Care And Cleaning Of Compression Connectors; Figure A-1 Identifying The Bristled Pad Of The Compression Connector - Silicon Graphics Octane2 Manual

A.
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Appendix A

Care and Cleaning of Compression Connectors

The Silicon Graphics Octane2 workstation uses compression connectors to connect
several modules and boards to the frontplane.
Compression connectors are located in the following places:
• One is located on the back of the PCI module.
• One is located on each XIO board on the XIO module.
• Two are located on the system module.
Each compression connector has 96 pads that enable passage of signals between the
system (via the frontplane) and the system module, PCI module, or XIO board.
A compression connector has two halves: one half is located on the frontplane of the
chassis; the other half is located on the system module, PCI module, or XIO board. Each
pad on a frontplane connector is a flat, gold-plated surface. Each pad on the system
module, PCI module, or XIO board is composed of hundreds of tiny bristles (dendrites),
as shown in Figure A-1. When a bristled pad is pressed into a gold-plated pad, a
connection is created for one signal.
Bristled pad
Figure A-1 Identifying the Bristled Pad of the Compression Connector
The bristled pads may attract and hold dust, lint, grease, powder, and dirt. The presence
of these substances clogs or damages the bristles and prevents them from making proper
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