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Concept
19-inch rack
Summary
A 19-inch rack is a standardized frame or enclosure for mounting multiple electronic equipment modules. Each module has a front panel that is wide. The 19 inch dimension includes the edges or ears that protrude from each side of the equipment, allowing the module to be fastened to the rack frame with screws or bolts. Common uses include computer servers, telecommunications equipment and networking hardware, audiovisual production gear, music production equipment, and scientific equipment.
Equipment designed to be placed in a rack is typically described as rack-mount, rack-mount instrument, a rack-mounted system, a rack-mount chassis, subrack, rack cabinet, rack-mountable, or occasionally simply shelf. The height of the electronic modules is also standardized as multiples of or one rack unit or U (less commonly RU). The industry-standard rack cabinet is 42U tall; however, 45U racks are also common.
The term relay rack appeared first in the world of telephony.
By 1911, the term was also being used in railroad signaling. There is little evidence that the dimensions of these early racks were standardized.
The 19-inch rack format with rack-units of was established as a standard by AT&T around 1922 in order to reduce the space required for repeater and termination equipment in a telephone company central office. The earliest repeaters from 1914 were installed in ad hoc fashion on shelves, in wooden boxes and cabinets. Once serial production started, they were built into custom-made racks, one per repeater. But in light of the rapid growth of the toll network, the engineering department of AT&T undertook a systematic redesign, resulting in a family of modular factory-assembled panels all "designed to mount on vertical supports spaced 19 inches between centers. The height of the different panels will vary, ... but ... in all cases to be a whole multiple of inches."
By 1934, it was an established standard with holes tapped for 12-24 screws with alternating spacings of and The EIA standard was revised again in 1992 to comply with the 1988 public law 100-418, setting the standard U as + + , making each U .
Official source
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