Power bus aggregated from shelf-level bus elements

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9229504-B1
Application number	US-201213693973-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Dec 4, 2012
Priority date	Dec 4, 2012
Publication date	Jan 5, 2016
Grant date	Jan 5, 2016

Abstract

A system includes a rack with shelves and one or more groups of shelf-mountable electrical systems. Each of at least two of the shelf-mountable electrical systems includes one or more chassis, shelf computing devices, a shelf power supply mechanism, and one or more power-pooling bus elements. For at least one of the groups, a power-pooling bus element of at least one shelf-mountable electrical systems is electrically coupled to a power pooling bus element of at least one other of the shelf-mountable electrical systems in the group such that the power-pooling bus elements form an inter-shelf power-pooling bus for one or more of the computing devices in the group.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system, comprising:
a rack comprising a plurality of shelves; and
one or more groups of two or more shelf-mountable electrical systems, wherein respective ones of the shelf-mountable electrical systems are coupled to respective ones of the shelves, wherein each of the shelf-mountable electrical systems comprises:
one or more chassis;
one or more shelf computing devices;
a shelf power supply mechanism comprising a power supply output configured to supply power to the shelf-mountable electrical system; and
one or more power-pooling bus elements comprising a portion of an inter-shelf power-pooling bus which distributes pooled power to shelf computing devices of shelf-mountable electrical systems within a common group;
wherein the pooled power comprises power contributed to the inter-shelf power-pulling bus by multiple shelf-mountable electrical systems within the common group.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the power-pooling bus elements of at least two of the shelf-mountable electrical systems self-couple when the shelf-mountable electrical systems are installed in the rack.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more groups of shelf-mountable electrical systems comprise two or more groups, wherein each of the groups comprises an inter-shelf power-pooling bus formed from power-pooling bus elements of shelf-mountable electrical systems in the group.

4. A system, comprising:
a rack comprising a plurality of slots; and
one or more groups of rack-mountable electrical systems, wherein respective ones of the rack-mountable electrical systems are coupled in respective ones of the slots, wherein at least one of the rack-mountable electrical systems comprises:
one or more chassis;
one or more computing devices;
a power supply mechanism comprising a power supply output configured to supply power to the rack-mountable electrical system; and
one or more power-pooling bus elements comprising a portion of a multi-slot power-pooling bus configured to distribute pooled power to computing devices within a common group;
wherein the pooled power comprises power contributed to the multi-slot power-pooling bus by multiple rack-mountable electrical systems within the common group.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the power-pooling bus elements of at least two of the rack-mountable electrical systems slide into electrical contact with one another when the rack-mountable electrical systems are installed in the rack.

6. The system of claim 4 , wherein the power-pooling bus elements of at least two of the rack-mountable electrical systems align with and contact one another when the rack-mountable electrical systems are installed in the rack.

7. The system of claim 4 , wherein the power-pooling bus elements of at least two of the rack-mountable electrical systems are external to a chassis of the rack-mountable electrical system.

8. The system of claim 4 , wherein the power-pooling bus elements of at least two of the rack-mountable electrical systems are internal to a chassis of the rack-mountable electrical system.

9. The system of claim 4 , wherein the power-pooling bus elements of at least two of the rack-mountable electrical systems are part of a chassis of the rack-mountable electrical system.

10. The system of claim 4 , wherein the power-pooling bus elements in at least one of the groups comprises a circuit board assembly, wherein the circuit board assembly comprises a circuit configurable to selectively isolate at least one of the rack-mountable electrical systems in the at least one group from one or more other rack-mountable electrical systems in the at least one group.

11. The system of claim 4 , wherein the one or more groups of rack-mountable electrical systems comprise two or more groups, wherein each of the groups comprises a multi-slot power-pooling bus formed from power-pooling bus elements of rack-mountable electrical systems in the group.

12. The system of claim 11 , further comprising an open slot between two of the groups, wherein the open slot establishes a gap between the multi-slot power-pooling buses for the two groups.

13. The system of claim 11 , wherein the multi-slot power-pooling buses for at least one of the groups supplies DC power to computing devices in the group.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the multi-slot power-pooling buses for at least one of the groups supplies DC power at about 12 VDC or about 48 VDC to computing devices in the group.

15. The system of claim 13 , wherein the multi-slot power-pooling buses for at least one of the groups supplies high voltage DC power to computing devices in the group.

16. The system of claim 4 , wherein, for at least one of the rack-mountable electrical systems, the power-pooling bus elements comprises a circuit board configured to couple with two or more power supply mechanisms.

17. The system of claim 4 , wherein each of at least two of the power-pooling bus elements comprises a circuit board assembly configured to couple with a circuit board assembly on an adjacent one of the rack-mountable electrical systems.

18. The system of claim 4 , wherein mating connectors of at least two adjacent rack-mountable computing systems overlap with one another when the rack-mountable electrical systems are installed in the rack such that the mating connector one of the adjacent rack-mountable electrical systems couples with the mating connector of the other one of the adjacent rack-mountable electrical systems when the adjacent rack-mountable electrical systems are installed in the rack.

19. A method of supplying power to electrical systems in a rack, comprising:
coupling a power-pooling bus element from a power supply mechanism of an electrical system in one slot of a rack to a power-pooling bus element of a power supply mechanism of an electrical system in one or more other slots of the rack, wherein the power-pooling bus elements combine to form a power-pooling bus for a group of two or more electrical systems in the rack;
contributing, by electrical systems in the group, power to the power-pooling bus; and
supplying pooled power from the power-pooling bus to electrical systems in the group, wherein the pooled power comprises power contributed to the power-pooling bus by electrical systems in the group.

20. The method of claim 19 , wherein the power-pooling bus elements of at least two of the electrical systems self-couple when the electrical systems are installed in the rack.

21. The method of claim 19 , wherein the power-pooling bus elements of at least two of the electrical systems slide into electrical contact with one another when the electrical systems are installed in the rack.

22. The method of claim 19 , further comprising adding an electrical system to the group, wherein adding the electrical system to the group comprises coupling a power-pooling bus element from a power supply mechanism of the added electrical system to a power-pooling bus element of a power supply mechanism of one or more electrical systems in the group such that the power-pooling bus element is added to the power-pooling bus for the group.

23. The method of claim 19 , further comprising providing a power-pooling bus for a second group of electrical systems in the rack, wherein providing the power-pooling bus for the second group of electrical systems comprises coupling a power-pooling bus element from a power supply mechanism of a second electrical system in one slot of a rack to a power-p

Assignees

• Amazon Tech Inc

Inventors

• Marr Michael David
• Ross Peter George
• Bryan David Edward

Classifications

• G06F1/26 Primary

  Power supply means, e.g. regulation thereof (for memories G11C) · CPC title

• H02J4/00

  Circuit arrangements for mains or distribution networks not specified as AC or DC; Circuit arrangements for mains or distribution networks combining AC and DC sections or sub-networks (arrangements using intermediate DC-AC-DC conversion H02J1/002; arrangements using high-voltage DC [HVDC] links H02J3/36) · CPC title

• G06F1/263

  Arrangements for using multiple switchable power supplies, e.g. battery and AC (G06F1/30 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G06F1/28

  Supervision thereof, e.g. detecting power-supply failure by out of limits supervision · CPC title

• G06F1/189 Primary

  Power distribution · CPC title