Patent ID: 7246217

Claim:
A computing apparatus, comprising: a plurality of compute boards, each said compute board having mounted thereon a plurality of compute processors and a plurality of routers coupled to said plurality of compute processors; a plurality of service boards, each said service board having mounted thereon a plurality of service processors and a plurality of routers, some of said routers coupled to said plurality of service processors; said compute boards and said service boards each including a same number of said routers; a plurality of groups of said compute boards respectively provided in a plurality of compute cabinets, and a plurality of groups of said service boards respectively provided, without any of said compute processors, in a plurality of service cabinets; said compute cabinets and said service cabinets arranged in rows and columns of a generally rectangular array of cabinets; within each said row of cabinets, each said router of each of a group of said cabinets in said row connected to a respectively corresponding router on a respectively corresponding board in each of two nearest neighbor cabinets in said row; within each of said compute boards and each of said service boards, said routers thereof connected in a series configuration with one another; within each of said columns, each said series configuration of routers of each of a group of said cabinets in said column connected in series with a respectively corresponding series configuration of routers on a respectively corresponding board in each of two nearest neighbor cabinets in said column; and disconnect cabinets provided in said rectangular array of cabinets, each of said disconnect cabinets interposed between respective pairs of said nearest neighbor cabinets and including a switch structure for selectively making and breaking said connections between said routers of the associated nearest neighbor cabinets, said disconnect cabinets positioned relative to said compute cabinets and said service cabinets in said rectangular array such that, when said switch structures of a first group of said disconnect cabinets break the associated connections, some of said compute cabinets are disconnected from a first group of said service cabinets while remaining connected to a second group of said service cabinets, and said disconnect cabinets positioned such that when said switch structures of a second group of said disconnect cabinets break the associated connections, some of said compute cabinets are disconnected from said second group of service cabinets while remaining connected to said first group of service cabinets.