Patent ID: 7137014

Claim:
Apparatus comprising: a chassis; n modules operatively mounted in said chassis, wherein n>1; one of said modules being a management module; a processor operatively mounted on one of said modules and (a) monitoring status including temperature, media type and voltage and (b) forwarding selected information to said management module; m connectors operatively mounted in said chassis, wherein m>1 and said connectors provide interconnection between said n modules and between said n modules and a communications highway; a first bus interconnecting said management module and the remainder of said modules; a second bus connecting said management module to said connectors; a high speed interconnect module operatively coupling said n modules to said m connectors; and a controller which interrogates said modules and said connections and which, based upon responses received, causes selected ones of said modules and connectors to be placed in a power-on state; the controller including a power control processor and a program to be executed on said processor; the program having a first set of instructions to determine fabric type of said modules and said connections; a second set of instructions to analyze the fabric type information and determine the fabric configuration resulting in a maximum number of said modules and said connectors to be powered on; and a third set of instructions to allow power on.