U.S. patent application number 15/068827 was filed with the patent office on 2017-09-14 for data storage system with parallel array of dense memory cards and high airflow.
This patent application is currently assigned to INTEL CORPORATION. The applicant listed for this patent is INTEL CORPORATION. Invention is credited to WAYNE J. ALLEN, KNUT S. GRIMSRUD, JAWAD B. KHAN, MICHAEL D. NELSON, RANDALL K. WEBB.
Application Number | 20170262029 15/068827 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 59786703 |
Filed Date | 2017-09-14 |
United States Patent
Application |
20170262029 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
NELSON; MICHAEL D. ; et
al. |
September 14, 2017 |
DATA STORAGE SYSTEM WITH PARALLEL ARRAY OF DENSE MEMORY CARDS AND
HIGH AIRFLOW
Abstract
A data storage system with a parallel array of dense memory
cards and high airflow is described. In one example, a rack-mount
enclosure has a horizontal plane board with memory connectors and
external interfaces. Memory cards each have a connector to connect
to a respective memory connector of the horizontal plane board,
each memory card extending parallel to each other memory card from
the front of the enclosure and extending orthogonally from the
first side of the horizontal plane board. A power supply proximate
the rear of the enclosure and the first side of the horizontal
plane board provides power to the memory cards through the memory
card connectors and has a fan to pull air from the front of the
enclosure between the memory cards and to push air out the rear of
the enclosure.
Inventors: |
NELSON; MICHAEL D.;
(MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA) ; KHAN; JAWAD B.; (CORNELIUS,
OR) ; WEBB; RANDALL K.; (PORTLAND, OR) ;
GRIMSRUD; KNUT S.; (FOREST GROVE, OR) ; ALLEN; WAYNE
J.; (BEAVERTON, OR) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
INTEL CORPORATION |
SANTA CLARA |
CA |
US |
|
|
Assignee: |
INTEL CORPORATION
SANTA CLARA
CA
|
Family ID: |
59786703 |
Appl. No.: |
15/068827 |
Filed: |
March 14, 2016 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
1/1 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H05K 7/1452 20130101;
G06F 1/20 20130101; H05K 7/1457 20130101; H05K 7/1439 20130101;
H05K 7/1487 20130101 |
International
Class: |
G06F 1/20 20060101
G06F001/20; H05K 7/14 20060101 H05K007/14 |
Claims
1. An apparatus comprising: an enclosure configured to mount in a
rack, the enclosure having a front configured to receive airflow
and a rear configured for cabling; a horizontal plane board in the
enclosure having a plurality of memory connectors and a plurality
of external interfaces, the horizontal plane board having a first
side and a second opposite side; a plurality of memory cards, each
having a connector to connect to a respective memory connector of
the horizontal plane board, each memory card extending parallel to
each other memory card from the front of the enclosure and
extending orthogonally from the first side of the horizontal plane
board; a power supply proximate the rear of the enclosure and the
first side of the horizontal plane board to provide power to the
memory cards through the memory card connectors and having a fan to
pull air from the front of the enclosure between the memory cards
and to push air out the rear of the enclosure; and a cabling
interface at the rear of the enclosure coupled to the external
connectors.
2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the memory cards each comprise
a plurality of memory chips and a memory controller chip coupled to
each of the memory chips and to the connector.
3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the memory cards each comprise
an external heat sink to transfer heat from the memory chips to air
flowing between the memory cards.
4. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a fan proximate the
front of the enclosure to receive the airflow and push air between
the memory cards to the rear of the enclosure to cool the memory
cards.
5. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a fan between the
memory cards and the power supply to receive the airflow, to pull
air between the memory cards, and to push air to the rear of the
enclosure to cool the memory cards.
6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the horizontal plane board is
a midplane board, the apparatus further comprising a switching
fabric interface proximate the rear of the enclosure, the switching
fabric interface coupled to the external interface of the midplane
board and having cabling interfaces at the rear of the
enclosure.
7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the external interface of the
midplane board provides multiple lanes of a peripheral component
interface and wherein the switching fabric cabling interfaces
comprise Ethernet cabling.
8. The apparatus of claim 6, further comprising a system board and
a computing platform mounted to the system board and wherein the
switching fabric is mounted to the system board.
9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the memory cards are above the
first side of the horizontal plane board and wherein the power
supply is at a level within the enclosure above the horizontal
plane board to draw air across the memory cards.
10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the memory cards and the
power supply are at a first level within the enclosure, the
apparatus further comprising a switch fabric coupled to the memory
cards and having an external cabling interface, and a computing
device coupled to the switch fabric, wherein the switch fabric and
the computing device are at a second level within the
enclosure.
