Hard disk drive form factor solid state drive multi-card adapter

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016259754-A1
Application number	US-201514918556-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Oct 20, 2015
Priority date	Mar 2, 2015
Publication date	Sep 8, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Embodiments of the inventive concept include 2.5 inch hard disk drive form factor solid state drive multi-card adapters that can include multiple M.2 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 M.2 solid state drive technology into servers. Multiple M.2 solid state drive cards and a peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) switch can be included within a 2.5 inch hard disk drive form factor solid state drive multi-card adapter. The solid state drive multi-card adapters can be attached to or seated within drive bays of a computer server that supports non-volatile memory express (NVMe) 2.5 inch drives without any changes to the server architecture, thereby providing a straight-forward upgrade path.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A hard disk drive form factor solid state drive multi-card adapter, comprising:
a hard disk drive form factor connector; an interface section electrically coupled to the hard disk drive form factor connector; and one or more solid state drive connectors electrically coupled to the interface section, and configured to receive one or more solid state drive cards.

2 . The hard disk drive form factor solid state drive multi-card adapter of claim 1 , wherein:
the one or more solid state drive connectors include one or more M.2 solid state drive connectors; the one or more solid state drive cards include one or more M.2 solid state drive cards; and 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 solid state drive connectors.

3 . The hard disk drive form factor solid state drive multi-card adapter of claim 1 , wherein each of the one or more solid state drive cards includes one or more solid state drive chips configured to communicate via the interface section and the hard disk drive form factor connector.

4 . The hard disk drive form factor solid state drive multi-card adapter of claim 1 , further comprising:
a first solid state drive connector, from among the one or more solid state drive connectors; and a second solid state drive connector, from among the one or more solid state drive connectors.

5 . The hard disk drive form factor solid state drive multi-card adapter of claim 4 , further comprising:
a first solid state drive card, from among the one or more solid state drive cards, seated in the first solid state drive connector; and a second solid state drive card, from among the one or more solid state drive cards, seated in the second solid state drive connector.

6 . The hard disk drive form factor solid state drive multi-card adapter of claim 5 , wherein the interface section is electrically coupled to the first solid state drive card, and electrically coupled to the second solid state drive card.

7 . The hard disk drive form factor solid state drive multi-card adapter of claim 1 , wherein the one or more solid state drive cards include a plurality of solid state drive cards, and wherein the interface section is configured to expand an upstream port to a plurality of downstream ports, each downstream port being associated with a corresponding solid state drive card from among the plurality of solid state drive cards.

8 . The hard disk drive form factor solid state drive multi-card adapter of claim 7 , wherein:
the hard disk drive form factor connector is an SFF-8639 connector; the interface section is a peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) switch; the upstream port is a PCIe X4 upstream port; and each of the plurality of downstream ports is a PCIe X4 downstream port.

9 . The hard disk drive form factor solid state drive multi-card adapter of claim 7 , wherein the interface section, the plurality of solid state drive cards, and the one or more solid state drive connectors are configured to substantially fit within a hard disk drive form factor.

10 . A computer server system, comprising:
an enclosure including one or more hard disk drive form factor bays; and one or more hard disk drive form factor solid state drive multi-card adapters configured to be seated within the drive bays, at least one of the solid state drive multi-card adapters having one or more of solid state drive cards.

11 . The computer server system of claim 10 , wherein each of the hard disk drive form factor solid state drive multi-card adapters comprises:
a hard disk drive form factor connector; an interface section electrically coupled to the hard disk drive form factor connector; and one or more solid state drive connectors, electrically coupled to the interface section, and configured to receive the one or more of solid state drive cards.

12 . The computer server system of claim 11 , wherein:
each of the hard disk drive form factor solid state drive multi-card adapters is a 2.5 inch hard disk drive form factor solid state drive multi-card adapter; the hard disk drive form factor connector is a 2.5 inch hard disk drive form factor connector; the one or more solid state drive connectors include one or more M.2 solid state drive connectors; the one or more solid state drive cards include one or more M.2 solid state drive cards; and each of the 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.

13 . The computer server system of claim 11 , wherein each of the one or more of solid state drive cards includes one or more solid state drive chips configured to communicate via the interface section and the hard disk drive form factor connector.

14 . The computer server system of claim 11 , wherein each of the hard disk drive form factor solid state drive multi-card adapters further comprises:
a first solid state drive connector, from among the plurality of solid state drive connectors; and a second solid state drive connector, from among the plurality of solid state drive connectors.

15 . The computer server system of claim 14 , wherein each of the hard disk drive form factor solid state drive multi-card adapters further comprises:
a first solid state drive card, from among the plurality of solid state drive cards, seated in the first solid state drive connector; and a second solid state drive card, from among the plurality of solid state drive cards, seated in the second solid state drive connector.

16 . The computer server system of claim 14 , further comprising:
a motherboard including a one or more of upstream ports, wherein each of the hard disk drive form factor solid state drive multi-card adapters includes one or more downstream ports each associated with a corresponding one of the one or more solid state drive cards, and wherein the interface section of each of the hard disk drive form factor solid state drive multi-card adapters is configured to expand an upstream port from among the one or more upstream ports to the one or more downstream ports.

17 . A computer-implemented method for increasing storage capacity density in a computer server, the method comprising:
receiving, by a hard disk drive form factor solid state drive multi-card adapter, information from an upstream port associated with a motherboard of the computer server; expanding, by an interface section of the hard disk drive form factor solid state drive multi-card adapter, the upstream port into one or more of downstream ports; and associating, by the hard disk drive form factor solid state drive multi-card adapter, each of the downstream ports with a corresponding solid state drive card from among a plurality of solid state drive cards.

18 . The computer-implemented method of claim 17 , further comprising:
storing, by plurality of solid state drive cards, the information to one or more solid state drive chips associated with the plurality of solid state drive cards.

19 . The computer-implemented method of claim 18 , further comprising:
communicating, by the one or more solid state drive chips, via the interface section and a hard disk drive form factor connector of the hard disk drive form factor solid state drive multi-card adapter.

20 . The computer-implemented method of claim 18 , wherein the hard disk drive form factor soli

Assignees

• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Ping Zhan

Classifications

• G06F3/0683

  Plurality of storage devices · CPC title

• G06F3/0613

  in relation to throughput · CPC title

• G06F13/4081 Primary

  Live connection to bus, e.g. hot-plugging (current or voltage limitation during live insertion H02H9/004) · CPC title

• G06F3/0629

  Configuration or reconfiguration of storage systems · CPC title

• G06F3/0679 Primary

  Non-volatile semiconductor memory device, e.g. flash memory, one time programmable memory [OTP] · CPC title