Realtime redundant operating system

Claim 3

Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein the first and second electronic systems are substantially identical.

Claim 4

An electronic system for providing realtime redundant operation characterized by: a first backplane including a plurality of slots for receiving a plurality of electronic boards and at least a data and address bus connecting the plurality of slots; a first plurality of electronic boards, including a first redundancy board, engaged in the plurality of slots of said first backplane, each of said first plurality of electronic boards providing a predetermined function and at least one of said first plurality of electronic boards providing a memory for data and operations of the remaining plurality of boards; a second backplane including a plurality of slots for receiving a plurality of electronic boards and at least a data and address bus connecting the plurality of slots; a second plurality of electronic boards, including a second redundancy board, engaged in the plurality of slots of said second backplane, said second plurality of electronic boards providing predetermined functions similar to at least some of the predetermined functions of said first plurality of electronic boards and at least one of said second plurality of electronic boards providing a memory for the data and operations stored in the at least one of said first plurality of electronic boards providing a memory; coupling means connected to said first and second redundancy boards for coupling the data and address buses of said first and second backplanes through said first and second redundancy boards and for coupling control signals to each of said first and second redundancy boards; and said first and second redundancy boards cooperating to control one of said first and second backplanes and the engaged first and second plurality of electronic boards, respectively, to operate in a prime mode and the other to operate in a redundant mode, and to switch the modes of operation in response to one of a user command and a fault occurrence in the one operating in a prime mode.

Claim 5

An electronic system for providing realtime redundant operation characterized by: a first backplane including a plurality of slots for receiving a plurality of electronic boards and at least a data and address bus connecting the plurality of slots; a first plurality of electronic boards, including a first redundancy board, engaged in the plurality of slots of said first backplane, each of said first plurality of electronic boards providing a predetermined function and at least one of said first plurality of electronic boards providing a memory for data and operations of the remaining plurality of boards; a second backplane including a plurality of slots for receiving a plurality of electronic boards and at least a data and address bus connecting the plurality of slots; a second plurality of electronic boards, including a second redundancy board, engaged in the plurality of slots of said second backplane, said second plurality of electronic boards providing predetermined functions similar to at least some of the predetermined functions of said first plurality of electronic boards and at least one of said second plurality of electronic boards providing a memory for the data and operations stored in the at least one of said first plurality of electronic boards providing a memory; coupling means connected to said first and second redundancy boards for coupling the data and address buses of said first and second backplanes through said first and second redundancy boards and for coupling control signals to each of said first and second redundancy boards; and said first and second redundancy boards cooperating to control one of said first and second backplanes and the engaged first and second plurality of electronic boards, respectively, to operate in a prime mode and the other to operate in a redundant mode, and to switch the modes of operation in response to one of a user command and a fault occurrence in the one operating in a prime mode.

Claim 6

Apparatus as claimed in claim 3 wherein the first backplane and redundancy board are substantially identical with the second backplane and redundancy board.

Claim 7

Apparatus as claimed in claim 3 wherein the electronic system is a paging system and at least one electronic board in each of the first and second pluralities of electronic boards includes a microprocessor and an interconnected I/O management section.

Claim 8

Apparatus as claimed in claim 5 wherein the I/O management sections of the one electronic board in each of the first and second pluralities of electronic boards are connected to external communications lines by a multiplexor.

Claim 9

Apparatus as claimed in claim 3 wherein each of the first and second redundancy boards is separately powered and the first and second redundancy boards are constructed to provide the associated backplane and remainder of engaged electronic boards with an independent mode of operation when one of power is removed and the redundancy board is disengaged from the associated backplane.

Claim 10

Apparatus as claimed in claim 3 wherein the first and second redundancy boards each include buffers in the coupling of the data and address buses to prevent direct coupling of the data and address buses.

Claim 11

An electronic paging system with realtime redundant operation characterized by: a first backplane including a plurality of slots for receiving a plurality of electronic boards and at least a data and address bus connecting the plurality of slots; a first plurality of electronic boards, including a general memory section, at least one I/O board including a microprocessor and an interconnected I/O management section, and a first redundancy board including buffers, engaged in the plurality of slots of said first backplane for timesharing said data and address bus and said memory section; a second backplane, substantially similar to said first backplane, including a plurality of slots for receiving a plurality of electronic boards and at least a data and address bus connecting the plurality of slots; a second plurality of electronic boards, substantially similar to said first plurality of electronic boards, including a general memory section, at least one I/O board including a microprocessor and an interconnected I/O management section, and a second redundancy board including buffers, engaged in the plurality of slots of said second backplane for timesharing said data and address bus and said memory section; coupling means connected to said first and second redundancy boards for coupling the data and address buses of said first and second backplanes through the buffers of said first and second redundancy boards and for coupling control signals to each of said first and second redundancy boards; and said first and second redundancy boards cooperating to control one of said first and second backplanes and the engaged first and second plurality of electronic boards, respectively, to operate in a prime mode and the other to operate in a redundant mode, and to switch the modes of operation in response to one of a user command and a fault occurrence in the one operating in a prime mode.

Claim 12

An electronic paging system with realtime redundant operation characterized by: a first backplane including a plurality of slots for receiving a plurality of electronic boards and at least a data and address bus connecting the plurality of slots; a first plurality of electronic boards, including a general memory section, at least one I/O board including a microprocessor and an interconnected I/O management section, and a first redundancy board including buffers, engaged in the plurality of slots of said first backplane for timesharing said data and address bus and said memory section; a second backplane, substantially similar to said first backplane, including a plurality of slots for receiving a plurality of electronic boards and at least a data and address bus connecting the plurality of slots; a second plurality of electronic boards, substantially similar to said first plurality of electronic boards, including a general memory section, at least one I/O board including a microprocessor and an interconnected I/O management section, and a second redundancy board including buffers, engaged in the plurality of slots of said second backplane for timesharing said data and address bus and said memory section; coupling means connected to said first and second redundancy boards for coupling the data and address buses of said first and second backplanes through the buffers of said first and second redundancy boards and for coupling control signals to each of said first and second redundancy boards; and said first and second redundancy boards cooperating to control one of said first and second backplanes and the engaged first and second plurality of electronic boards, respectively, to operate in a prime mode and the other to operate in a redundant mode, and to switch the modes of operation in response to one of a user command and a fault occurrence in the one operating in a prime mode.

Claim 13

An electronic paging system with realtime redundant operation as claimed in claim 9 including in addition a multiplexor coupling the I/O boards to external lines.