CN112650360A

CN112650360A - Computer system

Info

Publication number: CN112650360A
Application number: CN201910953942.4A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 高金圳
Original assignee: Jichen Co ltd; Giga Byte Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: Jichen Co ltd; Giga Byte Technology Co Ltd
Priority date: 2019-10-09
Filing date: 2019-10-09
Publication date: 2021-04-13

Abstract

The present disclosure provides a steerable and expandable computer system, which includes a housing, a motherboard and at least one expansion element. The casing is provided with an opening, the mainboard is arranged in the casing, and the at least one expansion element is electrically connected with the mainboard through the opening along the inserting direction and comprises a built-in part and an exposed part. The built-in portion is provided in the housing. The exposed part is exposed out of the shell and is provided with at least one expansion interface, an included angle is formed between the normal direction of the expansion interface and the inserting direction, and the included angle is larger than 0 degree and smaller than 180 degrees.

Description

Computer system

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to a steerable and expandable computer system.

Background

Various interfaces are required in the industrial computer to allow the industrial computer to electrically connect with other electronic devices. However, in some models, space may be a problem, and the number of connection interfaces may not be sufficient to meet the user's needs. In addition, since most of the space on a general computer is occupied by various interfaces, the additional use of other connection interfaces on the interfaces may interfere with other components.

Disclosure of Invention

The present invention is directed to a computer system that solves at least one of the problems set forth above.

The embodiment of the disclosure relates to a steerable and expandable computer system, which comprises a shell, a mainboard and at least one expansion element. The housing is formed with an opening. The mainboard is arranged in the shell. The at least one expansion element is electrically connected with the mainboard through the opening along the inserting direction and comprises a built-in part and an exposed part. The built-in portion is provided in the housing. The exposed part is exposed out of the shell and is provided with at least one expansion interface, an included angle is formed between the normal direction of the expansion interface and the inserting direction, and the included angle is larger than 0 degree and smaller than 180 degrees.

In some embodiments, the steerable augmented computer system further comprises a protective shell surrounding the exposed portion and secured to the housing. The protective housing is formed with a protective housing opening, and extends the interface and exposes in the protective housing through the protective housing opening. The protective shell is fixed on the shell in a screw locking or tenon fixing mode. In some embodiments, the steerable and expandable computer system further includes a board body disposed in the opening of the protective casing and forming a board body opening, wherein the expansion interface is exposed to the board body through the board body opening.

In some embodiments, the steerable and expandable computer system further includes a connecting element disposed in the casing, and the expansion element is electrically connected to the motherboard through the connecting element. In some embodiments, the connection element is an adapter card disposed on the motherboard, and a normal direction of the adapter card is different from a normal direction of the motherboard. In some embodiments, the connection element includes a connection interface and a connection line, the connection interface is fixed on the housing and directly connected to the expansion element, one end of the connection line is electrically connected to the connection interface, and the other end of the connection line is electrically connected to the motherboard. In some embodiments, the motherboard further includes a connection portion, the expansion element is connected to the motherboard through the connection portion, and the extension directions of the connection portion and the expansion element are different. In some embodiments, the housing has a pair of slide rails for the expansion element to electrically connect to the motherboard along the insertion direction, so that the built-in portion is disposed on the slide rails.

The computer system provided by the invention has the beneficial effects that when the additional expansion element is added, other elements connected to the expansion element can be prevented from interfering with elements arranged on the original interface of the computer system.

Drawings

Embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be noted that, in accordance with standard practice in the industry, various features are not shown to scale and are merely illustrative. In fact, the dimensions of the elements may be arbitrarily expanded or reduced to clearly illustrate the features of the present disclosure.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a computer system according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 is an exploded view of a computer system according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of a computer system according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of a computer system according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of a computer system according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a computer system according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of a computer system according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

The reference numbers are as follows:

10 casing

12 expansion opening

14 opening

16 fixing hole

20 expansion element

20A exposed part

20B built-in part

22 expansion interface

30 protective housing

32 protective shell opening

34 fixing element

40 plate body

42 plate body opening

50 mainboard

52 interface

54 switching groove

56 connecting part

60 adapter card

62 connecting interface

64 connecting line

66 fixing element

70 slide rail

80 expansion element

90 protective housing

100. 200, 300, 400, 500 computer system

I arrow head

Detailed Description

While various embodiments or examples are disclosed below to practice various features provided, embodiments of specific elements and arrangements thereof are described below to illustrate the disclosure. These examples are, of course, intended to be illustrative only and should not be construed as limiting the scope of the disclosure. For example, if a first feature is formed over a second feature in the description, the description includes embodiments in which the first feature and the second feature are in direct contact, and also includes embodiments in which other features are included between the first feature and the second feature, that is, the first feature and the second feature are not in direct contact.