11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the horizontal plane board
is between the first level and the second level.
12. A rack-mountable enclosure comprising: a memory card zone
proximate a front of the enclosure to carry a plurality of parallel
memory cards, the cards extending from a position proximate the
front of the enclosure toward the rear of the enclosure; a
switching zone proximate the front of the enclosure and connected
to the memory cards to carry a switch fabric; and a power supply
and management zone between the memory card zone and a rear of the
enclosure to carry a power supply to power the memory cards and the
switch fabric and a platform management controller.
13. The enclosure of claim 12, further comprising a rear fan zone
between the power supply and management zone and the rear of the
enclosure to pull air from the memory card zone out the rear of the
enclosure.
14. The enclosure of claim 12, further comprising a front fan zone
between the memory cards and the front of the enclosure to push air
from outside the enclosure to the memory card zone.
15. The enclosure of claim 12, further comprising an intermediate
fan zone between the memory cards and the power supply and
management zone.
16. The enclosure of claim 12, further comprising a compute zone
proximate the rear of the enclosure and coupled to the switch
fabric to carry a computing system.
17. The enclosure of claim 12, further comprising a horizontal
midplane board connected to the memory cards and wherein the memory
cards are orthogonal to the horizontal midplane board.
18. An all flash memory array chassis comprising; an enclosure
configured to mount in a rack, the enclosure having a front
configured to receive airflow and a rear configured for cabling; a
horizontal plane board in the enclosure having a plurality of
memory connectors to connect to a plurality of orthogonally mounted
parallel memory cards and a plurality of external interfaces, the
horizontal plane board having a first side and a second opposite
side; a power supply proximate the rear of the enclosure and the
first side of the horizontal plane board to provide power to the
memory cards through the memory card connectors and having a fan to
pull air from the front of the enclosure between the memory cards
and to push air out the rear of the enclosure; a switch fabric card
coupled to the external interfaces of the horizontal plane board to
couple the memory cards to external devices; and a cabling
interface at the rear of the switch fabric coupled to the external
connectors.
19. The chassis of claim 18, further comprising a plurality of fans
attached to the horizontal plane board to pull air between the
memory cards and to push air to the rear of the enclosure to cool
the memory cards.
20. The chassis of claim 18, wherein the memory cards, the switch
fabric, and the power supply are at a first level within the
enclosure, the apparatus further comprising a compute module
coupled to the memory cards and having an external cabling
interface, wherein the computing device are at a second level
within the enclosure, and the horizontal plane board is between the
first level and the second level.
Description
FIELD
[0001] The present description pertains to the field of data
storage systems, and in particular to a system with an array of
memory cards.
BACKGROUND
[0002] High capacity, high speed, and low power memory is in demand
for many different high powered computing systems, such as servers,
entertainment distribution head ends for music and video
distribution and broadcast, and super computers for scientific,
prediction, and modeling systems. The leading approach to provide
this memory is to mount a large number of spinning disk hard drives
in a rack mounted chassis. The chassis has a backplane to connect
to each hard drive and to connect the hard drives to other rack
mounted chassis for computation or communication. The hard disk
drives connect using SAS (Serial Attached SCSI (Small Computer
System Interface)), SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment),
or PCIe (Peripheral Component Interface express) or other storage
interfaces.
[0003] While the spinning disk hard drive provides a large amount
of storage at low cost, it has a high power consumption and high
heat production. This is not significant for desktop computers with
a single drive but when hundreds or thousands of drives are
combined, then the power required to drive and cool the disks can
be significant. NAND flash drive prices are coming down steadily
while reliability and longevity is being improved. As a result, for
many applications an AFA (All Flash Array) is used for either warm
or cold storage applications or both.
[0004] Flash arrays are constructed at high volume in a 2.5'' hard
disk drive form factor and in a M.2 module form factor. These form
factors have been specifically developed for notebook computers and
provide an amount of storage, speed, power consumption and cost
that is best suited for notebook computers. An AFA could be built
using these standard form factor SSDs (Solid State Drives). When
off the shelf 2.5'' SSDs are used for a large capacity solution and
they are vertically mounted there is a minimum rack-mount chassis
size of 2 U or 3 U due to the size of the drives, the mounting
connectors and the need for airflow. M.2 SSDs have a lower capacity
and so require many more devices and connectors.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0005] Embodiments are illustrated by way of example, and not by
way of limitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawings in
which like reference numerals refer to similar elements.
[0006] FIG. 1 cross-sectional side view diagram of memory system
according to an embodiment.
[0007] FIG. 2 is an isometric view of a memory system with a top
cover removed according to an embodiment.
[0008] FIG. 3 is a top plan view of a memory system with a top
cover removed according to an embodiment.
