Multifunctional remote PCIe adapter based on fiber communication

Abstract

Disclosed is a multifunctional remote PCIe adapter card based on optical fiber communication, comprising an optical communication interface, a PCIe interface, two electrical connection interfaces, one of which is connected with the optical communication interface, and the other of which is connected with the PCIe interface, and a connector, which, when the one of the two electrical connection interfaces is connected with the electrical connection interface of a main PCIe card, can expand the number of optical communication channels of the main PCIe card, when the other of the two electrical connection interfaces is connected with the electrical connection interface of the main PCIe card, can expand the PCIe interface channel of the main PCIe card, and when the two electrical connection interfaces are interconnected, can realize the function of optical communication remote PCIe interface. The PCIe adapter card has the characteristics of flexibility, low cost and support for remote connection, and simultaneously supports multiple interconnection modes.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This invention relates to a multi-functional remote PCIe adapter card based on optical fiber communication. Background Technology

[0002] PCIe acquisition cards are widely used in various data transmission and acquisition systems. As application requirements increase, their designs become more complex, and their board structures and footprints become larger. Traditional data acquisition systems typically use PCIe cards to receive acquired data from front-end electronic devices via a data communication interface and then forward the data to the server software via the PCIe bus. With increasing functional complexity and bandwidth demands, and limited by server chassis space, PCIe adapter cards have emerged. These adapter cards, along with the main PCIe board, occupy multiple PCIe slots, enabling higher interface bandwidth and more complex functions. Adapter cards can also provide additional PCIe interfaces for high-speed data transmission to external circuit boards. Current adapter cards mainly include OCuLink adapter cards and fiber optic-based PCIe adapter cards.

[0003] The OCuLink adapter card uses OCuLink to connect to the main PCIe board for conversion or expansion purposes. However, it is not suitable for devices whose motherboards do not have OCuLink connectors or PCIe gold fingers. Moreover, the OCuLink connector is an electrical connection, which is not suitable for long-distance transmission compared to fiber optics. Most existing fiber optic-based PCIe adapter cards use PCIe switching chips or field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) for conversion or data exchange, which have disadvantages such as high cost and complex circuitry. Summary of the Invention

[0004] This invention provides a remote PCIe adapter card based on optical fiber communication, which is flexible, low-cost and supports remote connection, and also supports multiple interconnection methods.

[0005] This invention provides a remote PCIe adapter card based on fiber optic communication, which has three adapter functions. Function 1: When used with a main PCIe card, the adapter card can expand the number of optical communication channels of the main card. Function 2: When used with a main PCIe card, the adapter card can expand the number of PCIe channels from the main PCIe card to the computer CPU. Function 3: It can be used as a standalone PCIe card, employing a novel structure to remotely connect the PCIe interface to an external system via fiber optic cable, enabling remote PCIe communication.

[0006] According to a first aspect of the present invention, a multifunctional remote PCIe adapter card based on optical fiber communication is provided, comprising: an optical communication interface; a PCIe interface; two electrical connection interfaces, one of which is connected to the optical communication interface, and the other of which is connected to the PCIe interface; and a connector, wherein when the connector connects one of the two electrical connection interfaces to the electrical connection interface of a main PCIe card, it can expand the number of optical communication channels of the main PCIe card; when the connector connects the other of the two electrical connection interfaces to the electrical connection interface of the main PCIe card, it can expand the PCIe interface channels of the main PCIe card; and when the connector interconnects the two electrical connection interfaces, it can realize the remote PCIe interface function of optical communication.

[0007] The PCIe interface includes high-speed data transmission lines and control lines. The signals of the control lines are converted using a serial-to-parallel converter chip. The clock from the PCIe interface drives the serial-to-parallel converter chip. The control lines of the PCIe interface are connected to the low-speed parallel port of the serial-to-parallel converter chip. The serial-to-parallel converter chip encodes the data from multiple parallel ports and sends it to the front end via the SFP. The serial signals from the front end are decoded by the serial-to-parallel converter chip and converted into serial signals. The decoded signals are then sent to the PCIe interface.

[0008] According to a second aspect of the present invention, a front-end board is provided that is capable of receiving data and control signals from the aforementioned multi-functional remote PCIe adapter card based on optical fiber communication.