Moreover, where specific reference numerals or designations are used in the various embodiments, these are merely used to clearly describe the disclosure and are not intended to necessarily indicate a particular relationship between the various embodiments and/or structures discussed. Furthermore, forming over, connecting to, and/or coupling to another feature in the present disclosure may include embodiments in which the features are formed in direct contact, and may also include embodiments in which additional features may be formed interposing the features described above, such that the features may not be in direct contact. Furthermore, spatially relative terms, such as "above," "below," "upper," "lower," and the like, may be used herein to facilitate describing one element(s) or feature(s) relationship to another element(s) or feature(s) in the figures, and are intended to encompass different orientations of the device in which the features are included.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a computer system 100 according to some embodiments of the present disclosure, FIG. 2 is an exploded view of the computer system 100, and FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the computer system 100. The computer system 100 includes a housing 10, an expansion component 20 disposed in an expansion opening 12 of the housing 10, and a motherboard 50 (fig. 3) disposed in the housing 10. In some embodiments, a portion of the expansion element 20 is disposed in the housing 10, and another portion is exposed out of the housing 10. For example, in fig. 1 and 2, the expansion element 20 includes an exposed portion 20A exposed to the housing 10 and an embedded portion 20B disposed in the housing 10 through the expansion opening 12. The expansion opening 12 may be, for example, an elongated through hole, so that the plate-shaped expansion element 20 may be inserted into the housing 10 through the expansion opening 12. In some embodiments, the main board 50 is provided with a plurality of interfaces 52 and exposed to the opening 14 of the housing 10 for electrical connection of external components.

The expansion element 20 may include, for example, a Printed Circuit Board (PCB), and may be inserted into the housing 10 through the expansion opening 12 along an insertion direction (e.g., Y direction) to be electrically connected to the motherboard 50. At least one expansion interface 22 may be disposed on the exposed portion 20A of the expansion device 20 to allow other external electronic devices to be electrically connected to the computer system 100 through the expansion interface 22. For example, a normal direction (e.g., Z direction) of the expansion interface 22 and an insertion direction (e.g., Y direction) of the expansion element 20 have an angle greater than 0 degree and less than 180 degrees. In other words, the normal direction of the expansion interface 22 is different from the insertion direction, and therefore, may be deviated from the connection space of the interface 52. Therefore, if other components are already electrically connected to the motherboard 50 through the interface 52 of the housing 10 in the insertion direction, the normal direction of the expansion interface 22 is different from the insertion direction of the expansion component 20, so that the other components electrically connected to the expansion interface 22 do not interfere with the other components electrically connected to the motherboard 50 through the interface 52. Therefore, more electronic components can be electrically connected to the computer system 100 through the expansion interface 22, and the electronic components can have better operating space when being expanded. That is, the computer system 100 is a steerable expansion computer system.

In some embodiments, the expansion device 20 may further include an additional chip to allow the expansion device 20 to convert signals from the motherboard 50 or convert signals from the expansion interface 22, but the disclosure is not limited thereto. The expansion device 20 may not have a chip thereon, depending on design requirements. In addition, the built-in portion 20B of the expansion element 20 may have a gold finger connector (gold finger) thereon to allow the expansion element 20 to be electrically connected with the motherboard 50, but the disclosure is not limited thereto.

In some embodiments, the computer system 100 further comprises a protective case 30 surrounding the exposed portion 20A and fixed to the housing 10. The protective case 30 may serve to protect the exposed portion 20A from damage from the outside. In addition, the protection shell 30 is formed with a protection shell opening 32 to allow the expansion interface 22 to be exposed out of the protection shell 30 through the protection shell opening 32 for electrically connecting with other external electronic components. In some embodiments, the protective shell 30 may have a fixing element 34 thereon, and the shell 10 may have a fixing hole 16 thereon, so that the protective shell 30 is fixed on the shell 10 by the mutual engagement of the fixing element 34 and the fixing hole 16. For example, the fixing element 34 may be a screw, and the fixing hole 16 may be a screw hole, but the disclosure is not limited thereto. For example, in other embodiments, the protective shell 30 may be fixed to the housing 10 by a snap-in fixing manner, depending on the design requirement. By securing the protective case 30 to the housing 10, the overall stability of the computer system 100 is increased. In some embodiments, the shell 10 and the protective shell 30 may be formed of the same material (e.g., metal) to improve the integrity of the computer system 100.

