1. Field of The Invention
The invention relates to the field of computer systems, and in particular, to compatibility and related issues, for example, between a computer slot and a candidate device intended to be plugged into that slot.
2. Background Information
Recently it has become common to configure computer systems using motherboards and/or backplanes having a number of slot connectors (or simply xe2x80x9cslotsxe2x80x9d herein) for receiving a variety of add-on adapter card devices. In many computer systems, input/output (I/O) interfacing and various special purpose circuitry is provided using these add-on adapter cards which conveniently and simply plug-in to standard bus connectors on the main processor motherboard or backplane.
The cards typically have edge connectors with a number of relatively closely spaced metal contacts, on one or both sides of the card edge, and the corresponding slots similarly have a like number of closely spaced metal contacts therein. When the card edge connector is inserted in the slot connector, the corresponding contacts make electrical connection. Through these contacts and their electrical connection, the card device and the board system, e.g., a personal computer, communicate data, address and control signals, for example. The card device also generally obtains electrical energy from the personal computer system through two or more of the contacts.
A variety of adapter/connector/bus types and standards are known, and one of these is the peripheral component interconnect (PCI) standard. The adapter/connector/bus types and standards may vary in a number of electrical characteristics. However, there can also be differences in the width, length or height clearance for card-slot electrical devices among the various available peripheral connectors and computer systems, depending on board layout, etc. For example, the PCI standard supports both a long card form factor and a short card form factor.
However, a particular system configuration may only permit a short card in a particular slot because of a lack of clearance with other installed system devices. That is, there may not be enough room for a long card in a particular slot. There may also be height clearances to consider for card devices that exceed the standard card device height, and width clearances as well.
Computer manufacturers are very concerned about configured system hardware costs. Therefore, many manufacturers are now designing system chassis and infrastructure based around industry standard architectures and devices. This allows the industry to leverage volume-of-scale in the marketplace when procuring hardware and electronics. Common devices and architectures today include the PCI (Card) and the 3.5xe2x80x3 SCSI (DASD), for instance.
At the same time, manufacturers may try to differentiate their products and architectures within computer chassis to try to gain a marketable advantage. As a result, manufacturers sometimes develop non-standard devices and form-factors that ship as a xe2x80x98featurexe2x80x99 in a chassis otherwise optimized for standard components. Components subject to this are referred to as xe2x80x9cfeaturablexe2x80x9d herein.
However, this creates a coding headache for System Management (SM) developers who must try to describe, in a physical sense, how those xe2x80x98featuresxe2x80x99 can impact, in particular, interfere with, other adjacent slots or bays within the computer enclosure. In lieu of an efficient method for SM to handle these issues, Computer Manufacturing departments and Service organizations must maintain complex algorithms and/or xe2x80x98configuration-tablesxe2x80x99 and documentation to describe xe2x80x98supportedxe2x80x99 configurations given all the possible spatial combinations of standard and non-standard devices.
It is known to store vital product data (VPD) for correlating the physical locations of system components with their corresponding logical addresses in a computer system, for example, from co-pending patent application Ser. No. 08/971,687, filed Nov. 17, 1997, entitled xe2x80x9cMETHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CORRELATING COMPUTER SYSTEM DEVICE PHYSICAL LOCATION WITH LOGICAL ADDRESSxe2x80x9d assigned to the same assignee as the present application (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,044,411). As described therein with respect to an exemplary embodiment, memory, e.g., non-volatile memory, is provided on a PCI backplane and written with VPD product information, such as the type of backplane, manufacture date, backplane serial number, type of slots on the backplane, etc., and this information is retained for use by the operating system if and when needed for service action, upgrades, or for on-line configuration management and order process.
Further, the VPD information may advantageously be written and accessed, for example, using a system power control network (SPCN), such as-an SPCN disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,117,430 or in related co-pending application Ser. No. 08/912,561, filed Aug. 18, 1997, entitled xe2x80x9cFAIL-SAFE COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK FOR USE IN SYSTEM POWER CONTROLxe2x80x9d (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,122,256).