[0009] FIG. 4 is a side plan view of a memory card according to an
embodiment.
[0010] FIG. 5 is a top plan view of the memory card of FIG. 4.
[0011] FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional side view diagram of an
alternative memory system according to an embodiment.
[0012] FIG. 7 is an isometric view of another alternative memory
system according to an embodiment.
[0013] FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a computing device
incorporating a memory system or capable of accessing a memory
system according to an embodiment.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0014] A memory system is described that provides dense All Flash
Array (AFA) designs. The system has front or top serviceability of
an array of flash storage modules, as well as excellent airflow
characteristics. In the case of a top serviceable model a cable
management solution is used at the back for sliding the chassis out
of the rack. Front serviceable storage modules avoid the need for
the chassis has to be slid out of the rack because there is no need
to open the top cover to service the storage modules. Yet the
system may still be mounted to a sliding carrier to allow for other
modules to be serviced without removing the chassis, such as fans,
interconnects, controllers, switches, and computing modules.
[0015] As described dense memory storage boxes have high airflow,
heat dissipation and storage density using a thin and long SSD form
factor. This SSD will be referred to herein as a "Ruler Storage
Module", "RSM" or "ruler". Several RSMs may be used in a 19'' wide
rack-mount SSD system. They may be placed in a single row multiple
column arrangement, which helps guide the airflow and provides
maximum surface area for the NAND media.
[0016] FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional side view diagram of an example
of a rack-mount chassis and enclosure to accommodate the RSM's as
described herein. The system has an enclosure 102 which in this
case is a 1 U height rack mount enclosure. The enclosure is
configured to mount in a particular type of standardized rack that
has airflow from the front or left as shown in the diagram to the
rear or right as shown in the diagram. The rear is configured for
cabling. The enclosure is about 19'' (483 mm) wide and 33'' (840
mm) deep. The 1 U form factor is 1.75'' (44 mm) high. However, the
particular width, height, and airflow direction may be adapted to
suit other form factors.
[0017] The enclosure 102 carries a system module PCB (printed
circuit board) 104 proximate the rear of the enclosure, a midplane
PCB 106 near the middle of the enclosure and an array of RSMs 108
proximate the front of the enclosure. An array of fans 110 is
mounted to the front of the enclosure to draw air into the
enclosure and push it between and across the RSMs and to the rear
of the enclosure. One or more power supplies 112 are mounted at the
rear of the enclosure and may also have fans to draw air from the
enclosure and push it out the rear of the enclosure. There may be
additional fans along the chassis from front to rear. Rear fans may
be used to pull air from the front across the chassis. Fans may be
used in the middle of the chassis in addition to or instead of the
front or rear fans to pull air in from the front and push it out
the rear.
[0018] The configuration may be considered to have three zones a
front memory zone 170 that in this example is about 16'' (400 mm)
deep, a central midplane zone 172 that is about 8'' (200 mm) deep
and a rear power supply and compute zone 174 that is also about 8''
(200 mm) deep. The relative sizes of these zones may be adapted to
suit different configurations. The memory array consumes about half
of the enclosure so that the rear half of the enclosure may be
configured to suit different applications of the system.
[0019] In the memory card zone 170, the parallel memory cards
extend from a position proximate the front of the enclosure toward
the rear of the enclosure. This is followed by the switching zone
172 proximate the front of the enclosure and connected to the
memory cards to carry a switch fabric. This is where the midplane
lies. The rear zone 174 has power supply and management between the
memory card zone and a rear of the enclosure. This zone may also be
the switch zone that carries the switch fabric. In this case the
midplane carries only a connector matrix to couple the power supply
and management zone to the memory card zone. This middle zone may
also be a compute zone which performs computations using values
stored in the memory card zone.
[0020] The system may also be considered to have a rear fan zone
176 between the power supply and management zone and the rear of
the enclosure to pull air from the memory card zone out the rear of
the enclosure. The rear fan zone cooperates with a front fan zone
178 between the memory cards and the front of the enclosure to push
air from outside the enclosure to the memory card zone.
[0021] The front fans and the rear power supply provide a push of
air from the front and a pull of air from the rear to establish air
flow across the RSMs, the midplane and the system module. The
number and arrangement of the fans may be modified to suit the
cooling and module requirements of the system. The system may have
no front fans or no power supply fans and rely only on the push or
the pull or both. While common power supplies include fans, the
power supplies may not have fans. Instead separate rear fans may be
used. Additional rear fans may be used to supplement the pull of
the power supply fans. In some embodiments, the power supplies are
provided in a separate enclosure and rear fans may be used without
power supplies.