In some embodiments, the computer system 100 may further include a board 40 disposed in the protective case opening 32 and having a board opening 42. The expansion interface 22 of the expansion element 20 is exposed to the board 40 through the board opening 42. By disposing the plate 40 in the opening 32 of the protection case, the expansion element 20 exposed out of the opening 32 of the protection case can be further protected. In some embodiments, the board 40 may be made of metal to prevent the computer system 100 from being damaged by static electricity, and the board 40 also has dust-proof and aesthetic effects. In addition, the board opening 42 may have a shape corresponding to the expansion interface 22, so as to allow the expansion interface 22 on the expansion element 20 to be exposed to the board 40 through the board opening 42.

In fig. 3, the motherboard 50 may have an interface 52 (with its normal direction facing the-Y direction) exposed from the opening 14 and an adapter slot 54 with its normal direction facing the Z direction. In the present embodiment, a connection element (for example, an adapter card 60) is inserted into the adapter slot 54 to allow the expansion element 20 to be electrically connected to the motherboard 50 through the adapter card 60. It should be noted that in fig. 3, the normal direction of the interface card 60 is oriented in the-Y direction, and the normal direction of the main board 50 is oriented in the Z direction. In other words, the normal direction of the adapter card 60 is different from the normal direction of the motherboard 50. Therefore, the expansion device 20 inserted on the adaptor card 60 can have a normal direction (e.g. the Z direction in fig. 3) substantially the same as the normal direction of the motherboard 50, so that the space required for installing the expansion device 20 and the motherboard 50 in the computer system 100 can be reduced (e.g. the thickness of the computer system 100 in the Z direction can be reduced), and the expandability of the computer system 100 can be increased.

However, the present disclosure is not limited thereto. For example, fig. 4 is a cross-sectional view of a computer system 200 according to some embodiments of the present disclosure, wherein a connection device including a connection interface 62 and a connection line 64 can be used to electrically connect the expansion device 20 to the motherboard 50. The connecting interface 62 can be fixed in the housing 10 by fixing elements 66 (such as, but not limited to, screws, rivets, snap-fit elements, etc.). In addition, the connection interface 62 is directly connected to the expansion element 20.

One end of the connecting wire 64 is electrically connected to the connecting interface 62, and the other end is electrically connected to the motherboard 50, so as to allow the electrical signal of the expansion element 20 to be transmitted to the motherboard 50. The connection line 64 may be flexible to allow for greater assembly flexibility. In some embodiments, the securing elements 66 may be located on both sides of the connection interface 62 (e.g., on both sides in the X-direction) to enhance the effect of the securing. Alternatively, the inner side of the housing 10 above the bottom plate 50 may extend downwardly (e.g., in the-Z direction) with the securing element 66 to secure the connection interface 62 in the housing 10. In other embodiments, the fixing element 66 may be, for example, a U-shaped iron member connected to the housing 10, which forms a through hole together with the housing 10, such that one end of the connecting wire 64 can be connected to the main board 50 through the through hole, and the other end with the connecting interface 62 can be located at the other side of the through hole, and the aperture of the connecting interface 62 is larger than the aperture of the through hole.

In the foregoing embodiments, additional devices are disposed between the expansion device 20 and the motherboard 50 to electrically connect the expansion device 20 and the motherboard 50, but the disclosure is not limited thereto. For example, fig. 5 is a cross-sectional view of a computer system 300 according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. In the computer system 300, the main board 50 includes a connecting portion 56 integrally formed with the main board 50 and protruding from the main board 50, and the expansion element 20 can be connected to the main board 50 through the connecting portion 56. It should be noted that the extending direction (e.g., Z direction) of the connecting portion 56 is different from the extending direction (e.g., Y direction) of the extension element 20. Therefore, the expansion element 20 inserted on the adapter card 60 can have a normal direction substantially the same as the normal direction of the motherboard 50, and the space required for arranging the expansion element 20 and the motherboard 50 can be reduced.

It should be noted that the

computer systems

100, 200, 300 shown in fig. 3 to 5 all allow the expansion element 20 to be inserted directly through the expansion opening 12 along the Y direction without opening the casing 10 when the expansion element 20 is added. Therefore, the device can have the effect of quick plugging and unplugging, and is convenient to assemble.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a computer system 400 according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. In the housing 10 of the computer system 400, there are a pair of slide rails 70 respectively located at the left and right sides (opposite sides in the X direction) in the housing 10, so that the expansion element 20 can be inserted into the housing 10 along the insertion direction (Y direction) indicated by the arrow I and fixed on the slide rails 70. In addition, the expansion element 20 can be installed without opening the housing 10 and the position of the expansion element 20 in the Z direction can be fixed without installing another fixing element by the slide rail 70, so that the convenience of assembly can be increased.

In some embodiments, the computer system 400 of FIG. 6 is not pre-configured with an interface, thereby reducing the thickness of the computer system 400. When a user needs to connect an external device to the computer system 400, the expansion device 20 is connected to the computer system 400, and the external device can be connected through the expansion interface. Thus, the space occupied by the computer system 400 in a computer room or other use environment can be reduced, and the space utilization rate can be further improved.

