Multiple interfaces in a storage enclosure

• US 20050138258A1
• Filed: 12/18/2003
• Published: 06/23/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/18/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Seto, Pak-Lung
• Granted Patent: US 7,155,546 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 710/301
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/409 Mechanical coupling back panels H05K7/1438

Abstract

Provided is a system for interfacing with storage units, including a backplane, at least one slot in the storage enclosure for receiving one storage unit, and two physical interfaces on the backplane for at least one slot. The storage unit is capable of being positioned in the slot to mate with one of the two physical interfaces for the slot, wherein each physical interface supports different storage interconnect architectures.

Claims

1. A storage enclosure for interfacing with storage units, comprising:

a backplane;

at least one slot in the storage enclosure for receiving one storage unit; and

two physical interfaces on the backplane for at least one slot, wherein one storage unit is capable of being positioned in the slot to mate with one of the two physical interfaces for the slot, wherein each physical interface supports different storage interconnect architectures.

2. The storage enclosure of claim 1, wherein the different storage interconnect architectures supported by the physical interfaces have different transmission characteristics.

3. The storage enclosure of claim 1, wherein the two physical interfaces in the slots have different physical configurations.

5. The storage enclosure of claim 1,wherein an external device is in communication with the storage enclosure and accesses the storage units in the slots of the storage enclosure, wherein the external device is capable of accessing storage unit assemblies using different storage interconnect architectures through the expander.

6. The storage enclosure of claim 5, further comprising:

a multidrop connection having a first end in communication with the external device and a second and third ends coupled to the two interfaces in one slot.

7. The storage enclosure of claim 5, further comprising:

an expander on the backplane coupled to a plurality of the slots and the external device.

8. The storage enclosure of claim 7, wherein the expander includes circuitry to perform:

receiving a transmission from one storage unit in one slot coupled to the expander;

maintaining information on storage interconnect architectures and transmission characteristics used for the storage interconnect architectures, wherein the storage interconnect architectures have transmission characteristics;

determining the transmission characteristic of the received transmission;

determining from the information the storage interconnect architecture associated with the determined transmission characteristics;

using the information on the determined storage interconnect architecture to process the transmission and determine a transport layer for the received transmission, wherein there is one transport layer for each supported transport protocol; and

forwarding the transmission to the determined transport layer.

9. The storage enclosure of claim 1, wherein the supported storage interconnect architectures comprise SATA, SAS, and Fibre Channel and wherein the supported transport protocols comprising SSP, Fibre Channel Protocol, STP, SMP, and SATA.

10. The storage enclosure of claim 1, wherein in the slots, one physical interface complies with the SATA/SAS storage interconnect architecture and another physical interface complies with the Fibre Channel storage interconnect architecture.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein in the slots, one physical interface complies with the SATA/SAS storage interconnect architecture and another physical interface complies with the Fibre Channel storage interconnect architecture.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein the servers and storage enclosures are mounted in a rack, and wherein for at least one storage enclosure, the expander connects to multiple servers and for at least one server, the server adaptor connects to multiple storage enclosures.

4. The storage enclosure of 1, wherein the physical interfaces each extend along a vertical length of the slot and are parallel to each other.

11. A system interfacing with storage units, comprising:

(a) at least one storage enclosure, comprising;

(i) a backplane;

(ii) at least one slot in the storage enclosure for receiving one storage unit; and

(iii) two physical interfaces on the backplane for at least one slot, wherein a storage unit is capable of being positioned in the slot to mate with one of the two physical interfaces for the slot, wherein each physical interface supports different storage interconnect architectures; and

(b) at least one server, comprising;

(i) an adaptor coupled to the storage enclosure;

(ii) receiving data forwarded from the storage enclosure backplane; and

(iii) circuitry to determine one of a plurality of storage interconnect architectures to process the data, wherein the server adaptor supports multiple storage interconnect architectures.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the storage interconnect architectures supported in the storage enclosure and server adaptor have different transmission characteristics.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the two physical interfaces in the slots have different physical configurations.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the storage enclosure further includes:

an expander on the backplane coupled to the slots and coupled to at least one server that accesses the storage unit assemblies mated in the slots of the storage enclosure, wherein the server is capable of accessing storage units using different storage interconnect architectures through the expander.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein each server adaptor includes circuitry to perform:

receiving a transmission from one storage unit in the storage enclosure;

maintaining information on storage interconnect architectures and transmission characteristics for the storage interconnect architectures, wherein the storage interconnect architectures have different transmission characteristics determining a transmission characteristic of the received data;

determining from the information the storage interconnect architecture associated with the determined transmission characteristic;

using the information on the determined storage interconnect architecture to process the transmission and determine a transport layer for the received transmission, wherein there is one transport layer for each supported transport protocol; and

forwarding the transmission to the determined transport layer.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the server adaptor further includes:

a plurality of protocol engines each supporting multiple of the transport layers, wherein the circuitry for forwarding the transmission to the determined transport layer further performs;

