EXPANDABLE CAPACITY SOLID STATE DRIVE

• US 20110167201A1
• Filed: 01/06/2011
• Published: 07/07/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/06/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Ching-Hsiang Simon Huang
• Original Assignee: Ching-Hsiang Simon Huang
• Inventors: Huang, Ching-Hsiang Simon
• Application Number:
  US12/986,116
• Publication Number:
  US 20110167201A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/103
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/185 Mounting of expansion boards
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/187 Mounting of fixed and removable disk drives
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0688 Non-volatile semiconductor memory arrays

Abstract

An expandable solid state drive is provided, comprising a main printed circuitboard, wherein the main printed circuitboard comprises a controller, an interface to a host, and connectors suitable to removably receive connectors mounted on a daughter card, the daughter card comprising at least one non-volatile flash memory chip, wherein when the daughter card is received by the main printed circuitboard, the form factor of the expandable solid state device is maintained.

Claims

1. A non-volatile storage device, comprising:

a printed circuitboard;

a controller, capable of interfacing with non-volatile memory;

an interface, capable of providing logical access to the controller for an external host;

at least one connector suitable for removably receiving at least one daughter card, wherein each daughter card includes at least one mating connector and at least one non-volatile solid-state memory module; and

an interface bus, providing an electrical connection between said connectors and said controller;

wherein said controller is configured to utilize said at least one non-volatile memory module when the at least one daughter card is removably received, and

wherein a form factor of the device is maintained after receipt of the at least one daughter card.

2. The non-volatile storage device of claim 1, wherein the form factor of the device is one of a standard 3.5, 2.5, or 1.8 inch drive.

3. The non-volatile storage device of claim 1, wherein the printed circuitboard further includes a main non-volatile memory.

4. The non-volatile storage device of claim 3, wherein the controller is further configured to aggregate the capacities of the main non-volatile memory and the non-volatile memory module of the at least one received daughter card and present the aggregated capacities to the external host.

5. The non-volatile storage device of claim 1, wherein the interface bus includes a plurality of channels, each channel capable of addressing a limited set of non-volatile memory modules, wherein each of the at least one connector includes a channel for communication with a daughter card.

6. The non-volatile storage device of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured for communication with non-volatile memory modules of the daughter card which comprise any of MLC, eMLC, or SLC compositions.

7. A non-volatile storage system daughter card, comprising:

a circuitboard;

non-volatile solid-state memory modules disposed on the circuitboard; and

at least one connector disposed on the circuitboard for removably connecting to a non-volatile storage system, the at least one connector in electrical communication with the non-volatile solid-state memory modules, the at least one connector including an addressing channel;

wherein when the daughter card is removably connected to a non-volatile storage system, the solid-state memory modules are controllable by the non-volatile storage system and the non-volatile storage system maintains a form factor after the daughter card is connected.

8. The non-volatile storage system daughter card of claim 7, wherein each of the at least one connectors includes at most one addressing channel.

9. The non-volatile storage system daughter card of claim 7, wherein the non-volatile storage system daughter card is capable of being removably connected to a plurality of non-volatile storage systems which differ in form factor while maintaining the form factor of each non-volatile storage system.

10. The non-volatile storage system daughter card of claim 9, wherein the plurality of non-volatile storage systems which differ in form factor include a 3.5 inch and 2.5 inch form factor non-volatile storage system.

11. The non-volatile storage system daughter card of claim 9, wherein the plurality of non-volatile storage systems which differ in form factor include a 2.5 inch and 1.8 inch form factor non-volatile storage system.

12. The non-volatile storage system daughter card of claim 7 further comprising at least one aperture for accommodating components of the non-volatile storage system.

13. The non-volatile storage system daughter card of claim 7 wherein the non-volatile solid-state memory modules and the at least one connector are disposed on the same side of the circuitboard.