Method and apparatus for identifying location related hardware failures

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9760427-B2
Application number	US-201514850670-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 10, 2015
Priority date	Sep 10, 2015
Publication date	Sep 12, 2017
Grant date	Sep 12, 2017

Abstract

In one embodiment, a method includes receiving at a location related failure identification device, failure data for a plurality of components within a system, mapping at the device, the failure data to location data comprising a location of each of the components within the system, identifying at the device, location related failures based on the mapping, and outputting from the device, information on the location related failures. An apparatus and logic are also disclosed herein.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
receiving at a location related failure identification device, failure data for a plurality of components within a system;
mapping at the location related failure identification device, said failure data to location data comprising a location of each of the components within the system;
identifying at the location related failure identification device, location related failures based on said mapping; and
outputting from the location related failure identification device, information on said location related failures.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said information output from the location related failure identification device comprises an image comprising a layout of the components in the system and failures of the components identified on said layout.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein said image comprises a two dimensional or three dimensional view of a circuit board with electrical components and a bar graph overlay comprising said failure data.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein said image is configured for rotation and zoom.

5. The method of claim 2 wherein said image comprises a thermal overlay identifying operating temperatures at locations of the components.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein identifying said location related failures comprises automatically detecting that a number of failures within a specified location exceeds a defined threshold and said information comprises a notification.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein identifying said location related failures comprises automatically identifying a high risk location in the system.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein said failure data comprises failures identified during manufacturing testing of the system or system operation.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein outputting said location related failure information comprises outputting said information based on a filter generated according to user input parameters.

10. An apparatus comprising:
a database comprising failure data for a plurality of components within a system and a location of each of the components within the system; and
a processor when operating at the apparatus operable to map said failure data to the component locations, identify location related failures based on said mapping, and output information on said location related failures.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein said information comprises an image comprising a layout of the components in the system and failures of the components identified on said layout.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein said image comprises a thermal overlay identifying operating temperatures at locations of the components.

13. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein identifying said location related failures comprises automatically detecting that a number of failures within a specified location exceeds a defined threshold and said information comprises a notification.

14. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein identifying said location related failures comprises automatically identifying a high risk location in the system.

15. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein said failure data comprises failures identified during manufacturing testing of the system or system operation.

16. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein said information is output based on a filter generated according to user input parameters.

17. One or more non-transitory computer readable media comprising logic for execution by a processor and when executed operable to:
process failure data for a plurality of components within a system;
map said failure data to location data comprising a location of each of the components within the system;
identify location related failures based on said mapping; and
output information on said location related failures.

18. The one or more non-transitory computer readable media of claim 17 wherein said information comprises an image comprising a layout of the components in the system and failures of the components identified on said layout.

19. The one or more non-transitory computer readable media of claim 17 wherein identifying said location related failures comprises automatically identifying a high risk location in the system.

20. The one or more non-transitory computer readable media of claim 17 wherein said information comprises a thermal overlay identifying operating temperatures at locations of the components.

Assignees

• Cisco Tech Inc

Inventors

• Zhu Min
• Li Jingming

Classifications

• G05B23/0275

  Fault isolation and identification, e.g. classify fault; estimate cause or root of failure · CPC title

• G06F11/0772

  Means for error signaling, e.g. using interrupts, exception flags, dedicated error registers · CPC title

• G06F11/0769

  Readable error formats, e.g. cross-platform generic formats, human understandable formats · CPC title

• G06F11/079 Primary

  Root cause analysis, i.e. error or fault diagnosis (in a hardware test environment G06F11/22; in a software test environment G06F11/36) · CPC title

• G06F11/0751

  Error or fault detection not based on redundancy (power supply failures G06F1/30; network fault management H04L41/06) · CPC title