Patent ID: 7764184

Claim:
An apparatus coupled to an internal bus for monitoring environmental factors in a host computer system comprising: an embedded controller comprising: a processor; a real-time clock; memory resources for storing acquired data, said acquired data comprising logged and time stamped data having been time stamped according to said real-time clock; and independent I/O resources for handling I/O resources from an I/O interface; at least one environmental sensor coupled with the embedded controller that provides data related to environmental conditions in which the host computer system operates; a reset generator coupled with the embedded controller, the reset generator being configured to provide a reset signal to the embedded controller; a power source coupled with the embedded controller, the power source comprising: a slot power source having a first voltage supplied by the host computer system; DC isolation circuitry configured to electrically isolate the apparatus from the host computer system; DC/DC generation circuitry configured to stabilize the first and second voltages; and an external power source comprising a second voltage for supplying independent power to the apparatus; and a LAN interface configured to remotely access and control the embedded controller.