METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR IDENTIFYING LOCATION RELATED HARDWARE FAILURES

• US 20170075743A1
• Filed: 09/10/2015
• Published: 03/16/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/10/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Li, Jingming, Zhu, Min
• Granted Patent: US 9,760,427 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/02 Electric testing or monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0275 Fault isolation and identification, e.g. classify fault; estimate cause or root of failure
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0751 Error or fault detection not based on redundancy power supply failures G06F1/30; network fault management H04L41/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0769 Readable error formats, e.g. cross-platform generic formats, human understandable formats
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0772 Means for error signaling, e.g. using interrupts, exception flags, dedicated error registers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/079 Root cause analysis, i.e. error or fault diagnosis in a hardware test environment G06F11/22; in a software test environment G06F11/36
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/326 for error or online/offline status

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.

Claims

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

20. The logic of claim 17 wherein said information comprises a thermal overlay identifying operating temperatures at locations of the components.