[0022] The system module 104 may be provided to suit different
requirements, depending on the intended use of the system. The
system module may be a data interface or a switching interface to
connect the RSMs to external connectors through wired or wireless
interfaces. It may include a memory controller to manage access to
the RSMs and provide memory management and maintenance. It may
include a data processing system to provide server, computing, and
other functions between the RSMs and external devices.
[0023] The midplane 106 provides a connection between the RSM's and
the system module, including a power interface to the RSMs. The
midplane may also provide memory management and mapping between the
RSMs and the system module. As shown, the mid plane PCB is mounted
horizontally and orthogonal to the RSMs. The horizontal orientation
of the mid-plane eliminates the need to design cavities into the
mid-plane to accommodate air flow. This greatly simplifies
mid-plane design and signal routing.
[0024] The RSMs 108 contain all the flash memory, such as NAND
flash and the memory controllers that are needed to store user
data. Each RSM also works as part of an airflow channel for guiding
the air that is blown in by the front mounted fans and blown out by
the fans in the power supplies in a push-pull model. By using thin
and long form factor SSDs in a single row format, the surface area
of the SSD card is maximized, with excellent airflow
characteristics.
[0025] With the vertical and parallel flash modules extending
orthogonal to the midplane, the storage may be very dense. All the
area is being effectively used, with excellent airflow
characteristics. Using 32 RSMs with 32 TB capacity in a 19'' SSD
enclosure, the system could have a storage density of up to 1
PetaByte in a 1 U height rack chassis. Emerging 3D NAND chips allow
for 1 TB of NAND memory on a single chip. By placing 18 such chips
on each side of each RSM and placing 32 RSMs in the enclosure a 1 U
19'' Storage system can replace two full racks of 1 TB HDDs. The
parallel orthogonal RSM configuration allows for very tight
RSM-to-RSM spacing so that more RSMs may be fit into a single
chassis system enclosure while maintaining very good air flow for
system cooling.
[0026] FIG. 2 is an isometric view diagram of the system of FIG. 1
with the top cover of the enclosure removed. There are several fans
110 in the front pulling air from outside, followed by 32 slots 120
for Ruler SSDs 108 (not shown), and followed by modular
connectivity and compute modules at the back. There are two
redundant power supplies 112 on the sides at the back of the
enclosure. These power supplies have fans which are pushing air out
of the box.
[0027] The slots 120 have front 122 and rear 124 latches, levers,
or clips to hold each RSM in place. The slots are attached to the
midplane and have connectors near the rear for data communications
and power with the midplane. Because the slot connectors are in the
horizontal midplane and connect to the bottom edge of the RSMs, the
connectors do not interfere with airflow between the RSMs. The
clips rotate to hold the RSMs in place against the slots. There are
a variety of other types of connectors that may be used for the
RSMs.
[0028] The system board 104 in this example is an interchangeable
component that may be selected for different connection
configurations. In this case there are two system boards. Each one
has a switching complex 134 to provide switching between the
different RSMs and an interface 128 that provides connections to
external components. The interface may take any of a variety of
different forms depending on the system needs. The interface may be
a network interface, a storage array interface, or a direct memory
connection interface.
[0029] PCIe (Peripheral Component Interconnect express)
interconnect with an NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory express) storage
protocol may be supported by the switching fabric 134 and the
external interface 128. In this case, the NVMe is supported at the
external interface and may also be supported in the connection to
each RSM as well as within each RSM. Other PCIe interconnect
protocols may alternatively be used. In addition SAS (Serial
Attached Small computer system interface), SATA (Serial Advanced
Technology Attachment), or other related, similar or different
storage protocols may be used.
[0030] FIG. 3 is a top view diagram of a variation of the memory
system of FIG. 2. A high level architecture is shown of a variation
of a 19'' SSD. The array of fans 110 are at the front of the
enclosure and blow air across the array of SSDs 108. In this
example there are 10 fans to blow air across 32 SSD memory cards.
The precise number of fans may be adapted to suit the dimensions of
the enclosure and particular type and configuration of fan and any
other guides, shrouds, or other structures. The cards are placed
vertically and aligned to be parallel to each other. The cards
connect to a midplane 106 that has 32 connectors, one for each
card. The connectors are at the rear end of the card. The connector
may take a variety of different forms. The midplane is connected to
a system module. The system module PCB is not visible in this view
because it is covered by other components.
[0031] The midplane is coupled through a power connector 136 on
left and right sides of the midplane (top and bottom as shown) to a
left and right side power supply 112. These power supplies may be
complementary or redundant and the midplane may be wired so that
both power supplies are coupled to each RSM.
