Voltage protection for computer processors

Abstract

A multi processor computer system includes processors 102 in processor receptacles 104, and voltage modules 106 and voltage module receptacle 108. The system accepts both direct voltage processors powered directly from the system power plane, and regulated voltage processors which require a voltage regulator 300. The regulated voltage processors require the voltage regulator while the direct voltage processors cannot operate with a voltage regulator. Voltage module control circuit 110 tests and compares processor type signals from the processor receptacles and voltage module type signals from the voltage module receptacles, and produces a voltage validation signal which indicates the presence of a mismatch between any of the processors and its respective voltage module. The voltage validation signal modifies the conventional processor presence signal from the processor receptacles if a mismatch exists, preventing the system from being powered on.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.