Multi-protocol IO infrastructure for a flexible storage platform

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11003609-B2
Application number	US-202016994405-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 14, 2020
Priority date	May 8, 2015
Publication date	May 11, 2021
Grant date	May 11, 2021

Abstract

A flexible storage system. A storage motherboard accommodates, on a suitable connector, a storage adapter circuit that provides protocol translation between a host bus interface and a storage interface, and that provides routing, to accommodate a plurality of mass storage devices that may be connected to the storage adapter circuit through the storage motherboard. The storage adapter circuit may be replaced with a circuit supporting a different host interface or a different storage interface.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system, comprising:
a storage board, comprising:
a first storage interface connector for mechanically connecting to a first storage device; and
a second storage interface connector for mechanically connecting to a second storage device;

a first storage circuit in communication with the storage board, the first storage circuit configured to support a first storage interface for communicating with the first storage device; and
a second storage circuit in communication with the storage board, the second storage circuit configured to support a second storage interface for communicating with the second storage device, the first storage interface of the first storage circuit being different from the second storage interface of the second storage circuit,
wherein the first storage interface connector comprises a multi-protocol connector that is different from the second storage interface connector.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first storage interface comprises at least one of a Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) interface or a Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) interface, and the second storage interface comprises a Non Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) interface.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first storage device is compatible with the first storage interface, and the first storage interface connector is configured to mechanically connect to a third storage device compatible with a third storage interface different from the first storage interface.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein the first storage interface connector is connected to the third storage device in response to the first storage device being physically removed from the first storage interface connector and replaced with the third storage device.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the first storage interface is a SATA interface and the third storage interface is a SAS interface.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the multi-protocol connector is compatible with at least two from among SATA, SAS, or NVMe over Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe).

7. A system, comprising:
a storage board, comprising:
a first storage interface connector for connecting to a first storage device; and
a second storage interface connector for connecting to a second storage device;

a first storage circuit in communication with the storage board, the first storage circuit configured to support a first storage interface for communicating with the first storage device; and
a second storage circuit in communication with the storage board, the second storage circuit configured to support a second storage interface for communicating with the second storage device, the first storage interface of the first storage circuit being different from the second storage interface of the second storage circuit,
wherein at least one of the first storage interface connector or the second storage interface connector is a multi-protocol connector configured to support at least two different storage interfaces, and
wherein the multi-protocol connector is configured to support a 2-lane protocol and a 4-lane protocol.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the multi-protocol connector is configured to use the 2-lane protocol or the 4-lane protocol according to a number of pins used by a storage device connected to the multi-protocol connector.

9. A system, comprising:
a storage board, comprising:
a first storage interface connector for mechanically connecting to a first storage device; and
a second storage interface connector for mechanically connecting to a second storage device; and

at least one storage circuit in communication with the storage board, the at least one storage circuit configured to support a first storage interface for communicating with the first storage device, and a second storage interface for communicating with the second storage device,
wherein the first storage interface is different from the second storage interface, and
wherein the first storage interface connector comprises a multi-protocol connector that is different from the second storage interface connector.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the first storage interface connector is configured to use a 2-lane storage interface, and the second storage interface connector is configured to use a 4-lane storage interface.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the first storage interface comprises at least one of a Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) interface or a Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) interface, and the second storage interface comprises a Non Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) interface.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the first storage interface is compatible with SATA and SAS.

13. The system of claim 9 , wherein the at least one storage circuit comprises a storage controller configured to detect a third storage interface compatible with a third storage device connected to the multi-protocol connector, and to reconfigure the at least one storage circuit to support the third storage interface in response to the third storage device being connected to the multi-protocol connector,
wherein the third storage interface is different from at least one of the first storage interface or the second storage interface.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the storage controller is configured to detect the third storage device connected to the multi-protocol connector in response to the first storage device being physically removed from the multi-protocol connector and replaced with the third storage device.

15. The system of claim 9 , wherein the multi-protocol connector is configured to support a 2-lane protocol and a 4-lane protocol.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the multi-protocol connector is configured to use the 2-lane protocol or the 4-lane protocol according to a number of pins used by a storage device connected to the multi-protocol connector.

17. The system of claim 16 , wherein the multi-protocol connector is compatible with at least two from among SATA, SAS, or NVMe over Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe).

Assignees

• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• WORLEY Fred
• Rogers Harry
• Krishnan Sreenivas
• Ping Zhan
• Scriber Michael

Classifications

• G06F2213/0032

  Serial ATA [SATA] · CPC title

• G06F2213/0028

  Serial attached SCSI [SAS] · CPC title

• G06F2213/0026

  PCI express · CPC title

• G06F13/4063

  Device-to-bus coupling · CPC title

• G06F13/387 Primary

  for adaptation of different data processing systems to different peripheral devices, e.g. protocol converters for incompatible systems, open system · CPC title