SOLID STATE DRIVE MULTI-CARD ADAPTER WITH INTEGRATED PROCESSING

• US 20160259597A1
• Filed: 11/24/2015
• Published: 09/08/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/02/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Gunneswara Marripudi, Harry Rogers, Vikas Sinha
• Inventors: WORLEY, Fred, ROGERS, Harry, MARRIPUDI, Gunneswara, SINHA, Vikas, PING, Zhan
• Granted Patent: US 10,140,063 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4022 using switching circuits, e.g. switching matrix, connection or expansion network G06F13/4009 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4081 Live connection to bus, e.g. hot-plugging current or voltage limitation during live insertion H02H9/004
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4282 on a serial bus, e.g. I2C bus, SPI bus on daisy chain buses G06F13/4247
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0613 in relation to throughput
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0629 Configuration or reconfiguration of storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0632 by initialisation or re-initialisation of storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0658 Controller construction arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0661 Format or protocol conversion arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0683 Plurality of storage devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0688 Non-volatile semiconductor memory arrays

Abstract

Embodiments of the inventive concept include solid state drive (SSD) multi-card adapters that can include multiple solid state drive cards, which can be incorporated into existing enterprise servers without major architectural changes, thereby enabling the server industry ecosystem to easily integrate evolving solid state drive technologies into servers. The SSD multi-card adapters can include an interface section between various solid state drive cards and drive connector types. The interface section can perform protocol translation, packet switching and routing, data encryption, data compression, management information aggregation, virtualization, and other functions.

Claims

1. A solid state drive (SSD) multi-card adapter, comprising:

a connector capable of supporting a storage communication protocol;

an interface section coupled to the connector; and

one or more mixed-format solid state drive connectors coupled to the interface section, and configured to receive one or more mixed-format non-volatile memory units.

2. The SSD multi-card adapter of claim 1, wherein:

the one or more mixed-format solid state drive connectors include one or more M.2 solid state drive connectors and one or more small form factor (SFF) solid state drive connectors;

the one or more mixed-format non-volatile memory units include one or more M.2 solid state drive cards and one or more SFF solid state drive cards;

each of the one or more M.2 solid state drive cards are configured to be seated in a corresponding M.2 solid state drive connector from among the one or more M.2 solid state drive connectors; and

each of the one or more SFF solid state drive cards are configured to be seated in a corresponding SFF solid state drive connector from among the one or more SFF solid state drive connectors.

3. The SSD multi-card adapter of claim 1, wherein:

the interface section includes at least one of a protocol switch, a protocol hub, or a protocol bus configured to receive information, using an enclosure-specific protocol, from the connector, and to communicate with each of the mixed-format non-volatile memory units using the enclosure-specific protocol.

4. The SSD multi-card adapter of claim 3, wherein:

the connector includes at least one of a hard disk drive connector type, a connector type used to connect one or more computer peripherals, or a connector type used to connect a device to a computer network;

the interface section includes at least one of a peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) switch, a PCIe hub, a PCIe bus, an Ethernet switch, an Infiniband switch, a Fibre Channel switch, or other communication fabric component; and

the enclosure-specific protocol includes at least one of a PCIe protocol, an Ethernet protocol, an Infiniband protocol, a Fibre Channel (FC) protocol, or other communication fabric protocol.

5. The SSD multi-card adapter of claim 1, wherein the interface section, the one or more mixed-format solid state drive connectors, and the one or more mixed-format non-volatile memory units are configured to substantially fit within a hard disk drive form factor.

6. The SSD multi-card adapter of claim 1, wherein the interface section includes a compute resource.

7. The SSD multi-card adapter of claim 6, wherein the one or more mixed-format non-volatile memory units include one or more mixed-format mixed-protocol non-volatile memory units coupled to the compute resource.

8. The SSD multi-card adapter of claim 7, wherein:

at least one of the interface section or the compute resource includes one or more volatile memory units;

the compute resource is configured to receive information, using an enclosure-specific protocol, from the connector;

the one or more volatile memory units are configured to cache at least some of the received information;

the compute resource is configured to communicate with each of the mixed-format mixed-protocol non-volatile memory units using corresponding device-specific protocols.

9. The SSD multi-card adapter of claim 8, wherein the compute resource is configured to translate between the enclosure-specific protocol and the corresponding device-specific protocols.

10. The SSD multi-card adapter of claim 8, wherein the compute resource is configured to emulate, for a host enclosure using the enclosure-specific protocol, one or more behaviors of the one or more mixed-format mixed-protocol non-volatile memory units.

11. The SSD multi-card adapter of claim 7, wherein:

the corresponding device-specific protocols include two or more selected from a peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) protocol, a serial ATA (SATA) protocol, a serial attached SCSI (SAS) protocol, or an Ethernet protocol; and

the one or more mixed-format mixed-protocol non-volatile memory units include two or more selected from a PCIe solid state drive unit, a SATA solid state drive unit, or a SAS solid state drive unit.

