Peripheral storage card with offset slot alignment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10660228-B2
Application number	US-201816054212-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 3, 2018
Priority date	Aug 3, 2018
Publication date	May 19, 2020
Grant date	May 19, 2020

Abstract

A storage card insertable into a host system is provided that includes a plurality of storage devices connectors. The storage card include slot offset features to offset a circuit board of the storage card from a host system slot alignment. This offset provides for storage device connector placement on both sides of the storage card. The storage card also can include a Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) switch circuit configured to communicatively couple the PCIe signaling of the plurality of storage device connectors and PCIe signaling of a host connector of the storage card, where the PCIe switch circuit is configured to receive storage operations over the PCIe signaling of the host connector of the storage card and transfer the storage operations for delivery over the PCIe signaling of selected ones of the plurality of storage device connectors.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer peripheral device, comprising:
a slot offset element configured to establish an offset for at least a primary circuit card of the computer peripheral device with respect to a slot connector of a host system to generally align the primary circuit card with a centerline of a slot cover opening of a chassis of the host system when the computer peripheral device is installed into the slot connector;
the primary circuit card comprising at least a first storage device connector on a first side, and at least a second storage device connector on a second side; and
a secondary circuit card comprising an edge connector insertable into the slot connector of the host system and configured to carry host signaling for the computer peripheral device;
wherein the offset established by the slot offset element accommodates within a slot width a stackup comprising storage devices installed into at least the first storage device connector on the first side and the second storage device connector on the second side.

2. The computer peripheral device of claim 1 , wherein when the computer peripheral device is inserted into the slot connector, the primary circuit card is not aligned with the slot connector due at least in part to the offset established by the slot offset element, and the secondary circuit card is aligned with the slot connector.

3. The computer peripheral device of claim 1 , further comprising:
a coupling element configured to communicatively couple the host signaling to the primary circuit card from the secondary circuit card, wherein the coupling element comprises at least one of a flexible circuit element and a rigid circuit board element.

4. The computer peripheral device of claim 3 , wherein the coupling element comprises a primary connector on the primary circuit card configured to couple to a secondary connector on the secondary circuit card.

5. The computer peripheral device of claim 1 , wherein the computer peripheral device comprises a half-height, half-length (HHHL) expansion card, and wherein the host signaling comprises Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) signaling.

6. The computer peripheral device of claim 1 , further comprising:
holdup circuitry configured to:
detect power loss to the computer peripheral device;
provide power to at least associated storage devices mated with the first storage device connector and the second storage device connector; and
initiate commits of in-flight data directed to the associated storage devices.

7. The computer peripheral device of claim 1 , the first circuit card comprising:
a connector disposed on the first side for coupling to the second circuit card;
holdup circuit disposed on the first side configured to provide power to elements of the computer peripheral device; and
a Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) switch circuit disposed on the first side and configured to interwork signaling among the connector and at least the first storage device connector and the second storage device connector.

8. The computer peripheral device of claim 1 , wherein the first storage device connector and the second storage device connector each comprise an M.2 device connector or a SFF-TA-1002 device connector.

9. The computer peripheral device of claim 1 , the primary circuit card comprising at least a first M.2 storage device connected via the first storage device connector on the first side, and at least a second M.2 storage device connected via the second storage device connector on the second side.

10. A Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) data storage card, comprising:
a primary assembly comprising a first circuit board, at least a first storage device connector disposed on a front side of the first circuit board, and at least a second storage device connector disposed on a back side of the first circuit board;
a secondary assembly comprising a second circuit board having an edge connector insertable into a slot connector of a host system; and
wherein the primary assembly is offset from the second assembly by at least an offset distance to generally align the first circuit board of the primary assembly with a centerline of a slot cover opening of a chassis of the host system and is established to accommodate a stackup of at least the primary assembly, the first storage device connector, and the second storage device connector within a peripheral slot width of a host system when the PCIe data storage card is installed into the slot connector of the host system.

11. The PCIe data storage card of claim 10 , further comprising:
a PCIe switch circuit configured to receive storage operations over a PCIe host interface corresponding to the slot connector of the host system and transfer the storage operations for delivery over device PCIe interfaces to solid state storage devices mated with the first storage device connector and the second storage device connector.

12. The PCIe data storage card of claim 10 , wherein the offset accommodates within the peripheral slot width a stackup of the PCIe data storage card comprising storage devices installed into at least the first storage device connector on the first side and the second storage device connector on the second side.

13. The PCIe data storage card of claim 10 , further comprising:
a coupling element configured to communicatively couple host signaling of the slot connector of the host system to the first circuit board from the second circuit board, wherein the coupling element comprises at least one of a flexible circuit element and a rigid circuit board element.

14. The PCIe data storage card of claim 13 , wherein the coupling element comprises a first connector on the first circuit board configured to couple to a second connector on the second circuit board.

15. The PCIe data storage card of claim 10 , wherein the PCIe data storage card comprises a half-height, half-length (HHHL) expansion card.

16. The PCIe data storage card of claim 10 , further comprising:
holdup circuitry configured to:
detect power loss to the PCIe data storage card;
provide power to at least associated storage devices mated with the first storage device connector and the second storage device connector; and
initiate commits of in-flight data directed to the associated storage devices.

17. The PCIe data storage card of claim 10 , the primary assembly comprising:
a connector disposed on the front side for coupling to the secondary assembly;
holdup circuit disposed on the front side configured to provide power to elements of the PCIe data storage card; and
a PCIe switch circuit disposed on the front side and configured to interwork signaling among the connector and at least the first storage device connector and the second storage device connector.

18. The PCIe data storage card of claim 10 , wherein the first storage device connector and the second storage device connector each comprise an M.2 device connector or a SFF-TA-1002 device connector.

19. A storage apparatus, comprising:
a primary circuit card having a front side and a back side;
at least four M.2 storage devices comprising two M.2 storage devices positioned on the front side of the primary circuit card and two back side M.2 storage devices positioned on the back side of the primary circuit card, each of the at least four M.2 storage devices comprising an associated device Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) interface and solid state storage media, and configured to store and retrieve data responsive to sto

Assignees

• Liqid Inc

Inventors

• Schramm Bryan
• Heyd Andrew Rudolph
• Rust Brenden Michael
• Long Christopher R
• Puri Sumit

Classifications

• G06F1/186

  Securing of expansion boards in correspondence to slots provided at the computer enclosure · CPC title

• G06F1/185

  Mounting of expansion boards · CPC title

• G06F2213/0026

  PCI express · CPC title

• H05K7/142 Primary

  Spacers not being card guides · CPC title

• H05K7/1407 Primary

  by turn-bolt or screw member · CPC title