In co-pending application Ser. No. 09/265,394 filed Mar. 10, 1999, entitled xe2x80x9cADDITION OF SLOT, BACKPLANE, CHASSIS AND DEVICE PARAMETRIC PROPERTIES TO VITAL PRODUCT DATA (VPD) IN A COMPUTER SYSTEMxe2x80x9d (now Pat. No. U.S. 6,289,405), the addition of slot, backplane, chassis and device parametric properties to vital product data (VPD) in a computer system is described. In particular, in an electrical system having a connector board with at least one electrical connector thereon for receiving an electrical device therein, a method includes storing vital product parametric data in memory associated with the connector board. The stored vital product parametric data can be accessed when information about the connector board and/or an electrical device therein is needed. The storing vital product parametric data may include storing information about characteristics of the connector board and the at least one electrical connector.
Further, if there are a plurality of connectors on the connector board, the storing physical characteristics includes storing a respective associated connector clearance for each of the plurality of connectors. For example, if a computer user has purchased a new DASD (direct access storage device) to plug into the computer, the computer user may know by looking at existing configuration records that there are five empty DASD slots available.
However, the computer user would also like to know without the need of taking the back cover off of the computer, which empty slots in this computer have 1.6xe2x80x3 width spacing, required to accommodate the new DASD. It is typically the case in this particular computer system that there are mostly 1.0xe2x80x3 spaced DASD connectors on the backplane. According to that disclosure, this information can be stored as VPD and accessed electronically. Ideally, according to that disclosure, the chassis and all devices and backplanes in a system would carry parametric VPD according to the invention. The chassis VPD would be compared with the backplane VPD, the chassis VPD would be compared with the device VPD, and the device VPD would be compared with the backplane device slot VPD to detect compatibility issues.
In view of the above background information, a need exists for providing additional spatial or xe2x80x98volumetricxe2x80x99 information about system components. In particular, it would be advantageous to have an automated way of determining more completely the spatial compatibility of devices and systems.
It is, therefore, a principle object of this invention to provide a method and apparatus which physically describes and stores location, orientation, interference data, and the volumetric geometry of respective components and component areas within a computer system.
It is another object of the invention to provide a method and apparatus that solves the above mentioned problems so that more spatial compatibility issues can be addressed more completely and automatically.
These and other objects of the present invention are accomplished by the method and apparatus disclosed herein.
According to an aspect of the invention, data which physically describes location, orientation, interference data, and the volumetric geometry of respective components and component areas is stored within a computer system, in particular, as volumetric vital product data (VPD) parameters.
According to an aspect of the invention, the components can be any and all physical devices found in the computer system which occupy space. For example, devices such as microprocessors, DASD, and I/O adapters, as well as chassis components, such as I/O backplanes, power supplies, regulators and blowers, for example. The component areas (e.g., slots) are device or component xe2x80x98baysxe2x80x99 within the computer.
According to another aspect of the invention, each device or component is modeled as a solid using multiple coordinate axes and references, and the component areas, e.g., slots, are modeled as xe2x80x98envelopesxe2x80x99 into which the solid is placed. The parameters used to define these models is referred to as the xe2x80x98Volumetric VPDxe2x80x99.
An advantage of storing this type of information in a computer system, a computer chassis and/or a device, is that it allows the xe2x80x98System Managementxe2x80x99 (SM) software to more completely and accurately describe and cross-check system hardware configuration, compatibility and capabilities.
According to another aspect of the invention, computer manufacturers"" concerns about configured system hardware costs, and about designing system chassis and infrastructure based around industry standard architectures and devices are accommodated. At the same time, each manufacturer""s desire to differentiate certain products and architectures within the computer chassis to try to gain a marketable advantage is accommodated, i.e., non-standard devices and form-factors that ship as a xe2x80x98featurexe2x80x99 in a chassis which is otherwise optimized for standard components can be accommodated. Advantageously, these are accommodated without the coding headache for SM developers who must try to describe, in a physical sense, how those xe2x80x98featuresxe2x80x99 impact and/or interfere with other adjacent slots or bays within the computer enclosure.
According to another aspect of the invention, an efficient method for SM to handle various problem issues is provided so that computer manufacturing, computer management and computer service organizations will no longer need to maintain complex algorithms and/or xe2x80x98configuration-tablesxe2x80x99 and documentation to describe xe2x80x98legalxe2x80x99 configurations for all the possible spatial combinations of standard and non-standard devices.
These and other aspects of the invention will become apparent from the detailed description set forth below.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds