Patent ID: 7362572

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: a chassis assembly configured to (i) mount to a standard electronic equipment rack and (ii) consume substantially 1U of space in a particular direction within the standard electronic equipment rack, the chassis assembly including a housing and a midplane disposed within the housing; a set of power supply/blower assemblies configured to connect to the midplane of the chassis assembly through a front of the housing in a field replaceable manner, each set of power supply/blower assemblies including at least an AC input port and a DC output port; a set of computing devices configured to connect to the midplane of the chassis assembly through a back of the housing in a field replaceable manner; a set of AC circuit board traces disposed on the midplane and providing an AC power signal between a set of external power sources and the set of power supply/blower assemblies when the set of power supply/blower assemblies connects to the midplane; a set of DC circuit board traces disposed on the midplane and providing a DC power signal between the set of power supply/blower assemblies and the set of computing devices when the set of computing devices connects to the midplane; and wherein the AC input port of the set of power supply/blower assemblies is electrically coupled to the midplane during use and the DC output port of the set of power supply/blower assemblies is also electrically coupled to the midplane during use in order to provide a set of AC power supply signals from the external power source to the set of power supply/blower assemblies and to provide a set of DC power signals from the set of power supply/blower assemblies to the set of computing devices.