12. The SSD multi-card adapter of claim 11, wherein the compute resource is configured to present a selected subset from among the one or more mixed-format mixed-protocol non-volatile memory units as a single virtualized device accessible to a host enclosure via the enclosure-specific protocol.

13. The SSD multi-card adapter of claim 11, wherein the compute resource is configured to present all of the one or more mixed-format mixed-protocol non-volatile memory units as a single virtualized device accessible to a host enclosure via the enclosure-specific protocol.

14. The SSD multi-card adapter of claim 7, wherein the compute resource is configured to perform at least one of data encryption, data protection, data compression, or data deduplication on data stored on the one or more mixed-format mixed-protocol non-volatile memory units.

15. The SSD multi-card adapter of claim 1, wherein the interface section is configured to aggregate management information.

16. The SSD multi-card adapter of claim 15, further comprising one or more thermal sensors, wherein:

the management information includes thermal data from the one or more thermal sensors; and

the interface section is configured to communicate the thermal data from the one or more thermal sensors to a host enclosure.

17. The SSD multi-card adapter of claim 15, wherein the interface section is configured to communicate the management information in-band via the connector.

18. The SSD multi-card adapter of claim 15, further comprising a management connector separate from the connector, wherein the interface section is configured to communicate the management information out-of-band via the management connector.

19. A computer server system, comprising:

one or more solid state drive (SSD) multi-card adapters configured to be seated within one or more corresponding hard disk drive form factor bays of an enclosure, at least one of the SSD adapters including;

a connector capable of supporting a storage communication protocol;

an interface section coupled to the connector; and

one or more mixed-format solid state drive connectors coupled to the interface section, and configured to receive one or more mixed-format non-volatile memory units.

20. The computer server system of claim 19, wherein:

the interface section includes at least one of a protocol switch, a protocol hub, or a protocol bus configured to receive information from the enclosure via the connector using a protocol that is specific to the enclosure, and to communicate with each of the mixed-format non-volatile memory units using the enclosure-specific protocol.

21. The computer server system of claim 19, wherein:

the interface section includes a compute resource;

the one or more mixed-format non-volatile memory units include one or more mixed-format mixed-protocol non-volatile memory units coupled to the compute resource; and

the interface section includes one or more volatile memory units.

22. The computer server system of claim 21, wherein:

the compute resource is configured to receive information, using an enclosure-specific protocol that is specific to the enclosure, from the connector;

the one or more volatile memory units are configured to cache at least some of the received information; and

the compute resource is configured to communicate with each of the mixed-format mixed-protocol non-volatile memory units using corresponding device-specific protocols.

23. The computer server system of claim 22, wherein the compute resource is configured to:

translate between the enclosure-specific protocol and the corresponding device-specific protocols;

emulate, for the host enclosure using the enclosure-specific protocol, one or more behaviors of the one or more mixed-format mixed-protocol non-volatile memory units; and

perform at least one of data encryption, data protection, data compression, or data deduplication on data stored on the one or more mixed-format mixed-protocol non-volatile memory units.

24. A computer-implemented method for managing data, the method comprising:

receiving, by a solid state drive (SSD) multi-card adapter, information from a host enclosure using an enclosure-specific protocol;

communicating, by an interface section of the SSD multi-card adapter, with one or more mixed-format non-volatile memory units of the SSD multi-card adapter.

25. The computer-implemented method for managing data of claim 24, wherein the interface section includes a compute resource and one or more volatile memory units, and wherein the one or more mixed-format non-volatile memory units include one or more mixed-format mixed-protocol non-volatile memory units coupled to the compute resource, the method further comprising:

receiving information from the host enclosure, by the compute resource, using an enclosure-specific protocol;

caching, by the one or more volatile memory units, at least some of the received information; and

communicating, by the compute resource, with each of the mixed-format mixed-protocol non-volatile memory units using corresponding device-specific protocols.

26. The computer-implemented method for managing data of claim 25, further comprising:

translating, by the compute resource, between the enclosure-specific protocol and the corresponding device-specific protocols; and

emulating, by the compute resource, for the host enclosure using the enclosure-specific protocol, one or more behaviors of the one or more mixed-format mixed-protocol non-volatile memory units.

27. The computer-implemented method for managing data of claim 25, further comprising:

presenting a selected subset of the one or more mixed-format mixed-protocol non-volatile memory units as a single virtualized device accessible to the host enclosure via the enclosure-specific protocol; and

performing at least one of data encryption, data protection, data compression, or data deduplication on data stored on the one or more mixed-format mixed-protocol non-volatile memory units.

28. The computer-implemented method for managing data of claim 25, wherein the SSD multi-card adapter includes one or more thermal sensors, the method further comprising:

aggregating, by the compute resource, management information including thermal data from the one or more thermal sensors;

communicating, by the compute resource, the thermal data from the one or more thermal sensors to the host enclosure.