1. Field of the Invention
The field of the invention is data processing, or, more specifically, methods and computer equipment racks for data communications and power distribution.
2. Description of Related Art
The development of the EDVAC computer system of 1948 is often cited as the beginning of the computer era. Since that time, computer systems have evolved into extremely complicated devices. Today's computers are much more sophisticated than early systems such as the EDVAC. Computer systems typically include a combination of hardware and software components, application programs, operating systems, processors, buses, memory, input/output devices, and so on. As advances in semiconductor processing and computer architecture push the performance of the computer higher and higher, more sophisticated computer software has evolved to take advantage of the higher performance of the hardware, resulting in computer systems today that are much more powerful than just a few years ago.
Many computer systems today can be mounted in a single rack. A rack may hold 12, 24, 48, or more, individual computer systems. Such computer systems require power to operate and are typically connected to other electronic devices through a network. Each power and network connection on a computer system installed in a rack typically requires a cable. Managing cables can be difficult as the number of individual computer system installed in a computer equipment rack increases. In some cases, for example, one computer rack may include 24 computer systems, each having three cables connected to various modules in the rack or another nearby rack. In typical racks each of the cables may need to be a different length. Having hundreds of varying-length cables increases the difficulty already present in managing cables for power and data communications in a rack.