Patent Application
20140211420
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a portable electronic device, especially to a portable electronic device having a removable external graphic card module.
2. Description of Related Art
As the rise of high definition dynamic imaging technology and 3D games, software for 3D animation or high definition imaging is widely prevalent in the market. For such a purpose, computer systems have to be equipped with higher computation ability to process a huge amount of data, so as to provide faster image processing performance. For computer systems, a graphic card is a major part for image processing. In a portable electronic device, such as a notebook or an all-in-one computer, an independent graphic processing unit (GPU) is widely utilized instead of an integrated GPU. In the field of personal computers and computer graphic (CG) workstations, the high performance graphic card with high computation ability and excellent capability of graphic processing are adopted by more and more graphics processing workers and 3D gaming enthusiasts, thus market demand for such a graphic card is greatly raised. Today, many electronic products manufacturers focus on development and production for own brand graphic card.
For enhance the ability to perform massive numbers of calculations required for graphics processing, the computer system has to be equipped with a higher performance of graphic card or multiple of graphic cards connected in series or in parallel. Conventionally, when the portable electronic device in the art is manufactured, the graphic card has been installed in the portable electronic device, the user cannot select or replace the graphic card according to the usage requirement to improve the display performance of the portable electronic device. Such a condition sometimes causes inconvenience. For example, when the users would like to use the computer to play 3D games, and the games usually cannot be executed smoothly. The games are delayed, the operability is poor, and the user is disappointed.
Therefore, to make the graphic card in an electronic device be easily replaced is a general purpose of the electronic products and graphic card manufacturers.
In view of the above problems, the present invention provides a portable electronic device with the external graphic card module, in which the external graphic card module can be replaced easily, so as to solve the above problems.
In one or more embodiments, a portable electronic device includes a main body, a motherboard, at least one connector and at least one external graphic card module. The motherboard is equipped without a built-in graphics chip, and the motherboard is disposed within the main body. The connector is electrically disposed on the motherboard. The main body includes at least one slot disposed on one side of the main body, and the connector is located corresponding to the slot of main body. The external graphic card module includes a graphic processing unit, a circuit board and a first connecting interface. The graphic processing unit is electrically disposed on the circuit board. The first connecting interface is electrically disposed to an end of the circuit board. The external graphic card module is removable and selectively inserting into the slot to electrically connect to the connector of the motherboard through the first connecting interface.
Through the present invention, the external graphic card module of the portable electronic device can be easily replaced, such that the user can choose a proper external graphic card module according to the user requirement. The consumer can use the portable electronic device with flexibility. Furthermore, the portable electronic device is able to be equipped with multiple external graphic card module working together to increase the image display function of the portable electronic device.
These and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments that is illustrated in the various figures and drawings.
It is noted that in the following embodiments a portable electronic device 100 is but not limited to a notebook, a tablet computer or any portable electronic products, and a notebook is used as an exemplary interpretation of a portable electronic device 100 without any intention to limit the scope of the present invention. Those skilled in the art may modify the appearance and the function of the portable electronic device 100 according to user requirements.
Referring to
In this embodiment, the external graphic card module 140 is but not limited to a hot-plug device. The external graphic card module 140 includes a graphic processing unit 143, a circuit board 142 and a first connecting interface 141. The graphic processing unit (GPU) 143 is provided for graphics computation and the GPU 143 is electrically disposed on the circuit board 142. The first connecting interface 141 is electrically disposed to an end of the circuit board 142, the external graphic card module 140 is removable and selectively inserts into the slot 111 of the main body 110 along an assembly direction P10. The external graphic card module 140 is electrically connected to the connector 130 of the motherboard 120 through the first connecting interface 141 of the circuit board 142, so as to establish electrical connection between the external graphic card module 140 and the motherboard 120 to transmit the electrical signals of the graphic processing unit 143 via the first connecting interface 141 to the motherboard 120.
To sum up, in the embodiment, through the slot, the portable electronic device 100 selectively connects to an external graphic card module 140 with demanding specification, so as achieve the requirement of the user. Furthermore, the user can easily replace the external graphic card module 140 with another one, so that the user can use the portable electronic device with more flexibility.
Referring to
The difference between the portable electronic device 100 of the second embodiment and that of the first embodiment is that in the second embodiment one or both the two slots 111 of the main body 110 can be selectively inserted by different external graphic card modules 140. In more detail, when an external graphic card module 140 inserts into one of the two slots 111 of the main body 110, another slot 111 can adopt another external graphic card module 140 or remain un-occupied by any interface card module.
It is noted that the quantity of the slot 111 and external graphic card module 140 are not limited to those examples above, and the slot 111 may be disposed in any desired positions on the portable electronic device 100 by using other arrangement other than that disclosed above.
To sum up, in the embodiment, through two slots the portable electronic device 100 can selectively connects to one or more external graphic card modules 140 with demanding specifications according to the requirement of the user. Furthermore, the user can easily replace any one of the external graphic card modules 140 with another one. When two or more external graphic card modules 140 are adopted by the portable electronic device 100, Scalable Link Interface (SLI) technology can be use to make the external graphic card modules 140 cooperate, so that the performance will be increased to attain the good performance of display function.
Referring to
The difference between the portable electronic device 100 of the third embodiment and that of the other embodiment is that the portable electronic device 100 of the third embodiment further includes an interface card module 150 with a second connecting interface 151. The interface card module 150 is but not limited to a wireless network interface card an audio card or a solid state disk. The two slots 111 of the main body 110 can be selectively inserted by different external graphic card module 140. In more detail, when an external graphic card module 140 inserts into one of the two slots 111 of the main body 110, the interface card module 150 can insert into another slot 111 through the second connecting interface 151. It is noted that the quantity of the slot 111 and external graphic card module 140 are not limited to those examples above, and the slot 111 may be disposed at any desired positions on the portable electronic device 100 by using other arrangement other than that disclosed above.
To sum up, in the third embodiment, through two slots and one interface card module, the portable electronic device 100 selectively connects to interface card module with various through one of the slot of the main body. Therefore, the user can choose the external graphic card module and the interface card module among various options according to the requirement, so that the user can use the portable electronic device with more flexibility and more options.
Besides, in the aforementioned embodiments, the portable electronic device 100 further includes an exhausting region 144 with a plurality of vents 145. The exhausting region 144 is communicated with the cover 146. The vents 145 are exposed to the outer surface of the main body 110. When the exhausting region 144 flush with the main body, and the heat of the graphic processing unit 143 is dissipated from the vents 145 to external, so as to enhance the efficacy of heat dissipation.
The structure of a portable electronic device 100 of the fourth embodiment is basically similar to that of the aforementioned embodiments with only some differences that will be addressed hereinafter.
To sum up, in the fourth embodiment, the fan generates an air flow to blow the heat sink, so as to enhance the heat dissipation for the graphic processing unit 143.
In the aforementioned embodiments, it is clearly described that the present invention solves the existing problems by providing the portable electronic device in which the slots to achieve that the external graphic card module can be easily removed and installed according to the user requirement.
The portable electronic device of the present invention achieves that the interface card modules with various can be selectively installed to the portable electronic device according to the user's requirement and the interface card module can be easily removed and replaced, so that the flexibility will be increased. Furthermore, SLI technology for the external graphic card modules can be easily utilized, so that the display performance will be increased to attain the best performance of display function.
The aforementioned descriptions represent merely the preferred embodiment of the present invention, without any intention to limit the scope of the present invention thereto. Various equivalent changes, alterations, or modifications based on the claims of the present invention are all consequently viewed as being embraced by the scope of the present invention.
