Blind Mating Connection for 19-inch Electronic Industries Alliance Racks in AEGIS Computing Infrastructure

This Proposal describes a multi-phase effort to develop a preliminary design for a Universal Blind Mating Connector (BMC) for Aegis 19-inch Electronics Industries Alliance (EIA) server racks to allow for the easy removal, replacement, and upgrading of rack mountable Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) computing system components. The BMC will consist of two halves, one Rack Adapter that will remain in the 19-inch rack and one Component Adapter that would be removed with the COTS computing system components during repair, replacement, or upgrades. The component adapter will accommodate the various depths of COTS computing system components. The BMC design will provide alignment features to ensure proper blind-mating engagement. The BMC design will accommodate and ensure proper handling of all the various power and signal types utilized by the computing system components. Utilization of the BMC will enable reductions in the Mean-Time-To-Repair (MTTR) which will allow for more-timely and less-costly upgrades to Aegis Computing Infrastructure (CI) as part of Technology Insertion (TI) upgrades.