System and method for using a shared bus for video communications

An information handling system, comprising:

• a server module communicatively coupled to a midplane having a plurality of server slots and a shared bus and including a keyboard, video, mouse (KVM) device in communication with the shared bus, the KVM device operable to transmit a video signal over the shared bus and receive control signals from the shared bus;
• a management module for transmitting control signals via the shared bus to the server slots wherein the control signals identify a particular server slot;
• and;
• wherein the management module is configured:
• to receive a KVM connection from an external user interface and further configured to enable communications between a particular server module and the KVM connection via the shared bus;
• receive a video signal from the server module connected to the midplane via the shared bus and to provide the control signals through the shared bus to the server module to activate and deactivate the KVM device on the server module.

An information handling system, comprising:

• a server module communicatively coupled to a bus of a mid-plane, the mid-plane having a plurality of server slots, each server slot operable to receive a server module;
• unique address associated with the server module based on a location of the server module in the mid-plane, the unique address operable to identify the server module;
• a keyboard, video, mouse (KVM) device in the server module and in communication with the bus, the KVM device operable to transmit video signals to the bus;
• and
• a management module operable to support a KVM connection to an external user interface and to transmit control signals to the server module via the bus to enable and disable transmission of video signals from the video output module to the external user interface by activating and deactivating the KVM device on the server module.

A method of using a shared bus to control video output in a computer system, the method comprising:

• receiving a control signal at a keyboard, video, mouse (KVM) device of a server module from a management module via a bus within a mid-plane, the mid-plane having a plurality of server slots, the server module and the management module communicatively coupled with the mid-plane;
• activating or deactivating the KVM device in response to the control signal from the management module, the video output module operable to generate a video output signal;
• and
• transmitting the video output signal from the server module to an external video display connected to the management module via the bus, in response to the control signal.