[0032] The midplane base board is also coupled through an array of
data connectors 130 to two switching modules 134. The left module
serves the 16 RSMs on the left and the right module serves the 16
RSMs on the right. The RSMs may also be cross-coupled so that each
RSM is coupled to both modules or connected in any of a variety of
different patterns that include various types of redundancy.
[0033] The switching modules may contain any of a variety of
different components, depending on the implementation. In this
example, there is a PCIe switch 126 for each module and a network
interface card (NIC) 128 for each module. The NICs allow for an
Ethernet connection to external components. The Ethernet connection
is converted to PCIe lanes for the RSMs. Each RSM may use one or
more lanes of a PCIe interface depending on the speed and the
amount of data for the particular implementation. The switching
modules may also include system management sensors and controllers
to regulate temperature, monitor wear and failures and report
status. While switching modules are shown, other types of modules
may be used including server computers that use the RSMs as a
memory resource.
[0034] FIG. 4 is a side plan view diagram of an RSM or memory card
108 suitable for use with the memory system as described herein.
The card has a printed circuit board (PCB) structure 150 with a
connector 152 to the midplane at one end. Multiple memory chips
154, in this case eighteen chips are mounted to one side of the PCB
structure. There may be more or fewer depending on the application.
Each memory chip generates heat with use and consumes power with
read and write operations. The number of chips may be determined
based on power, cost, heat, and capacity budgets. In some
embodiments 3D NAND flash memory chips are used. However, other
types of solid state memory may be used including PCM (Phase Change
Memory), STTM (Spin Transfer Torque Memory), magnetic, polymer, and
other types of memory.
[0035] The memory card further includes memory controllers 156 to
control operations, manage cells, mapping, and read and write
between the connector 152 and the memory chips 154. Fan out hubs
158 may be used to connect the memory controllers to the cells of
each memory chip. Buffers 160 may also be used to support write,
read, wear leveling, and move operations.
[0036] FIG. 5 is a top view of the memory card of FIG. 4 showing
the same components. The card may be configured to support more
memory chips on the other side or only one side may be used,
depending on the budget for power, heat, and capacity. The memory
card may have heat sinks and exposed chip package surfaces as
shown, or may be covered with one or more larger heat sinks or heat
spreaders as well as protective covers.
[0037] The particular configuration and arrangement of the chips
may be modified to suit requirements of different chips and to
match up with wiring routing layers within the PCB. The buffers may
be a part of the memory controllers or in addition to those in the
memory controllers. There may be additional components (not shown)
for system status and management. Sensors may be mounted to the RSM
to report conditions to the memory controller or through the
connector to an external controller or both.
[0038] The RSM allows a large amount of NAND flash memory to be
packed into a small design. In this example with 1 TB of memory per
NAND chip 154, 36 TB of memory may be carried on a single memory
card. This amount may be reduced for lower cost, power, and heat
and still use the same form factor. The Ruler Storage Module is
shown with a bottom connector. This allows modules to be replaced
by removing a top cover of the chassis for top serviceable
enclosure. Typical equipment racks allow the enclosure to slide
forward to allow access without removing the enclosure from the
rack. This same structure and system of operation may be used in
this embodiment.
[0039] The Ruler Storage Module provides optimized airflow and a
maximal surface area for storage media. This new storage module
allows for a 1 U high, extremely dense SSD solution. This new
storage module form factor does not hinder airflow in the system
and yet is dense enough to provide a great advantage over existing
form factors that were developed for other purposes, such as 2.5''
notebook drives, AIC (Advanced Industrial Computer) memory, M.2
cards, and Gum-stick memory (typical USB stick style
configurations). Some of these form factors cannot be used in a 1 U
height enclosure in any arrangement.
[0040] The RSMs provide quick and secure connections and may be
configured to be hot-swappable in some systems. Using modular
compute and connectivity blocks for the 19'' SSD system described
herein, one can easily, without system shut-down, swap out a
compute module and insert a new compute module with varying compute
horse power, depending upon the storage solution requirements,
within the 19'' SSD enclosure. For example, a low power compute
module, such as an Intel.RTM. Atom.RTM. processor-based system may
be used for storage targets that need mid-range compute
capabilities, such as Simple Block Mode Storage, NVMe of Fabrics,
iSCSI/SER, Fiber Channel, NAS (Network Attached Storage), NFS
(Network File System), SMB3 (Server Message Block), Object store,
distributed file system etc. A higher performance processor on the
compute module may be used for Ceph nodes, Open Stack Object,
Custom Storage Services and Key/Value Stores. For very high
performance, the computing module may be in a different enclosure
on the same or another rack and connected using PCIe switches or
another memory interface.
