AU7154800A - Reversed computer housing - Google Patents

Description

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION STANDARD PATENT REVERSED COMPUTER HOUSING The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to me: True Copy 1 REVERSED COMPUTER HOUSING This invention relates to improvements in devices for the housing of computer parts.

For many computing applications the relatively standardised layout of existing desk top style and/or equipment cabinet mounted style personal computer housing's that feature the user controls, indicators and user accessible disk drives at the front of the housing and then most, if not all, of the input/output electrical ports as well as any expansion card slots at the rear of the housing, necesitates access to both the front and the rear of the housing on a regular basis.

.000 While this very common configuration was probably devised to keep wires 0.away from view, it often has the disadvantage of making access to the input/output ports and any expansion slot connectors difficult, particularly when the computer housing is enclosed within an equipment cabinet or when it is securely mounted in some other fashion. Often this difficulty of access *to the rear of the housing leads to the use of a number of wires and cables from each computer to some form of common switch box device that in turn connects to a single common instance of input/output device, of a variety of types, such as a keyboard, a mouse or a monitor or other peripheral devices 0 0" such as a printer, a plotter, a scanner, a modem or other peripheral devices of numerous other types.

The difficulties of access to the rear of the computer housing are overcome "by the present invention, which re-arranges the contents and configuration of the computer housing so that the input/output electrical ports and any expansion card slots and the operating computer controls and indicators and the user accessible disk drives or other internally contained user accessible devices are all available at the front of the improved computer housing so that the user can easily plug and unplug input/output and peripheral devices as well as gaining access to the normally available controls and disk drives without requiring access to the rear of the computer housing.

True Copy This invention can additionally avoid the necessity for switch box devices and associated wiring by making the input/output ports available at the front of the improved computer housing so that external input/output devices may simply be plugged or un-plugged for maintenance or configuration or any other purposes.

In one form of the invention the computer housing may utilise a small footprint computer main board that has been rotated one hundred and eighty degree's from the conventional or usual position at, and facing toward, the rear of the computer housing and which in the improved housing has been located behind a suitable input/output panel at the right hand side of the front of the computer housing and facing toward the front, to the right and adjacent to an area designed to locate one full height, imperial: five and one quarter inch, or metric: one hundred and thirty three millimeter, user accessible disk drive bay. This disk drive bay may be used for a wide variety of available devices including two half height devices. The controls and indicators for the operation and monitoring of the computer system may be located in an area above the main board's input/output connector area at the front of the housing and facing the front and thereby facing the user.

eeee This form of the invention, could for instance, allow for access to the full eeee complement of input/output and expansion slots generally available on a small footprint computer main board and allow for a full height imperial: five and a quarter inch user drive bay area as well as the controls and indicators for the operation of the computer and yet still be of physically small enough width to fit comfortably within the internationally recognised width limits of a standard imperial: nineteen inch, or metric: four hundred and eighty two point six millimeter, computer equipment cabinet. The sides of the computer housing could for instance also be designed with a front to rear recessed channel on each of it's two sides to allow for easy fitment of telescopic slides to further allow the entire computer housing to be easily slid in and out of the said equipment cabinet for ease of maintenance and access to internal parts, these side recessed channels could additionally serve to allow easy initial fitment of the computer housing over the said telescopic slides, which in turn may have been pre-fitted to the equipment cabinet, by acting as a guiding recessed channel through which the telescopic slides fit.

Some of the available internal space could additionally be utilised for a number of electric forced air ventilation fans or other devices fitted to the True Copy rear face of the housing, in conjunction with ventilation holes or slots through the front panel area and through the rear panel area this could allow for ample forced air ventilation to be sucked in through the front of the housing and blown out through the rear causing a very efficient laminar flow of cooling air to the internal components including the fixed disk drive area.

In another form of the invention where only a minimum of the available computer main board expansion slots are required to be used but where the computer requires the extra resouces available on a larger footprint computer main board the improved housing may use a larger footprint main board that has been rotated one hundred and eighty degree's and which has been relocated to, and facing, the left hand side of the front face of the housing with say an imperial: three and one half inch, or metric: eighty eight point ";*"nirne millimeter, floppy disk drive located at the lower right hand corner of "the front face below say an imperial: five and one quarter inch, metric: one hundred and thirty three millimeter, CDRom drive or other such drive or device such that the larger footprint computer main board is able to fit beneath part of the CDRom or other such drive or device. This configuration would preclude the use of some of the computer main board expansion slot's but in many applications only a few such expansion slots are required to be used and would in some applications willingly be sacrificed in favour of the •*go extra available computer main board resources.

The reversed computer housing may be made of plastic or metal or of other ***material's providing always that whichever material is chosen, the computer housing shall most likely be required to pass stringent testing for unintended radiation of electro-magnetic energy in order to comply with regulatory requirements for most markets in which it will be available and therefore the S most likely material for it's manufacture is metal. The general contents of the improved computer housing may be of any brand, make or manufacture or of any existing or future available parts from which computers may be constructed and these internal parts are not, of themselves, the subject of this invention.

True Copy To assist with the understanding of this invention, reference will now be made to the accompanying drawing which shows one example of the invention.

In the drawing: FIG. 1 shows one example of a reversed computer housing according to this invention; Refering to FIG. 1 it can be seen that the reversed and improved computer housing according to this invention comprises a constructed housing containing a computer main board that faces the front of the housing "along with the operation controls and indicators the input/output panel and the expansion slots all facing the front of the housing, also shown in this example are a floppy disk drive and a cdrom drive again facing the front of the housing. The computer power supply is shown at the rear Plenty of space is available internally for one or more fixed disk drives or other data storage devices as well as ventilation facilities which may include fans and or filters, possibly attached to the inside of the rear panel Slide mount recessed channels are shown on each side of the housing (7) and In this example the housing is shown as a sheet metal modular design held together with machine screws or other fastening devices but may equally be of a welded or pressed metal construction. Not shown for the sake of clarity is a simple top cover of sheet metal.

It will be realised that the reversed computer housing device according to this invention is not restricted to the configuration shown in the example, but may utilise any combination of front panel layout configuration provided that the input/output panel, expansion card slot's, user access drive bay's and operation controls and indicators all face toward the front of the housing and therefore toward the user.

True Copy

Claims (2)

1. A reversed and improved computer housing allowing all available user accessible disk drives, controls, indicators, input/output ports and expansion slots to face towards, and be available from, the front of the housing for improved access by the user.

2. A reversed and improved computer housing substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawing. JOHN HENRY DRAIN (Name of Applicant(s)) 8 NOVEMBER 2000 (Date) True Copy