Solid state drive multi-card adapter with integrated processing

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11775224-B2
Application number	US-202016986231-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 5, 2020
Priority date	Mar 2, 2015
Publication date	Oct 3, 2023
Grant date	Oct 3, 2023

Abstract

Embodiments of the inventive concept include solid state drive (SSD) multi-card adapters that can include multiple solid state drive cards, which can be incorporated into existing enterprise servers without major architectural changes, thereby enabling the server industry ecosystem to easily integrate evolving solid state drive technologies into servers. The SSD multi-card adapters can include an interface section between various solid state drive cards and drive connector types. The interface section can perform protocol translation, packet switching and routing, data encryption, data compression, management information aggregation, virtualization, and other functions.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system comprising:
a first device connector and a second storage device connector, different from the first device connector, the first device connector being configured to communicate with a first device via a first protocol and the second storage device connector being configured to communicate with a second storage device via a second protocol; and
a compute resource including a field programmable gate array (FPGA) configured to perform a first operation including data protection, and wherein the FPGA is further configured to be reconfigured, and to perform a second reconfigured operation including data deduplication on data stored on at least one of a first non-volatile memory unit or a second non-volatile memory unit, wherein the FPGA of the compute resource is configured to perform the first operation including the data protection at a first period, and configured to perform the second reconfigured operation different from the first operation including the data deduplication at a second period, and wherein the compute resource is configured to present a selected subset of the first device and the second storage device as a single virtualized device.

2. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a management element configured to aggregate management information and provide the management information, wherein the compute resource is configured to translate between the first protocol and the second protocol, wherein:
the FPGA of the compute resource is configured to perform a third reconfigured operation different from the first operation and the second operation; and
the third reconfigured operation includes data encryption on the data stored on the at least one of the first non-volatile memory unit or the second non-volatile memory unit.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the compute resource is configured to emulate, for a host enclosure using the first protocol, one or more behaviors of the at least one of the first non-volatile memory unit or the second non-volatile memory unit.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein:
the first device is at least one of a second compute resource or a storage device;
the first device connector and the second storage device connector include one or more M.2 solid state drive connectors and one or more small form factor (SFF) solid state drive connectors;
the first and second non-volatile memory units include one or more M.2 solid state drive cards and one or more SFF solid state drive cards;
each of the one or more M.2 solid state drive cards are configured to be seated in a corresponding M.2 solid state drive connector from among the one or more M.2 solid state drive connectors; and
each of the one or more SFF solid state drive cards are configured to be seated in a corresponding SFF solid state drive connector from among the one or more SFF solid state drive connectors.

5. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a management element configured to aggregate management information and provide the management information, wherein the management element includes at least one of a protocol switch or a protocol hub configured to receive the management information, using the first protocol, from the first device connector, and to communicate with the first non-volatile memory unit and the second non-volatile memory unit using the first protocol.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein:
the first device connector includes at least one of a hard disk drive connector type, a connector type used to connect one or more computer peripherals, or a connector type used to connect a device to a computer network;
the management element includes at least one of a peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) switch, a PCIe hub, an Ethernet switch, an Infiniband switch, a Fibre Channel switch, or other communication fabric component; and
the first protocol includes at least one of a PCIe protocol, an Ethernet protocol, an Infiniband protocol, a Fibre Channel (FC) protocol, or other communication fabric protocol.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein:
the first device connector and the second storage device connector include a plurality of mixed-format solid state drive connectors; and
the first non-volatile memory unit and the second non-volatile memory unit include a plurality of mixed-format mixed-protocol non-volatile memory units.

8. The system of claim 7 , further comprising a management element configured to aggregate management information and provide the management information, wherein the management element, the plurality of mixed-format solid state drive connectors, and the plurality of mixed-format mixed-protocol non-volatile memory units are configured to substantially fit within a hard disk drive form factor.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein:
the second protocol includes two or more selected from a peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) protocol, a serial ATA (SATA) protocol, a serial attached SCSI (SAS) protocol, or an Ethernet protocol; and
the first non-volatile memory unit and the second non-volatile memory unit include two or more selected from a PCIe solid state drive unit, a SATA solid state drive unit, or a SAS solid state drive unit.

10. The system of claim 2 , wherein the data encryption, the data protection, and the data deduplication are performed by the compute resource independent from the management element.

11. The system of claim 2 , wherein:
the FPGA of the compute resource is configured to perform a fourth reconfigured operation different from the first operation, the second operation, and the third operation; and
the fourth reconfigured operation includes data compression on the data stored on the at least one of the first non-volatile memory unit or the second non-volatile memory unit.

12. The system of claim 1 , wherein:
the FPGA of the compute resource is configured to perform a third reconfigured operation different from the second operation; and
the third reconfigured operation includes the data protection on the data stored on the at least one of the first non-volatile memory unit or the second non-volatile memory unit.

13. A computer server system, comprising:
a connector capable of supporting a storage communication protocol;
a compute resource; and
one or more solid state drive connectors configured to receive a corresponding one or more non-volatile memory units,
wherein the compute resource is configured to:
receive information, using a protocol that is specific to an enclosure, from the connector; and
communicate with the one or more non-volatile memory units using corresponding device-specific protocols;
wherein device-specific protocols include at least one of a PCIe protocol, an Ethernet protocol, an Infiniband protocol, a Fibre Channel (FC) protocol, or other communication fabric protocol, wherein the system further includes:
a management connector separate from the connector; and
a management element coupled to the connector, wherein:
the one or more solid state drive connectors are coupled to the management element; and
the management element is configured to communicate management information via the management connector.

14. The computer server system of claim 13 , further comprising at least one of a peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) switch, a PCIe hub, an Ethernet switch, an Infiniband switch, a Fibre Channel switch, or other communication fabric component, wherein the compute resource is configured to perform at least one of data encryption, data protection, data compression, or data deduplication on data stored on the one or more non-volatile memory units.

Assignees

• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• WORLEY Fred
• Rogers Harry
• Marripudi Gunneswara
• Ping Zhan
• Sinha Vikas

Classifications

• G06F3/0661 Primary

  Format or protocol conversion arrangements · CPC title

• G06F3/0613

  in relation to throughput · CPC title

• G06F3/0629

  Configuration or reconfiguration of storage systems · CPC title

• G06F3/0632

  by initialisation or re-initialisation of storage systems · CPC title

• G06F3/0658

  Controller construction arrangements · CPC title