(i) selecting one of the plurality of protocol engines;

(ii) forwarding the transmission to the selected protocol engine, wherein the determined transport layer in the selected protocol engine processes the data.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein the expander includes circuitry to perform:

receiving a transmission from one storage unit in one slot coupled to the expander in response to a request from one server; and

maintaining information on storage interconnect architectures and transmission characteristics for the storage interconnect architectures, wherein the storage interconnect architectures have different transmission characteristics;

determining transmission characteristics of the received transmission;

determining from the information the storage interconnect architecture associated with the determined transmission characteristics;

using the information on the determined storage interconnect architecture, to process the transmission to determine an address of a target device for the transmission;

forwarding the data to a connection associated with the determined target device address.

20. A method for interfacing storage units with an external device, comprising:

communicating with one storage unit interfacing with a first physical interface in a slot of a storage enclosure when the storage unit is received in a first orientation with respect to the slot; and

communicating with one storage unit interfacing with a second physical interface in the slot when the storage unit is received in a second orientation with respect to the slot, wherein the first and second physical interface supports different storage interconnect architectures.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the different storage interconnect architectures supported by the physical interfaces have different transmission characteristics.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the two physical interfaces in the slots have different physical configurations.

23. The method of claim 20, wherein the physical interfaces each extend along a vertical length of the slot and are parallel to each other.

24. The method of claim 20, wherein an expander on a backplane is coupled to the first and second physical interfaces in the slot, wherein communication with the storage unit using the different storage interconnect architectures occurs through the expander interconnect architectures through the expander.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the expander performs:

receiving a transmission from one storage unit in one slot coupled to the expander;

maintaining information on storage interconnect architectures and transmission characteristics used for the storage interconnect architectures, wherein the storage interconnect architectures have transmission characteristics;

determining the transmission characteristic of the received transmission;

determining from the information the storage interconnect architecture associated with the determined transmission characteristics;

using the information on the determined storage interconnect architecture to process the transmission and determine a transport layer for the received transmission, wherein there is one transport layer for each supported transport protocol; and

forwarding the transmission to the determined transport layer.

26. The method of claim 20, wherein the supported storage interconnect architectures comprise SATA, SAS, and Fibre Channel and wherein the supported transport protocols comprise SSP, Fibre Channel Protocol, STP, SMP, and SATA.

27. The method of claim 20, wherein in the slots, one physical interface complies with the SATA/SAS storage interconnect architecture and another physical interface complies with the Fibre Channel storage interconnect architecture.

28. An article of manufacture for interfacing storage units with an external device through a first physical interface or a second physical interface, wherein the storage units are inserted in slots in a storage enclosure, wherein the article of manufacture causes operations to be performed, the operations comprising:

communicating with one storage unit interfacing with the first physical interface when the storage unit is received in a first orientation with respect to one slot; and

communicating with one storage unit interfacing with the second physical interface when the storage unit is received in a second orientation with respect to the slot, wherein the first and second physical interface supports different storage interconnect architectures.

29. The article of manufacture of claim 28, wherein the different storage interconnect architectures supported by the physical interfaces have different transmission characteristics.

30. The article of manufacture of claim 28, wherein the two physical interfaces in the slots have different physical configurations.

31. The article of manufacture of claim 28, wherein the operations further comprise

receiving a transmission from one storage unit in one slot;

maintaining information on storage interconnect architectures and transmission characteristics used for the storage interconnect architectures, wherein the storage interconnect architectures have transmission characteristics;

determining the transmission characteristic of the received transmission;

determining from the information the storage interconnect architecture associated with the determined transmission characteristics;

using the information on the determined storage interconnect architecture to process the transmission and determine a transport layer for the received transmission, wherein there is one transport layer for each supported transport protocol; and

forwarding the transmission to the determined transport layer.

32. The article of manufacture of claim 28, wherein the supported storage interconnect architectures comprise SATA, SAS, and Fibre Channel and wherein the supported transport protocols comprise SSP, Fibre Channel Protocol, STP, SMP, and SATA.

33. The article of manufacture of claim 28, wherein the article of manufacture stores instructions that when executed result in performance of the operations.