Scalable, component-accessible, and highly interconnected three-dimensional component arrangement within a system

• US 8,214,786 B2
• Filed: 09/08/2004
• Issued: 07/03/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/08/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Valtrus Innovations Limited (f/k/a Dolya Holdco 9 Limited) (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Kuekes, Philip J., Williams, R. Stanley, Beausoleil, Raymond G. Jr.
• Primary Examiner(s): Memula, Suresh
• Application Number:
  US10/935,845
• Publication Number:
  US 20060053397A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,855 Days
• Field of Search: 716/15, 716 8- 11, 716/119
• US Class Current: 716/119
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/18 Packaging or power distribution
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/18 Network design, e.g. design based on topological or interconnect aspects of utility systems, piping, heating ventilation air conditioning [HVAC] or cabling circuit design at the physical level G06F30/39; network planning tools for wireless communication networks H04W16/18
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 7/1444 Complex or three-dimensional-arrangements; Stepped or dual mother boards

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention include dense, but accessible and well-interconnected component arrangements within multi-component systems, such as high-end multi-processor computer systems, and methods for constructing such arrangements. In a described embodiment, integrated-circuit-containing processing components, referred to as a “flat components,” are arranged into local blocks of intercommunicating flat components. The local flat-component blocks are arranged into interconnected, primitive multi-local-block repeating units, and the primitive local-block repeating units are layered together in a three-dimensional, regularly repeating structure that can be assembled to approximately fill any specified three-dimensional volume. The arrangement provides for relatively short, direct pathways from the surface of the specified volume to any particular local block and flat component within the three-dimensional arrangement.

Claims

1. A system having a number of flat components arranged in a three-dimensional lattice, the three-dimensional lattice comprising:

local component blocks, each comprising a number of parallel, flat components held together at an inter-component spacing, arranged into a number of primitive repeating units, each primitive repeating unit including four slots, three of the four slots filled with three, mutually perpendicularly oriented local component blocks, and a fourth slot empty, the primitive repeating units in turn arranged into two-dimensional layers that are stacked one upon another to produce the three-dimensional lattice so that each flat component within the three-dimensional lattice can be accessed through a linear, unobstructed space from a point on an external surface of the three-dimensional lattice.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the flat components include one or more:

internal optical components;

internal electrical components;

internal fluidic components;

internal mechanical components; and

internal hybrid, combination components.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein each flat component is approximately square, and includes evenly spaced connectors on each edge.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein each flat component in a selected first local component block is similarly oriented, so that each flat component of a neighboring, second local component block with flat components orthogonal to, but containing a common line with, each flat component of the first local component block may be interconnected to each flat component of the first local component through a pair of connectors, one connector of the pair contributed by flat components of each of the first and second local component blocks.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein each two-dimensional layer comprises identically oriented primitive repeating units attached into a 2-dimensional grid comprising rows and columns of primitive repeating units.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein each two-dimensional layer in the three-dimensional lattice is staggered from neighboring layers by a translation of one half of a primitive-repeating-unit dimension in two orthogonal directions coincident with the grid directions of the two-dimensional layers.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the linear, unobstructed spaces from a point on an external surface of the three-dimensional lattice, by which each flat component within the three-dimensional lattice can be accessed, provide paths through which electrical, optical, fluidic, or other signals can flow through the three-dimensional lattice.

8. A method for constructing a dense, interconnected three-dimensional lattice of flat components, the method comprising:

arranging flat components into local component blocks, each local component block comprising a number of parallel flat components held together at an inter-component spacing;

arranging the local component blocks into a number of identical primitive repeating units, each primitive repeating unit includes four slots, three of the four slots filled with three, mutually perpendicularly oriented local component blocks, and a fourth slot empty; and

arranging the primitive repeating units into two-dimensional layers, each two-dimensional layer comprises identically oriented primitive repeating units attached into a 2-dimensional grid comprising rows and columns of primitive repeating units, that are stacked, in a staggered fashion, one upon another to produce the three-dimensional lattice so that each flat component within the three-dimensional lattice can be accessed through a linear, unobstructed space from a point on an external surface of the three-dimensional lattice, each two-dimensional layer in the three-dimensional lattice staggered from neighboring layers by a translation of one half of a primitive-repeating-unit dimension in two orthogonal directions coincident with the grid directions of the two-dimensional layers.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the flat components include one or more:

internal optical components;

internal electrical components;

internal fluidic components;

internal mechanical components; and

internal hybrid, combination components.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein each flat component is approximately square, and includes evenly spaced connectors on each edge.

11. The method of claim 8 wherein the linear, unobstructed spaces from a point on an external surface of the three-dimensional lattice, by which each flat component within the three-dimensional lattice can be accessed, provide paths through which electrical, optical, fluidic, or other signals can flow through the three-dimensional lattice.