Scalable internet engine

• US 6,452,809 B1
• Filed: 11/10/2000
• Issued: 09/17/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 11/10/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: RPX Corporation
• Original Assignee: Galactic Computing Corp.
• Inventors: Smith, Philip S., Chen, Steve S., Jackson, Russell A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Gandhi, Jayprakash N.
• Application Number:
  US09/709,820
• Time in Patent Office: 676 Days
• Field of Search: 361/728, 361/729, 361/724-727, 361/752, 361/753, 361/756, 361/759, 361/796, 361/797, 361/801, 361/683, 361/730, 439/61, 439/62, 312/223.2, 312/223.3, 211/41.17
• US Class Current: 361/796
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/16 Constructional details or arrangements

Abstract

A scalable Internet engine is comprised of a large number of commercially available server boards each arranged as an engine blade in a power and space efficient cabinet. The engine blades are removably positioned in a front side of the cabinet in a vertical orientation. A through plane in the middle of a chassis assembly within the cabinet provides common power and control peripheral signals to all engine blades. I/O signals for each engine blade are routed through apertures in the through plane to interface cards positioned in the rear of the cabinet. The scalable engine can accommodate different types of server boards in the same chassis assembly because of a common blade carrier structure. Different types of commercially available motherboards are mounted in the common blade carrier structure that provides a uniform mechanical interface to the chassis assembly. A specially designed PCI host board that can plug into various types of motherboards has a first connector for connecting to the through plane and second connector for connecting to the interface cards. Redundant hot-swappable high-efficiency power supplies are connected to the common power signals on the through plane. The host board includes circuitry that distributes the power signals to the server board for that engine blade by emulating the ATX power management protocol. Replaceable fan trays are mounted below the engine blades to cool the engine. Preferably, the cabinet accommodates multiple rows of engine blades each in a sub-chassis that are stacked on top of each other, as well as rack mounted networks switches and disk drives.

Claims

1. A scalable Internet engine comprising:

a cabinet having a front side and a rear side; and

a plurality of engine blades housed in the cabinet, each engine blade including a motherboard removably positioned in the front side of the cabinet with a planar surface of the motherboard in a generally vertical orientation and having a first connector and a second connector operably positioned along a rear edge of the engine blade;

a through plane mounted in the cabinet between the front side and the rear side, the through plane including;

a plurality of through plane connectors each adapted for mating with the first connector of one of the plurality of engine blades; and

p2 a plurality of apertures each defined in the through plane corresponding to one of the through plane connectors and through which the second connector for the corresponding one of the plurality of engine blades is accessible; and

a plurality of interface cards housed in the cabinet, each interface card removably positioned in the rear side of the cabinet with a planar surface of the interface card in a generally vertical orientation and having a interface card connector adapted for mating with at least a portion of the second connector of one of the plurality of engine blades via a corresponding one of the plurality of apertures in the through plane.

2. The engine of claim 1 wherein the first connector includes connections for power and control peripheral signals common to each of the plurality of engine blades on the through plane and the second connector includes connections for I/O signals to the corresponding interface card for that engine blade.

3. The engine of claim 2 further comprising a plurality of hot swappable power supplies removably positioned in the cabinet and operably connected to the connections for power on the through plane.

4. The engine of claim 3 wherein the motherboard is a commercially available ATX motherboard that includes a PCI connector and wherein each engine blade further comprises a host board operably connected to the PCI slot and oriented with a planar surface generally parallel to the planar surface of the motherboard, the host board having the first connector and the second connector on a rear edge of the host board and management circuitry that emulates an ATX power management protocol to supply power to the motherboard.

5. The engine of claim 1 further comprising a passive I/O backplane interposed between the second connector and the interface card on a rear side of the through plane.

6. The engine of claim 1 wherein the motherboard is a commercially available mother board that includes a PCI connector and wherein each engine blade further comprises a host board operably connected to the PCI slot, the host board having the first connector and the second connector on a rear edge of the host board.

7. The engine of claim 1 wherein each motherboard is mounted in a common blade carrier structure that provides a uniform mechanical interface to the cabinet such that the scalable server engine can accommodate different types of motherboards in the same cabinet.

8. The engine of claim 1 further comprising a plurality of fan trays removably mounted below the engine blades in the cabinet to cool the server engine, each fan tray including a plurality of fans therein.

9. The engine of claim 1 comprising at least four engine blades wherein the engine blades are housed in at least one chassis assembly mounted within the cabinet and wherein the engine blades are arranged in a plurality sub-chassis within each chassis assembly, each sub-chassis housing a plurality of engine blades arranged in a row.

10. A scalable computing engine comprising:

a chassis having a front side and a rear side;

a plurality of engine blades housed in the chassis, each engine blade including a motherboard mounted in a common blade carrier structure that provides a uniform mechanical interface to the chassis wherein the blade carrier structure is removably positioned in the front side of the chassis and having connectors operably positioned along a rear edge of the engine blade, the plurality of engine blades including;

a first engine blade has a first type of motherboard with a first type of processor; and

a second engine blade has a second type of motherboard with a second type of processor that is different than the first type of motherboard and first type of processor; and

a plurality of interface cards housed in the chassis, each interface card removably positioned in the rear side of the chassis and having a interface card connector adapted for mating with at least a portion of the connectors of one of the plurality of engine blades,

whereby the scalable computing engine can accommodate different types of motherboards in the same chassis.

11. The engine of claim 10 wherein the engine blades are positioned within the chassis with a planar surface of the motherboards in a generally vertical orientation and wherein the interface cards are positioned within the chassis with a planar surface of the interface cards in a generally vertical orientation.

12. The engine of claim 10 wherein each type of motherboard is a commercially available motherboard that includes a PCI connector and wherein each engine blade further comprises a host board operably connected to the PCI connector and oriented with a planar surface generally parallel to the planar surface of the motherboard, the host board providing the connectors on a rear edge of the host board.

13. A scalable engine system comprising:

a plurality of chassis, each chassis having a front side and a rear side;

a plurality of engine blades housed in each chassis, each engine blade including a motherboard mounted in a common blade carrier structure that provides a uniform mechanical interface to the chassis wherein the blade carrier structure is removably positioned in the front side of the chassis and includes connectors operably positioned along a rear edge of the engine blade;

a plurality of interface cards housed in the chassis, each interface card removably positioned in the rear side of the chassis and having a interface card connector adapted for mating with at least a portion of the connectors of one of the plurality of engine blades;

a midplane mounted in each chassis between the front side and the rear side and including a connector for each of the plurality of engine blades in that chassis adapted for mating with at least a portion of the connectors of that engine blade to provide connections for control peripheral signals common to each of the plurality of engine blades on the midplane; and

at least one signal path connecting the control peripheral signals between each of the plurality of chassis.

14. The server engine system of claim 13 further comprising a control console wherein one of the engine blades in one of the chassis is a management engine blade that manages the control peripheral signals to all of the other engine blades and selective connection of at least a portion of the control peripheral signals to the control console.

15. The server engine system of claim 13 wherein the midplane is a through plane including a plurality of apertures each defined in the through plane corresponding to one of the connectors for one of the plurality of engine blades and through which the portion of the connectors for the one of the plurality of engine blades that mate with the interface card is accessible.