AU599216B2

AU599216B2 - Backplane having a jumper plug to connect socket connectors to a bus line

Info

Publication number: AU599216B2
Application number: AU13298/88A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Klaus Bremer
Original assignee: Siemens AG
Current assignee: Siemens AG
Priority date: 1987-03-20
Filing date: 1988-03-18
Publication date: 1990-07-12
Anticipated expiration: 2008-03-18
Also published as: DE3863105D1; EP0284843A1; JPS63250071A; BR8801234A; IN167363B; EP0284843B1; AU1329888A

Description

599216 S F S&F FORM COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA Ref: 36099 PATENTS ACT 1952 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION

(ORIGINAL)

FOR OFFICE USE: Class Int Class Complete Specification Lodged: Accepted: Published: Priority: d~ LIv Ci' dI C I iL ,si. p*I*~I (.II-C Related Art: c L- Name and Address of Applicant: Address for Service: Siemens Aktiengesellschaft Wittelsbacherplatz 2 D-8000 Munich 2 FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY Spruson Ferguson, Patent Attorneys Level 33 St Martins Tower, 31 Market Street Sydney, New South Wales, 2000, Australia Complete Specifiction for the invention entitled: Backplane Having a Jumper Plug to Connect Socket Connectors to a Bus Line The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to me/us 5845/3 r ,i ;-rl i L i i 2 A backpl i 3 are arranged in pai 4 modules. The sockE 4 5 that face away fron 6 least one bus line 7 of the bus has an S 8 are electrically cc 9 contact pin can be, a 10 its associated bus o 11 that extends beyond 12 can be separated fi i.3 modules from their 44 S 14 S0 16 17 o 18 19 i 21 22 23 i! If 24 26 27 28 29 ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE ane comprises several socket connectors that rallel, side by side on a side that faces the et connector has pins which form a pin field m the modules. At least one bus comprises at A bus contact pin of each socket connector associated contact pin. These contact pins onnected to each other with a bus line. Each electrically connected with a jumper plug to contact pin. A backplane comprising a bus d the modules is thus obtained where modules rom the bus without having to pull the plug-in locations on a module carrier.

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ii BACKPLANE HAVING A JUMPER PLUG TO CONNECT SOCKET CONNECTORS TO A BUS LINE ,RETAT'D APP t 21flIVCZ 4 44 44 4 4 44 4444 Q 4 44 4 4'4 4 4 *0 I t 4 Of interest to the present plication are copending applications titled "Backpla With Associated Handling Means", S"Backplane Having a Mable Contact Means", and "Backplane", all of which e the same assignee and filing date as the BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention.

The present invention relates to a backplane that has several socket connectors arranged in parallel, side by side on Sa side of the backplane that faces the module. The socket connectors have pins on a side that faces away from the module and form a pin field. At least one bus consists of at least one bus line.

18 2. Description of Related Art.

19 Backplanes are commercially available and are known, for instance, as VME bus boards. The VME bus is a standardized 21 bus which is responsibl for fast data traffic between the most I 22 important components of a bus system. The bus structure forms 23 the connecting bars between the building blocks and modules of 24 a micro or minicomputer system. The bus structures also varies according to the system components used and the desired 26 performance. The structure influences the performance of the 27 overall system because the entire data exchange takes place via 28 such bus systems. The data exchange takes place, for instance, 29 in a 16- or 32-bit format. For example, 8, 16 or 32 bus :3 line systems interconnect the individual module(. of a bus -2system. A fault caused by a short circuit of an output driver with the supply voltage of a bus participant can block the entire bus system. A diagnostic routine can localize the defective bus participant for many types of faults. However, some types of faults can be determined only by sequentially separating all bus participants from the bus until the 1 defective participant is found and the trouble corrected. The entire function of the participant concerned is put out of operation when the individual bus participants are pulled out of their plug-in locations in a module carrier. This fault isolation process leads to down time, SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the invention to develop an improved backplane 1oo* that enables at least one module to be separated from a bus having several modules without having to pull out the module from its place in a module o carrier.

15 In accordance with the present invention there is disclosed a rear panel circuit board comprising: o T a plurality of multiple contact strips arranged in parallel side-by-side relationship on one side of said board, each said contact strip having strip contact pins which pass through said board to form a field of spikes on the other side of said board; "at least one bus comprising a plurality of bus lines, each said bus 00 4 line having a bus contact pin interposed between each said multiple contact strip and associated with each said strip contact pin; wherein 0 said associated strip and bus contact pins are adapted to be electrically connected by means of a multipole jumper plug.

Sn the present invention a bus contact pin of each socket connector o of a bus is associated with a contact pin. The contact pins are electrically connected to each other with a bus line. Each contact pin is I. connected to its associated bus contact pin with a jumper plug.

In contrast to known backplanes, the bus lines of a bus of the present invention do not Interconnect the bus contact pins of several socket connectors. Rather, the bus interconnects the associated contact pins that are parallel to the bus contact pins, Contact between the respective bus contcnt pins of a socket connector and the corresponding contact pins is made with a jumper plug that is plugged into the corresponding contacts. This design of the back plane

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1 2 3 4 6 7 8 o o o 12 13 14 16 17 19 21 22 23 24 26

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26 permits separating a defective bus participant module from the bus without having to pull this bus participant module from its plug-in location of a module carrier, Any desired bus participant module thus can be separated from a bus that extends beyond the modules so that it no longer blocks the latter without having to take the additional functions of the module out of operation.

