Method and apparatus for providing an alternative power source for a graphics card
AssigneeNVIDIA Corporation
InventorsTao Zhang, Zhihui Wang
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and apparatus for providing an alternative power source for a graphics card are disclosed. Specifically, one embodiment of the present invention sets forth a method, which includes the steps of laying a set of gold fingers on a printed circuit board according to an industrial standard bus interface, positioning a wire in a middle layer of the printed circuit board, attaching a first end of the wire to a specific gold finger, and attaching the alternative power source to a second end of the wire, wherein the second end of the wire is an electroplated contact protruded external to the printed circuit board.
Claims8
A graphics card configured to connect to a main power source and an alternative power source, comprising:
- a printed circuit board that includes a top layer, a middle layer, and a bottom layer;
- a set of gold finger contacts having a first portion and a second portion, wherein the first portion is configured to connect to the alternative power supply and the second portion is configured to connect to the main power supply;
- and
- a wire positioned in the middle layer of the printed circuit board and extended externally from the printed circuit board, wherein a first end of the wire is connected to a first gold finger contact included in the first portion of the set of gold finger contacts, and a second end of the wire is connected to an electroplated contact that is configured to attach to the alternative power source.
A computing device, comprising:
- a processing unit;
- a memory system;
- and
- a graphics card configured to connect to a main power source and an alternative power source, wherein the graphics card further comprises:
- a printed circuit board that includes a top layer, a middle layer, and a bottom layer;
- a set of gold finger contacts having a first portion and a second portion, wherein the first portion is configured to connect to the alternative power supply and the second portion is configured to connect to the main power supply;
- and
- a wire positioned in the middle layer of the printed circuit board and extended externally from the printed circuit board, wherein a first end of the wire is connected to a first gold finger contact in the first portion of the set of gold finger contacts, and a second end of the wire is connected to an electroplated contact that is configured to attach to the alternative power source.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.