276-PIN BUFFERED MEMORY CARD WITH ENHANCED MEMORY SYSTEM INTERCONNECT

• US 20130301207A1
• Filed: 05/08/2012
• Published: 11/14/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/08/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Chun, Sungjun, Connolly, Brian J.
• Granted Patent: US 9,357,649 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 361/679.32
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 1/117 Pads along the edge of rigid circuit boards, e.g. for pluggable connectors
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 1/141 One or more single auxiliary printed circuits mounted on a main printed circuit, e.g. modules, adapters H05K1/142 and H05K1/147 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 2201/09172 Notches between edge pads
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 2201/10159 Memory
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 3/366 substantially perpendicularly to each other H05K3/361 takes precedence

Abstract

An embodiment is a memory card including a rectangular printed circuit card having a first side and a second side, a first length of between 151.35 and 161.5 millimeters, and first and second ends having a second length smaller than the first length. The memory card also includes a first plurality of pins on the first side extending along a first edge of the rectangular printed circuit card that extends along a length of the rectangular printed circuit card, a second plurality of pins on the second side extending on the first edge of the rectangular printed circuit card, and a positioning key having its center positioned on the first edge of the rectangular printed circuit card and located between 94.0 and 95.5 millimeters from the first end of the rectangular printed circuit card.

Claims

1. A memory card comprising:

a rectangular printed circuit card having a first side and a second side, a first length of between 151.35 and 161.5 millimeters, and first and second ends having a second length smaller than the first length;

a first plurality of pins on the first side extending along a first edge of the rectangular printed circuit card that extends along a length of the rectangular printed circuit card;

a second plurality of pins on the second side extending on the first edge of the rectangular printed circuit card; and

a positioning key having its center positioned on the first edge of the rectangular printed circuit card and located between 94.0 and 95.5 millimeters from the first end of the rectangular printed circuit card.

2. The memory card of claim 1, further comprising:

a hub device attached to the rectangular printed circuit card for converting a packetized memory interface received via one or more high speed buses, wherein one or both of the first and second plurality of pins includes a plurality of high-speed bus interface pins arranged on the rectangular printed circuit card for communicating with the one or more high-speed buses.

3. The memory card of claim 2, wherein the hub device is configured to enable bit repair of a memory device through the hub device.

4. The memory card of claim 2, wherein the hub device is configured to enable traceability for a memory device on the rectangular printed circuit card.

5. The memory card of claim 2, further comprising:

first, second, third and fourth ranks of memory devices attached to the rectangular printed circuit card;

a first port in communication with the first ranks of memory devices;

a second port in communication with the second ranks of memory devices, wherein the first, second, third and fourth ports are operable simultaneously and independently of each other to access the first, second, third and fourth ranks of memory devices;

a third port in communication with the third ranks of memory devices, wherein the first, second, third and fourth ports are operable simultaneously and independently of each other to access the first, second, third and fourth ranks of memory devices; and

a fourth port in communication with the fourth ranks of memory devices, wherein the first, second, third and fourth ports are operable simultaneously and independently of each other to access the first, second, third and fourth ranks of memory devices.

6. The memory card of claim 1, further comprising a thermal sensor for ranks of memory devices attached to the rectangular printed circuit card at one side of the hub device and a second thermal sensor for other ranks of memory devices attached to the rectangular printed circuit card at the other side of the hub device.

7. The memory card of claim 1, further comprising a voltage monitor configured to monitor voltage of a memory device attached to the rectangular printed circuit card at one side of the hub device

8. The memory card of claim 1, further comprising one or more ranks of memory devices attached to the rectangular printed circuit card, wherein the hub device includes logic to communicate with the memory devices via a memory module interface.

9. The memory card of claim 1, wherein the first plurality of pins and the second plurality of pins total include at least 276 pins.

10. The memory card of claim 1, wherein the first plurality of pins and the second plurality of pins include a reference voltage pin for monitoring a reference voltage level sent to a memory device during system test.

11. The memory card of claim 1, wherein the first plurality of pins further comprises reference clock interface pins for synchronizing high speed differential upstream and downstream channels, such that the reference clock interface pins are located between 18.5 and 21.5 millimeters to the left of the positioning key when viewed from the first side.

12. The memory card of claim 1, wherein the first plurality of pins further comprises reference clock interface pins for synchronizing a memory interface, such that the reference clock interface pins are located between 15.5 and 18.5 millimeters to the left of the positioning key when viewed from the first side.

13. A memory card comprising:

a card having a length of between 151.5 and 161.35 millimeters, the card having a first side including a first end, a second end, and a first edge that extends the length of the card between the first end and the second end;

a positioning key having its center positioned on the first edge and located 89.5 millimeters from a first pin proximate the first end of the card and positioned 51.5 millimeters from a last pin proximate the second end of the card when viewed from the first side; and

a plurality of primary upstream bus interface pins arranged on the card for communicating with a high-speed upstream bus, such that the primary upstream bus interface pins associated with the high-speed upstream bus are located between than 14.5 millimeters to the left and 29.5 millimeters to the right of the positioning key and the first end when viewed from the first side.

14. The memory card of claim 13, further comprising a plurality of primary downstream bus interface pins arranged on the card for communicating with a high-speed downstream bus, such that the primary downstream bus interface pins associated with the high-speed downstream bus are located less than 56.5 millimeters to the left of the positioning key and the second end when viewed from the first side.

15. The memory card of claim 13, further comprising downstream clock interface pins for communicating with a differential downstream clock, such that the downstream clock interface pins are located between 39.5 and 42.5 millimeters to the left of positioning key when viewed from the first side.

16. The memory card of claim 13, further comprising upstream clock interface pins for communicating with a differential upstream clock, such that the upstream clock interface pins are located between 9.5 and 12.5 millimeters to the right of the positioning key when viewed from the first side.

17. A memory card comprising:

a card having a length of between 151.5 and 161.35 millimeters, the card having a first side and a second side, the first side including a first end, a second end, and a first edge that extends the length of the card between the first end and the second end;

a positioning key having its center positioned on the first edge and located between 94.0 and 95.5 millimeters from the first end of the card when viewed from the first side; and

a plurality of paired adjacent differential high-speed signal interface pins for communicating with differential high-speed signals, such that each pair of adjacent differential high-speed signal pair is separated by at least one additional pin or by a distance between the first and the second side, wherein the at least one additional pin is one or both of a voltage pin and a ground pin.

18. The memory card of claim 17, comprising a plurality of memory device voltage supply pins configured to support both DDR3 and DDR4 memory devices.

19. The memory card of claim 17, further comprising two downstream clock interface pins for communicating with a differential downstream clock, such that the downstream clock interface pins are located between 39.5 and 42.5 millimeters to the left of positioning key when viewed from the first side.

20. The memory card of claim 17, further comprising two upstream clock interface pins for communicating with a differential upstream clock, such that the upstream clock interface pins are located between 9.5 and 12.5 millimeters to the right of the positioning key when viewed from the first side.