Modular carrier form factors for computing platforms

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10922260-B2
Application number	US-201715727228-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 6, 2017
Priority date	Oct 7, 2016
Publication date	Feb 16, 2021
Grant date	Feb 16, 2021

Abstract

Systems, methods, and software are disclosed herein having enhanced modular carrier form factors. In an implementation, a network card apparatus comprises a network card assembly. The network card assembly comprises a network interface card and a connector card coupled to the network interface card and comprising a U.2 connector configured to mate with a U.2 connector of the modular bay of the rackmount chassis assembly.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A storage card apparatus comprising:
a carrier insertable into a modular bay of a 2U rackmount chassis assembly; and
a storage card assembly coupled to the carrier and comprising:
a storage card connector configured to mate with a connector of the modular bay of the rackmount chassis assembly;
at least four M.2 storage devices, wherein each M.2 storage device comprises a Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) interface and solid-state storage media and wherein each M.2 storage device is configured to store and retrieve data responsive to storage operations received over the PCIe interface;
a first circuit board having three of the M.2 storage devices coupled to associated M.2 connectors mounted thereto; and
a second circuit board having at least one of the M.2 storage devices coupled to an associated M.2 connector mounted thereto;
the second circuit board having the storage card connector, PCIe switch circuitry, and holdup circuitry coupled thereto configured to provide power to elements of the storage card assembly after removal of power from the storage card connector;
at least one connector coupling the first circuit board to the second circuit board; and
the PCIe switch circuit communicatively coupled to each PCIe interface of the at least four M.2 storage devices and configured to receive the storage operations issued by a host system over the storage card connector and transfer the storage operations for delivery to selected ones of the at least four M.2 storage devices via associated PCIe interfaces of the selected ones of the at least four M.2 storage devices.

2. The storage card apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the at least four M.2 storage device each comprise 110 millimeter M.2 storage devices.

3. The storage card apparatus of claim 1 , comprising:
an auxiliary interface separate from the storage card connector configured to carry sideband signaling for a processor of the storage card apparatus.

4. The storage card apparatus, of claim 1 , wherein the storage card connector comprises a U.2 connector.

Assignees

• Liqid Inc

Inventors

• Heyd Andrew Rudolph
• Rust Brenden Michael
• Breakstone Jason
• Puri Sumit
• Schramm Bryan

Classifications

• H04L12/40013 Primary

  Details regarding a bus controller · CPC title

• H04L12/00

  Data switching networks (interconnection of, or transfer of information or other signals between, memories, input/output devices or central processing units G06F13/00) · CPC title

• H05K7/14

  Mounting supporting structure in casing or on frame or rack · CPC title

• G06F13/00

  Interconnection of, or transfer of information or other signals between, memories, input/output devices or central processing units (interface circuits for specific input/output devices G06F3/00 {; multiprogram control therefor  G06F9/46}; multiprocessor systems  G06F15/16 ) · CPC title

• G06F13/4282

  on a serial bus, e.g. I2C bus, SPI bus (on daisy chain buses G06F13/4247) · CPC title