Apparatus And Method For Using Distributed Servers As Mainframe Class Computers

• US 20110119344A1
• Filed: 11/17/2009
• Published: 05/19/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/17/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Susan Eustis
• Original Assignee: Susan Eustis
• Inventors: Eustis, Susan
• Application Number:
  US12/620,579
• Publication Number:
  US 20110119344A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/213
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5016 the resource being the memory
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

The invention consists of a switch or bank of switches that give hundreds or thousands of servers the ability to share memory efficiently. It supports improving distributed server utilization from 10% on average to 100%. The invention consists of connecting distributed servers via a cross point switch to a back plane shared random access (RAM) memory thereby achieving a mainframe class computer. The distributed servers may be Windows PCs or Linux standalone computers. They may be clustered or virtualized. This use of cross point switches provides shared memory across servers, improving performance.

Claims

1. An invention that makes it possible for distributed servers to be able to share memory efficiently. The invention seeks to facilitate processing of information at full 100% utilization of each server processor instead of the 10% server processor utilization that is common in the IT industry now, creating a Microsoft OS mainframe class computer able to handle shared workload more effectively. The invention thereby changes distributed servers into a mainframe class-computing environment. It thereby makes it possible to decrease the number of servers needed by a factor of ten, saving server purchasing costs, electricity operating costs, software costs, and labor costs. A further advantage of the invention is that it supports green initiatives as data centers account for 27% of the world'"'"'s electricity usage, potentially reducing that to a smaller proportion of overall worldwide energy usage.

An apparatus consisting of random access memory on a PC board or boards interconnected to multiple discrete servers to achieve shared memory across servers and server configurations. The servers may be standalone, in a functional cluster or clusters, they may be virtualized, they may be implemented as racks of servers or as blade chasses, but what distinguishes them is that they are distributed servers, not mainframe servers.

1. An apparatus of claim 1 of with connection of servers to shared memory on a backplane.

2. An apparatus of claim 1 of with interconnection of servers to shared memory occurring via crosspoint switches, optical signal transports, a dynamic memory management processor, backplane transceivers, a memory backplane, and optical connects.

3. An apparatus of claim 2 consisting of optical and digital signal transports to interconnect discrete servers to shared memory.

4. An apparatus of claim 2 consisting of optical to digital signal conversion and digital to optical signal conversion for interconnection to discrete servers to shared memory.

5. An apparatus of claim 3 consisting of interconnection of a large shared memory backplane to a containerized server farm. A backplane is defined in the broadest sense possible, simply a board with a lot of IC components on it.

6. An apparatus of claim 1 consisting of servers using shared memory to achieve mainframe class data processing from standard server units running Microsoft .NET 40 programming environments.

7. An apparatus of claim 1 consisting of servers using shared memory to achieve mainframe class data processing to bring Microsoft operating system environments to mainframe class computing units.

8. An apparatus of claim 1 consisting of servers using shared memory to achieve mainframe class data processing to bring Microsoft Office applications environments to mainframe class computing units.

9. An apparatus of claim 1 consisting of servers using shared memory to achieve mainframe class data processing to bring competitors of Microsoft operating systems and applications environments to mainframe class computing units.

10. An apparatus of claim 1 of switching devices connected to discrete distributed servers, racks, blades, or blade server chassis to facilitate memory sharing between multiple distributed data processors that act as information a way to leverage efficient use of processor capacity in a data center.

11. An apparatus of claim 1 of switching devices connected to discrete distributed servers preconfigured in a truck container and offloaded to a datacenter with the shared memory part of the pre-configuration process processor capacity in a data center.

12. A method of connecting discrete distributed servers preconfigured in a truck container and used in a datacenter with the method of connecting shared memory part of the server pre-configuration process.

13. An apparatus of claim 1 connecting discrete distributed servers preconfigured in a truck container where the memory backplane is mounted on one side of the truck, and used in a datacenter.

14. An apparatus of claim 1 that uses the crosspoint switches and specialized processors on a printed circuit board to differentiate shared application processor memory from cache.

15. An apparatus of claim 1 using a crosspoint switch permitting memory to receive an information stream from a server;

perform server processing using backplane memory in combination with the regular internal server memory, wherein the switches permit the most efficient use of the backplane information resources.

16. An apparatus of claim 1 consisting of switching devices connected to a memory management server used for dynamically routing information streams as needed.

17. An apparatus of claim 1 consisting of switching devices connected to a shared memory management server and shared memory used memory management server used for dynamically routing information streams as needed to special security servers.

18. An apparatus of claim 1 consisting of switching devices connected to a shared memory management server and shared memory used for dynamically routing information streams as needed to special database query servers optimized to manage database queries efficiently.

19. An apparatus of claim 1 consisting of switching devices connected to a shared memory via linear data transport lines.

20. An apparatus of claim 1 consisting of switching devices connected to a shared memory via nonlinear data transport lines.

21. The apparatus of claim 1, including a processor that determines shared backplane memory allocation as optimized for particular situations

22. An apparatus of claim 1 consisting of A RAM memory backplane failover system implemented by a bank of crosspoint switches connected on a line to a server processing motherboard and a bank of backplane RAM memory.