[0041] In addition to providing interchangeable RSMs, the same
chassis and enclosure may allow for the system modules to be
interchangeable. This may allow for different connectivity modules
to be used. The system may be upgraded to a different storage
protocol (e.g. NVMe over Fabrics RDMA (Remote Direct Memory
Access), iSCSI (internet SCSI), NVMe or even Ethernet) without
changing any of the RSMs. This modularity also enables two modules
to be used for redundancy and fail-over in some applications (e.g.
traditional enterprise storage) and a single module for other
applications (e.g. cloud computing).
[0042] FIG. 6 is a diagram of an alternative chassis enclosure for
a 2 U (3.5' or 89 mm) rack height. In this enclosure, the same
memory card configuration is used for 1 PB plus of storage. The
additional height allows for additional computing and switching
components to be included with short fast connections to the
memory. In this example, there is an array of memory cards 208
proximate the front of the enclosure coupled through connectors to
a midplane PCB 206 near the center of the enclosure. The midplane
is coupled through connectors 214 to a system module PCB 204 at the
rear of the enclosure. There is a front fan zone with an array of
fans 210 to push air across the memory cards 208 and a rear power
supply 212 fastened to or adjacent to the system module PCB 204
proximate the rear of the enclosure to pull air out of the
chassis.
[0043] In contrast to the 1 U configuration, the system module may
be on either the lower or upper side of the enclosure. The RSMs
have the same configuration and therefore use only one half of the
2 U chassis. In this example, the RSMs are in the lower half of the
enclosure but could alternatively be in the upper half. The system
module is in the upper half opposite the RSMs. Due to the PCB
structure of the midplane and the system module, the PCBs are in
the center of the enclosure and horizontal while the components on
the PCBs extend vertically from the PCBs into the upper half of the
enclosure. An additional system module (not shown) may also be
added to the lower half of the enclosure at the rear of the
enclosure.
[0044] The 2 U configuration also allows an additional system
module PCB 216 to be added at the front of the enclosure above the
RSMs. As mentioned, the RSMs may be in the upper half, in which
case, the additional system module may be in the lower half
instead. The additional system module may be used to provide
computing power or additional switch fabric. As an example, the
rear system module may be used as interface, switch fabric, and
power supply, while the front system module is used as a computing
zone with microprocessors and memory for low power or high power
computing. Alternatively, the front system module or an additional
rear module may be used for PCIe adapter cards for graphics
rendering, audio or video processing, or other specialized
tasks.
[0045] FIG. 7 is an isometric diagram of an alternative chassis
enclosure for a 1 U rack height. This configuration may be
augmented by an extra layer for additional computing, switching,
interface, or power supply resources. The front of the chassis has
a memory ruler zone 302. In this example, the rulers are covered by
a top cover 320 which may also act to guide air across and between
the rulers. A horizontal plane board in the form of a midplane 304
is directly beneath and coupled to the rulers. The rulers extend
orthogonally upward from the top side of the midplane. A power
supply and management zone 306 includes power supplies 308 on
either side of the enclosure.
[0046] Compute modules 310 are placed side-by-side between the
power supplies 308 and proximate the rear of the enclosure. The
compute modules include external interface components that couple
to cabling 312. The cabling connects the memory system to external
component on another position on the rack or to another rack. As in
all of the other embodiments, the compute modules may be limited to
serving and storing data and converting to and from different
formats. The compute modules may be more powerful and able to
perform simple tasks at low energy or more complex computation and
modeling tasks, depending on the particular implementation.
[0047] A fan zone 314 is placed near the center of the enclosure
with an array of fans 322 across the width of the chassis. There
are seven fans in this example, but there may be more or fewer as
mentioned above. The fans pull air from the front of the chassis
between the memory rulers and then push it out the rear of the
enclosure. They may be helped by the power supply and compute
module fans, if any, and by additional rear fans, if any. The
intermediate fan zone is placed between the memory rulers and the
power supplies on the same side of the midplane as the memory
rulers.
[0048] In this example there are no front fans shown. Front fans
may be used to improve air flow or reduce the load on the middle
fans. Instead the memory rulers have handles 316 at the front of
the enclosure to allow access to the respective ruler. Fans may be
mounted in front of these handles, in which case, the fans may be
moved to access the memory rulers. The front handles allow for
front access to the memory rulers without sliding the chassis
forward in the rack as with the top mounted version described
above.
[0049] FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a computing device 100 in
accordance with one implementation. The computing device 100 houses
a system board 2. The board 2 may include a number of components,
including but not limited to a processor 4 and at least one
communication package 6. The communication package is coupled to
one or more antennas 16. The processor 4 is physically and
electrically coupled to the board 2.
