Patent ID: 8730632

Claim:
A system disposed on a first circuit board of a computer system for detecting a power interconnect fault between the first circuit board and a second circuit board of the computer system, the system comprising: a module power output subsystem operable to provide a sourced power level from the first circuit board to the second circuit board via a board power interconnect coupling between the first circuit board and the second circuit board; a sense input port operable to receive a power sense signal from the second circuit board via a signal coupling that is physically separate from the board power interconnect coupling, the power sense signal indicating a received power level being received from the first circuit board by the second circuit board via the board power interconnect coupling; and a fault detection subsystem operable to generate a fault detect signal that indicates whether a difference between the sourced power level and the received power level is greater than a predetermined threshold level, wherein sourcing by the module power output subsystem of the module power from the first circuit board to the second circuit board via the board power interconnect coupling is interrupted substantially immediately upon receiving an indication via the fault detect signal that the difference between the sourced power level and the received power level is greater than the predetermined threshold level.