack. The chassis assembly includes a housing and a midplane disposed within the housing. The apparatus further includes a set of power supply/blower assemblies configured to electrically connect to and electrically disconnect from the midplane of the chassis assembly in a hot swappable manner, and a set of computing devices configured to electrically connect to and electrically disconnect from the midplane of the chassis assembly in a hot swappable manner. By way of example, the set of computing devices is adapted to move data into and out of a set of disk drives on behalf of a set of external host computers.

Abstract: A midplane has plated through holes (PTHs) which form a first profile and a second profile. The first profile has (i) an overlapping portion which overlaps at least part of the second profile and (ii) a non-overlapping portion which does not overlap any part of the second profile. A first connector mounts to a first side of the midplane over the first profile, and a second connector mounts to a second side of the midplane over the second profile. At least one PTH is a shared PTH which resides in both the first and second profiles and which engages a pin of the first connector and a pin of the second connector. Additionally, at least one PTH is a non-shared PTH which resides in the non-overlapping portion of the first profile and which engages a pin of the first connector without engaging any pins of the second connector.

Abstract: An improved redundant computing apparatus includes a chassis assembly configured to (i) mount to a standard electronic equipment rack and (ii) consume substantially 1U of space in a particular direction (e.g., vertical height) within the standard electronic equipment rack. The chassis assembly includes a housing and a midplane disposed within the housing. The apparatus further includes a set of power supply/blower assemblies configured to connect to the midplane of the chassis assembly through a front of the housing in a field replaceable manner, and a set of computing devices configured to connect to the midplane of the chassis assembly through a back of the housing in a field replaceable manner. By way of example, the set of computing devices is adapted to move data into and out of a set of disk drives on behalf of a set of external host computers.

Abstract: Disclosed are ways of providing a highly flexible high availability storage system. Disk drive carriers for insertion into enclosures in a storage system include several disk drives. The enclosures accept carriers that include drives of different sizes, and drives compatible with different storage technologies, for instance Fibre Channel, SATA, or SAS. Drives oriented in their carriers in a manner that allows them to be connected to a common medium via identical flex circuits that are configured based on the orientation of the drives. Redundant controllers include redundant serial buses for transferring management information to the carriers. The carriers include a controller for monitoring the multiple serial buses and producing storage technology specific management commands for the disk drives.

Abstract: Disclosed are ways of providing a highly flexible high availability storage system. Disk drive carriers for insertion into enclosures in a storage system include several disk drives. The enclosures accept carriers that include drives of different sizes, and drives compatible with different storage technologies, for instance Fibre Channel, SATA, or SAS. Drives oriented in their carriers in a manner that allows them to be connected to a common medium via identical flex circuits that are configured based on the orientation of the drives. Redundant controllers include redundant serial buses for transferring management information to the carriers. The carriers include a controller for monitoring the multiple serial buses and producing storage technology specific management commands for the disk drives.

Abstract: A computer system for managing a computer network comprises a rack cabinet having a cabinet interior. A plurality of infrastructure connector assemblies are fixedly mounted on the rack cabinet in 1-U boundaries, each infrastructure connector assembly including a signal snap interface connector and a power snap interface connector. A plurality of compute elements are adapted to be slidably disposed within the cabinet interior of the rack cabinet in a stacked relationship, each compute element including at least one infrastructure connector assembly which releasably snap-interconnects with an associated infrastructure connector assembly mounted on the rack cabinet. A distributed power bay is disposed within the rack cabinet and provides central power for the computer system. A rack manager is disposed within the rack cabinet and includes the central video and I/O devices for the computer system.

Abstract: An expandable memory system and a method for operating a memory system having a variable number of memory banks are described. The memory system can utilize a variable number of separately replaceable memory banks which can be implemented with memory element, such as dynamic random access memory chips, which are of differing speeds and or sizes. The memory system implements an interleaving of memory addresses among the memory banks as a function of the number of banks actually present so that successive memory accesses are not unnecessarily delayed by the recovery times of the memory elements. The memory system includes a programmable address decoder having a writable memory which provides bank address signals. Each of the banks includes a respective delay line for providing an output signal a respective presettable time after address signals are received by that bank for signalling to the host that data is ready to be transferred.

Abstract: A method for performing address and data transfers among a plurality of different units of a data processing system having a system bus which includes an address bus and a data bus. The system uses arbitration phase, address transfer phase, and data transfer phase operations which require the use of unique handshake signals at each phase so as to permit address and data transfers to occur on a suitable priority basis with respect to different ones of such units in a pipelined manner using non-multiplexed, asynchronous operations.