Patents by Inventor Will E. Hamel

Will E. Hamel has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 6400113
    Abstract: Apparatus for monitoring fan speeds within a computing system includes a tachometer turning with the fan, providing a tachometer signal including a number of pulses during each revolution of the fan. This tachometer signal is provided as an input to a signal generator in the form of a flip-flop, which generates a square-wave signal having transitions between high and low levels corresponding to tachometer signal pulses. The square-wave signals are provided as inputs to separate input ports of a microprocessor. These input ports are sequentially sampled at a rate providing at least two samples per period of the fastest square-wave signal, so that transitions of each square wave signal during a predetermined time interval can be detected and counted. For each input port, the number of counted transitions is compared to a stored acceptable value to establish whether the fan is operating in an acceptable speed range.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 19, 2000
    Date of Patent: June 4, 2002
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Ray Garcia, Will E. Hamel, Kendall A. Honeycutt, Stephen E. Still