In one embodiment of the present invention the backplane comprises at least two buses. The buses can comprise several bus lines. The bus contact pins of each socket connector of a bus can be connected to the corresponding contact with multi-pole jumper plugs.

One of the two buses can be redundant if at least two buses on the backplane each comprise several bus lines. The bus participant modules can be connected to both buses with multiple jumpers. The modules can then be electrically separated from the bus without having to take the module out of operation. Fault localization on one of the two buses is thus achieved without taking the system off line.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Figure 1 shows a longitudinal cross section through a backplane having two buses; and Figure 2 shows a top view on the side of the backplane that faces away from the modules, without jumper plugs.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Figure 1 shows a section through a backplane 2.

Several socket connectors 6 are provided on the side 4 that 1 2 3 4 6 o on 7 0 or 0 1 1.2 So o 10 o o 0 01 12

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0 0o o 0 1 19 21 22 23 24 00 00 15 0 0 16 17 218 19 21 22 23 24 26 27 28 29 faces the modules. The pins 8 of the socket connectors 6 form a pin field on the side 10 that faces away from the modules.

Each bus contact pin 12 or 14, respectively, of each socket connector 6 of a bus has a corresponding contact pin 16 or 18.

The corresponding contact pins 16 and 18 are electrically connected with respective jumper plugs 20 by corresponding bus Scontact pins 12, 14.

Figure 2 shows a top view on the side 10 of the backplane 2 that faces away from the modules. Jumpers 20 have been omitted for clarity. The socket connectors 6 that are arranged on the side 4 that face the modules are shown on side 10 facing away from the modules with dashed line 22. Socket connectors 6 are 96-pole socket connectors. The contact pins 8 Sof each socket connector 6 are arranged in three rows of contacts 24. In addition, two buses 26 and 28 are provided which each have eight bus lines 30 and 32, respectively. Bus S28 is redundant with bus 26. The bus contact pins 12 of each socket connector 6 of the bus 26 belong to the respective contact pins of an outer row of each socket connector 6. A contact pin 16 is associated with each of these bus contact Spins 12. The eight contact pins 16 are associated with ri espective socket connectors 6 and electrically connected to each other with the eight bus lines 30 of the first bus 26.

The individual bus participant modules are electrically connected to the first bus 26 by a multi-pole jumper plug shown here as an 8-pole jumper. The bus contact pins "4 of each socket connector 6 are likewise electrically connected by 8-pole jumpers 20 to the corresponding contact pins 18. The eight contact pins 18 are electrically connected to each other with the eight bus lines 32.

1 In operation, all bus participant modules of the 2 backplane 2 are connected to bus 26 and redundant bus 28 by the 3 multi-pole jumpers 20. The data transfer between the 4 individual bus-participant modules occurs, for example, on the first bus 26. One can switch to the redundant bus 28 if a 6 fault occurs on first bus 26. The system thus remains in 7 operation. The fault localization procedure now takes place on 8 8: the disturbed bus by sequentially separating the modules from 9 the bus 26, the jumpers 20 which connect the modules to 10 the first bus 26 are sequentially pulled off. A suitable test S11 routine can determine at which module the blocking of the bus 12 26 is eliminated. The localized defective bus participant can 13 then be replaced. A defective module can thus be separated S'o 14 from a bus with the jumpers 20 which electrically connect the bus contact pins 12, 14 of each socket connector 6 to the S16 contact pins 16, 18 of the bus lines 30 and 32 without having 17 to pull these modules from their plug-in location of a module S 18 i carrier. The availability of a system is thus increased.

i 19 i I 21 1-' 22 23 24 26 27 28 29

Claims

1. A rear panel circuit board comprising: a plurality of multiple contact strips arranged In parallel side-by-side relationship on one, side of said board, each said contact strip having strip contact pins which pass through said board to form a field of spikes on the other side of said board; at least one bus comprising a plurality of bus lines, each said bus line having a bus contact pin interposed between each said multiple contact strip and associated with each said strip contact pin; wherein said associated strip and bus contact pins are adapted to be electrically connected by means of a multipole jumper plug,

2. A rear panel circuit board as claimed in claim 1 wherein said bus lines are arranged perpendicular to said multiple contact strips.

3. A rear panel circuit board as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2 wherein each adjacent bus line has a corresponding bus contact pin arranged between adjacent multiple contact strips, 4, A rear panel circuit board as claimed In any one of the preceding claims wherein each said multiple contact strip has three strip contact pins arranged adjacent each said bus line, A rear panel circuit board as claimed In claim 4 wherein two of said three contact pins are adapted for interconnection by said multipole jumper plug,

6. A rear panel circuit board as claimed in claim 5 wherein the remaining one of said three strip contact pins is arranged between said two contact pins.

7. A rear panel circuit board substantially as described herein with reference to the drawings, DATED this THIRTIETH day of APRIL 1990 Siemens Aktiengesellschaft Patent Attorneys for the Applicant SPRUSON FERGUSON IAD/94