[0050] Depending on its applications, computing device 100 may
include other components that may or may not be physically and
electrically coupled to the board 2. These other components
include, but are not limited to, volatile memory (e.g., DRAM) 8,
non-volatile memory (e.g., ROM) 9, flash memory (not shown), a
graphics processor 12, a digital signal processor (not shown), a
crypto processor (not shown), a chipset 14, an antenna 16, a
display 18 such as a touchscreen display, a touchscreen controller
20, a battery 22, an audio codec (not shown), a video codec (not
shown), a power amplifier 24, a global positioning system (GPS)
device 26, a compass 28, an accelerometer (not shown), a gyroscope
(not shown), a speaker 30, a camera 32, a microphone array 34, and
a mass storage device (such as hard disk drive) 10, compact disk
(CD) (not shown), digital versatile disk (DVD) (not shown), and so
forth). These components may be connected to the system board 2,
mounted to the system board, or combined with any of the other
components.
[0051] The communication package 6 enables wireless and/or wired
communications for the transfer of data to and from the computing
device 100. The term "wireless" and its derivatives may be used to
describe circuits, devices, systems, methods, techniques,
communications channels, etc., that may communicate data through
the use of modulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid
medium. The term does not imply that the associated devices do not
contain any wires, although in some embodiments they might not. The
communication package 6 may implement any of a number of wireless
or wired standards or protocols, including but not limited to Wi-Fi
(IEEE 802.11 family), WiMAX (IEEE 802.16 family), IEEE 802.20, long
term evolution (LTE), Ev-DO, HSPA+, HSDPA+, HSUPA+, EDGE, GSM,
GPRS, CDMA, TDMA, DECT, Bluetooth, Ethernet derivatives thereof, as
well as any other wireless and wired protocols that are designated
as 3G, 4G, 5G, and beyond. The computing device 100 may include a
plurality of communication packages 6. For instance, a first
communication package 6 may be dedicated to shorter range wireless
communications such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and a second
communication package 6 may be dedicated to longer range wireless
communications such as GPS, EDGE, GPRS, CDMA, WiMAX, LTE, Ev-DO,
and others.
[0052] The computing system may be configured to be used as the
system module. The computing system also reflects the entire
rack-mount memory system where the mass memory is formed from
multiple memory cards, as described. The memory system may have
multiple iterations of the computing system within a single
enclosure for each system module and also for the overall
system.
[0053] In various implementations, the computing device 100 may be
an entertainment front end unit or server, a music or video editing
station or back end, a cloud services system, a database, or any
other type of high performance or high density storage or computing
system.
[0054] Embodiments may be include one or more memory chips,
controllers, CPUs (Central Processing Unit), microchips or
integrated circuits interconnected using a motherboard, an
application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), and/or a field
programmable gate array (FPGA).
[0055] References to "one embodiment", "an embodiment", "example
embodiment", "various embodiments", etc., indicate that the
embodiment(s) so described may include particular features,
structures, or characteristics, but not every embodiment
necessarily includes the particular features, structures, or
characteristics. Further, some embodiments may have some, all, or
none of the features described for other embodiments.
[0056] In the following description and claims, the term "coupled"
along with its derivatives, may be used. "Coupled" is used to
indicate that two or more elements co-operate or interact with each
other, but they may or may not have intervening physical or
electrical components between them.
[0057] As used in the claims, unless otherwise specified, the use
of the ordinal adjectives "first", "second", "third", etc., to
describe a common element, merely indicate that different instances
of like elements are being referred to, and are not intended to
imply that the elements so described must be in a given sequence,
either temporally, spatially, in ranking, or in any other
manner.
[0058] The drawings and the forgoing description give examples of
embodiments. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that one or
more of the described elements may well be combined into a single
functional element. Alternatively, certain elements may be split
into multiple functional elements. Elements from one embodiment may
be added to another embodiment. For example, orders of processes
described herein may be changed and are not limited to the manner
described herein. Moreover, the actions of any flow diagram need
not be implemented in the order shown; nor do all of the acts
necessarily need to be performed. Also, those acts that are not
dependent on other acts may be performed in parallel with the other
acts. The scope of embodiments is by no means limited by these
specific examples. Numerous variations, whether explicitly given in
the specification or not, such as differences in structure,
dimension, and use of material, are possible. The scope of
embodiments is at least as broad as given by the following
claims.
