HARDWARE INTERCONNECT BASED COMMUNICATION BETWEEN SOLID STATE DRIVE CONTROLLERS

• US 20150242128A1
• Filed: 12/09/2013
• Published: 08/27/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/09/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Empire Technology Development LLC (Allied Inventors Management, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Empire Technology Development LLC (Allied Inventors Management, LLC)
• Inventors: Margalit, Mordehai, Hirshberg, David, Moriya, Netzer
• Granted Patent: US 9,898,195 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0608 Saving storage space on storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/061 Improving I/O performance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0619 in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0641 De-duplication techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0658 Controller construction arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0665 at area level, e.g. provisioning of virtual or logical volumes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0673 Single storage device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0688 Non-volatile semiconductor memory arrays
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0689 Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD

Abstract

Technologies are generally described to establish a hardware interconnect based communication between SSD controllers. According to some examples, a first solid state drive (SSD) controller and a second SSD controller are detected. The hardware interconnect is detected between the first SSD controller and the second SSD controller. Next, a communication connection between the first SSD controller and the second SSD controller is established through the hardware interconnect. The first SSD controller may be allowed to manage a flash controller of the second SSD controller for tasks that include a deduplication task and a low level redundant array of independent disks (RAID) task.

Claims

1. A method to establish a hardware interconnect based communication between SSD controllers, the method comprising:

detecting a first solid state drive (SSD) controller,

detecting a second SSD controller,

detecting the hardware interconnect between the first SSD controller and the second SSD controller, and

establishing a communication connection between the first SSD controller and the second SSD controller through the hardware interconnect.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting a third SSD controller;

detecting a second hardware interconnect between the second SSD controller and the third SSD controller; and

establishing a second communication connection between the second SSD controller and the third SSD controller through the second hardware interconnect.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising detecting the first SSD controller and the second SSD controller within a first SSD.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting the first SSD controller within a first SSD; and

detecting the second SSD controller within a second SSD.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising managing a communication bus associated with the communication connection between the first SSD controller and the second SSD controller as a first extension of a first device input and output (I/O) of the first SSD controller and a second extension of a second device I/O of the second SSD controller.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing an addressing scheme supporting a system level mapping and an intersystem communication mapping between the first SSD controller and the second SSD controller.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

implementing a multi-controller architecture providing a multi-system addressing scheme.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

allowing the first SSD controller to manage a flash controller of the second SSD controller for tasks that include at least one of;

a deduplication task and a low level redundant array of independent disks (RAID) task.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

allowing the second SSD controller to manage a flash controller of the first SSD controller for tasks that include at least one of;

a deduplication task and a low level redundant array of independent disks (RAID) task.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

implementing a scalable file system to offload functions from at least one SSD system associated with the first SSD controller and the second SSD controller,

creating data and associated metadata within the scalable file system; and

updating the metadata through the hardware interconnect without overload of the at least one SSD system and a network connection associated with the at least one SSD system.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

implementing one or more functions associated with the first SSD controller and the second SSD controller through the hardware interconnect, wherein the functions include at least one from a set of;

a cross processor replication, a redundant array of independent disks (RAID), and a read and write (RW) management.

12. A computing device to establish a hardware interconnect based communication between SSD controllers, the computing device comprising:

a memory configured to store instructions;

a processor, and

a solid state drive (SSD) coupled to the memory and the processor, wherein the SSD includes an interconnect module configured to;

detect a first SSD controller within the SSD;

detect a second SSD controller within another SSD of the computing device;

detect the hardware interconnect between the first SSD controller and the second SSD controller;

establish a communication connection between the first SSD controller and the second SSD controller through the hardware interconnect;

detect a third SSD controller;

detect a second hardware interconnect between the second SSD controller and the third SSD controller; and

establish a second communication connection between the second SSD controller and the third SSD controller through the second hardware interconnect.

13. The computing device according to claim 12, wherein the interconnect module is further configured to:

manage a communication bus associated with the communication connection between the first SSD controller and the second SSD controller as a first extension of a first device input and output (I/O) of the first SSD controller and a second extension of a second device I/O of the second SSD controller.

14. The computing device according to claim 12, wherein the interconnect module is further configured to:

provide an addressing scheme to support a system level mapping and an intersystem communication mapping between the first SSD controller and the second SSD controller.

15. The computing device according to claim 12, wherein the interconnect module is further configured to:

implement one or more functions associated with the first SSD controller and the second SSD controller through the hardware interconnect, wherein the functions include at least one of;

a cross processor replication, a redundant array of independent disks (RAID), and a read and write (RW) management.

16. The computing device according to claim 12, wherein the interconnect module is further configured to:

implement a multi-controller architecture to provide a multi-system addressing scheme through a process to;

allow the first SSD controller to manage a flash controller of the second SSD controller for tasks that include at least one of;

a first deduplication task and a first low level redundant array of independent disks (RAID) task; and

allow the second SSD controller to manage a flash controller of the first SSD controller for tasks that include at least one from a set of;

a second deduplication task and a second low level redundant array of independent disks (RAID) task.

17. The computing device according to claim 12, wherein the interconnect module is further configured to:

implement a scalable file system to offload functions from at least one SSD system associated with the first SSD controller and the second SSD controller,

create data and associated metadata within the scalable file system; and

update the metadata through the hardware interconnect with no overload of the at least one SSD system and a network connection associated with the at least one SSD system.

18. A computer-readable storage medium with instructions stored thereon to establish a hardware interconnect based communication between SSD controllers, the instructions in response to execution cause a method to be performed, wherein the method comprises:

detecting a first solid state drive (SSD) controller within a first SSD;

detecting a second SSD controller within a second SSD;

detecting a first hardware interconnect between the first SSD controller and the second SSD controller,

establishing a first communication connection between the first and the second SSD through the first hardware interconnect;

detecting a third SSD controller;

detecting a second hardware interconnect between the second SSD controller and the third SSD controller; and

establishing a second communication connection between the second SSD controller and the third SSD controller through the second hardware interconnect.

19. The computer-readable storage medium according to claim 18, wherein functions associated with the first SSD controller, the second SSD controller, and the third SSD controller are implemented through the first hardware interconnect and the second hardware interconnect and include at least one from a set of:

a cross processor replication, a redundant array of independent disks (RAID), and a read and write (RW) management.

20. The computer-readable storage medium according to claim 18, wherein an addressing scheme is provided to support a system level mapping and an intersystem communication mapping between the first SSD controller, the second SSD controller, and the third SSD controller.

21. The computer-readable storage medium according to claim 18, wherein a multi-controller architecture is implemented to provide a multi-system addressing scheme to allow the first SSD controller to manage a flash controller of the second SSD controller for tasks that include at least one from a set of:

a first deduplication task and a first low level redundant array of independent disks (RAID) task, and to allow the second SSD controller to manage a flash controller of the first SSD controller for tasks that include at least one of;

a second deduplication task and a second low level redundant array of independent disks (RAID) task.