Although the computer system in the foregoing embodiment includes an expansion element 20, the disclosure is not limited thereto. For example, fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of a computer system 500 according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. The computer system 500 includes an expansion device 20 and an expansion device 80, and the expansion device 20 and the expansion device 80 can be disposed on different sides of the housing 10. For example, the expansion device 20 and the expansion device 80 of the computer system 500 in fig. 7 are disposed on opposite sides of the housing 10. However, the present disclosure is not so limited. For example, the

expansion devices

20 and 80 may be disposed on adjacent sides of the housing 10, and the computer system may have more than two expansion devices, depending on the design requirements. The expansion element 80 may also have a protection casing 90 similar to the protection casing 30 to protect the exposed portion of the expansion element 80, which is not described herein again.

It should be noted that in the computer system 500, different expansion devices (e.g., the expansion device 20 and the expansion device 80) may be disposed on different planes, that is, may be disposed at different heights by being shifted in the Z direction. Therefore, interference between the expansion elements can be prevented from affecting the overall assembly, and the space in the housing 10 can be used more effectively to install more expansion elements.

Some examples of Interface 52 or expansion Interface 22 may include high-definition multimedia Interface (HDMI), DP (displayPort), Digital Video Interface (DVI), VGA terminal (Video Graphics Array connector), TRS terminal, Universal Serial Bus (USB) communication, RS-232, RS-422, RS-423, RS-485 Serial protocol, M.2 connector, FireWire (FireWire), Ethernet, fibre channel, MIDI, ATA, Serial ATA, PCI Express, T-1 (and variants), Industrial Standard Architecture (ISA) parallel communication, Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) communication, or Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) communication.

In summary, the present disclosure provides a steerable and expandable computer system. Therefore, when additional expansion elements are added, other elements connected to the expansion elements can be prevented from interfering with elements arranged on the original interface of the computer system. In addition, the computer system provided by the disclosure can reduce the number of the interfaces pre-configured on the computer system through the turned expansion interface, thereby reducing the thickness of the computer system and achieving the function of rapidly replacing the expansion interface.

Although the embodiments of the present disclosure and their advantages have been disclosed above, it should be understood that various changes, substitutions and alterations can be made herein by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure. Moreover, the scope of the present disclosure is not intended to be limited to the particular embodiments of the process, machine, manufacture, composition of matter, means, methods and steps described in the specification, but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein. Accordingly, the scope of the present disclosure includes the processes, machines, manufacture, compositions of matter, means, methods, and steps described above. In addition, each claim constitutes a separate embodiment, and the scope of protection of the present disclosure also includes combinations of the respective claims and embodiments.

Claims

1. A steerable expansion computer system, comprising:

a housing formed with an opening;

a main board disposed in the housing; and

at least one expansion element electrically connected to the motherboard through the opening along an insertion direction, comprising:

a built-in portion provided in the housing; and

an exposed part exposed out of the shell, wherein the exposed part is provided with at least one expansion interface, an included angle is formed between the normal direction of the expansion interface and the inserting direction, and the included angle is larger than 0 degree and smaller than 180 degrees.

2. The computer system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a protective shell surrounding the exposed portion and fixed to the housing, wherein the protective shell defines a protective shell opening, and the expansion interface is exposed from the protective shell through the protective shell opening.

3. The computer system as claimed in claim 2, wherein the protective case is fixed to the housing by screwing.

4. The computer system as claimed in claim 2, wherein the protective case is fixed to the housing in a tenon-and-mortise manner.

5. The computer system as claimed in claim 2, further comprising a board disposed in the opening of the protective case and having at least one board opening, wherein the expansion interface is exposed to the board through the board opening.

6. The computer system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a connecting element disposed in the housing, wherein the expansion element is electrically connected to the motherboard through the connecting element.

7. The computer system as claimed in claim 6, wherein the connecting component is a adapter card disposed on the motherboard, and the normal direction of the adapter card is different from the normal direction of the motherboard.

8. The computer system as claimed in claim 6, wherein the connecting device includes a connecting interface and a connecting wire, the connecting interface is fixed on the housing and directly connected to the expansion device, one end of the connecting wire is electrically connected to the connecting interface, and the other end of the connecting wire is electrically connected to the motherboard.

9. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the motherboard further comprises a connection portion, the expansion device is connected to the motherboard through the connection portion, and the extension direction of the connection portion is different from that of the expansion device.

10. The computer system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the housing has a pair of rails for the expansion device to electrically connect to the motherboard along the insertion direction, such that the built-in portion is disposed on the rails.