[0059] The following examples pertain to further embodiments. The
various features of the different embodiments may be variously
combined with some features included and others excluded to suit a
variety of different applications. Some embodiments pertain to an
apparatus that includes in one example, an enclosure configured to
mount in a rack, the enclosure having a front configured to receive
airflow and a rear configured for cabling. A horizontal plane board
is in the enclosure having a plurality of memory connectors and a
plurality of external interfaces, the horizontal plane board having
a first side and a second opposite side. A plurality of memory
cards each have a connector to connect to a respective memory
connector of the horizontal plane board, each memory card extending
parallel to each other memory card from the front of the enclosure
and extending orthogonally from the first side of the horizontal
plane board. A power supply proximate the rear of the enclosure and
the first side of the horizontal plane board provides power to the
memory cards through the memory card connectors and has a fan to
pull air from the front of the enclosure between the memory cards
and to push air out the rear of the enclosure. A cabling interface
at the rear of the enclosure is coupled to the external
connectors.
[0060] In further embodiments the memory cards each comprise a
plurality of memory chips and a memory controller chip coupled to
each of the memory chips and to the connector.
[0061] In further embodiments the memory cards each comprise an
external heat sink to transfer heat from the memory chips to air
flowing between the memory cards.
[0062] Further embodiments include a fan proximate the front of the
enclosure to receive the airflow and push air between the memory
cards to the rear of the enclosure to cool the memory cards.
[0063] Further embodiments include a fan between the memory cards
and the power supply to receive the airflow, to pull air between
the memory cards, and to push air to the rear of the enclosure to
cool the memory cards.
[0064] In further embodiments the horizontal plane board is a
midplane board, the apparatus further comprising a switching fabric
interface proximate the rear of the enclosure, the switching fabric
interface coupled to the external interface of the midplane board
and having cabling interfaces at the rear of the enclosure.
[0065] In further embodiments the external interface of the
midplane board provides multiple lanes of a peripheral component
interface and wherein the switching fabric cabling interfaces
comprise Ethernet cabling.
[0066] Further embodiments include a system board and a computing
platform mounted to the system board and wherein the switching
fabric is mounted to the system board.
[0067] In further embodiments the memory cards are above the first
side of the horizontal plane board and wherein the power supply is
at a level within the enclosure above the horizontal plane board to
draw air across the memory cards.
[0068] In further embodiments the memory cards and the power supply
are at a first level within the enclosure, the apparatus further
comprising a switch fabric coupled to the memory cards and having
an external cabling interface, and a computing device coupled to
the switch fabric, wherein the switch fabric and the computing
device are at a second level within the enclosure.
[0069] In further embodiments the horizontal plane board is between
the first level and the second level.
[0070] Some embodiments pertain to a rack-mountable enclosure that
includes a memory card zone proximate a front of the enclosure to
carry a plurality of parallel memory cards, the cards extending
from a position proximate the front of the enclosure toward the
rear of the enclosure, switching zone proximate the front of the
enclosure and connected to the memory cards to carry a switch
fabric, and a power supply and management zone between the memory
card zone and a rear of the enclosure to carry a power supply to
power the memory cards and the switch fabric and a platform
management controller.
[0071] Further embodiments include a rear fan zone between the
power supply and management zone and the rear of the enclosure to
pull air from the memory card zone out the rear of the
enclosure.
[0072] Further embodiments include a front fan zone between the
memory cards and the front of the enclosure to push air from
outside the enclosure to the memory card zone.
[0073] Further embodiments include an intermediate fan zone between
the memory cards and the power supply and management zone.
[0074] Further embodiments include a compute zone proximate the
rear of the enclosure and coupled to the switch fabric to carry a
computing system.
[0075] Further embodiments include a horizontal midplane board
connected to the memory cards and wherein the memory cards are
orthogonal to the horizontal midplane board.
[0076] Some embodiments pertain to an all flash memory array
chassis that includes an enclosure configured to mount in a rack,
the enclosure having a front configured to receive airflow and a
rear configured for cabling, a horizontal plane board in the
enclosure having a plurality of memory connectors to connect to a
plurality of orthogonally mounted parallel memory cards and a
plurality of external interfaces, the horizontal plane board having
a first side and a second opposite side, a power supply proximate
the rear of the enclosure and the first side of the horizontal
plane board to provide power to the memory cards through the memory
card connectors and having a fan to pull air from the front of the
enclosure between the memory cards and to push air out the rear of
the enclosure, a switch fabric card coupled to the external
interfaces of the horizontal plane board to couple the memory cards
to external devices, and a cabling interface at the rear of the
switch fabric coupled to the external connectors.
[0077] Further embodiments include a plurality of fans attached to
the horizontal plane board to pull air between the memory cards and
to push air to the rear of the enclosure to cool the memory
cards.
[0078] In further embodiments the memory cards, the switch fabric,
and the power supply are at a first level within the enclosure, the
apparatus further comprising a compute module coupled to the memory
cards and having an external cabling interface, wherein the
computing device are at a second level within the enclosure, and
the horizontal plane board is between the first level and the
second level.
* * * * *