[0009] The PCIe data channel on the front-end board is directly connected to the corresponding FPGA hard core. The control signals are encoded and decoded by another serial-to-parallel converter chip before interacting with the FPGA. This other serial-to-parallel converter chip extracts the PCIe clock and control signals for the PCIe hard core and receives the WAKE status signal. Alternatively, the control and status electrical signals transmitted by the SFP on the front-end board are directly input to the MGT high-speed transceiver inside the FPGA. The MGT high-speed transceiver and the FPGA's internal firmware perform serial-to-parallel conversion and decoding. The control signals and clock extracted by the MGT high-speed transceiver are sent to the relevant PCIe modules, while the status signals in the opposite direction are encoded and converted from parallel to serial by the MGT high-speed transceiver before being sent out via the SFP.

[0010] Existing technologies are typically limited to implementing function two above, or employ more complex methods to implement function three. This invention achieves all three functions with a single board and can switch operating modes as needed. For function three, the typical approach currently is to use a dedicated PCIe switching chip or a Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) for PCIe protocol forwarding and parsing. The unique feature of this invention is that it directly performs photoelectric-to-optical conversion on PCIe data, and simultaneously uses a general-purpose serial-to-parallel-to-serial converter chip to convert the control and status signals of the PCIe interface into optical signals for transmission. This method supports the long-distance transmission characteristics of PCIe cards while simplifying PCIe card design and reducing costs. From the perspective of the external front-end system, the required interface is the standard PCIe interface, and the extraction of PCIe clock and control signals from the serial signals. Attached Figure Description

[0011] To more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention, the accompanying drawings of the embodiments will be briefly described below.

[0012] Figure 1 This is a functional block diagram of a multi-functional remote PCIe adapter card based on optical fiber communication provided in an embodiment of the present invention.

[0013] Figure 2 This is a schematic diagram of two connection methods between a multi-functional remote PCIe adapter card and a main PCIe card based on optical fiber communication, provided in an embodiment of the present invention.

[0014] Figure 3 This is a schematic diagram of a remote PCIe connection method for a multi-functional remote PCIe adapter card based on optical fiber communication provided in an embodiment of the present invention.

[0015] Figure 4 This is a schematic diagram of the main signal transmission between a multi-functional remote PCIe adapter card based on optical fiber communication and a front-end remote system, provided in an embodiment of the present invention.

[0016] Figure 5 This is a schematic diagram of the main signal transmission between a multi-functional remote PCIe adapter card based on optical fiber communication and a front-end remote system, provided in another embodiment of the present invention. Detailed Implementation

[0017] Figure 1 A functional block diagram of a multi-functional remote PCIe adapter card based on fiber optic communication is shown. (For example...) Figure 1 As shown, the PCIe adapter card includes an optical communication interface, a PCIe interface, and two electrical connection interfaces 1 and 2. These two electrical connection interfaces 1 and 2 can be OCuLink. In addition, the PCIe adapter card also has a power module. Figure 2 This demonstrates two connection methods: a PCIe adapter card and a main PCIe card. For example... Figure 2 As shown, the optical communication interface of the PCIe adapter card is connected to the electrical connection interface of the main PCIe card via electrical connection interface 1. The PCIe interface of the PCIe adapter card is connected to the electrical connection interface of the main PCIe card via electrical connection interface 2. The electrical connection interface of the main PCIe card is connected to the FPGA. If both electrical connection interfaces 1 and 2 of the PCIe adapter card are 16-channel (not limited to this), then the PCIe adapter card can achieve two modes when used with another main PCIe board: Mode 1, when electrical connection interface 1 is interconnected with another main PCIe board, the number of optical communication channels of the main PCIe board can be expanded to 16; Mode 2, when electrical connection interface 2 is interconnected with another main PCIe board, the number of PCIe interface channels of the main PCIe board can be expanded to 16.

[0018] See Figure 3 The optical communication interface of the PCIe adapter card can be either QSFP or SFP. There are four QSFPs, but it is not limited to this. There is one SFP, but it is not limited to this. Interconnecting electrical connection interfaces 1 and 2 enables mode three of the PCIe adapter card, i.e., four QSFPs transmit 16 channels of bidirectional PCIe data, achieving a 16-channel optical communication remote PCIe interface function. This invention allows manual selection of the optical communication interface and electrical connection interface via connectors (plugs) to switch between modes one, two, and three. The PCIe interface includes high-speed data transmission lines and control lines (slow control lines). The control line signals are converted using a serial-to-parallel converter chip. The serial-to-parallel converter chip can be the TLK2501 transceiver chip, but it is not limited to this. Figure 3 As shown, a 100MHz clock from the PCIe interface drives the TLK2501. PCIe interface control lines such as PERST and PWRBRK are connected to the TLK2501's low-speed parallel port. The TLK2501 encodes the 16 parallel port data using 8B10B encoding and sends it to the front end via the SFP at 2Gbps. Conversely, the 2Gbps serial signal from the front end is decoded by the TLK2501 and converted from serial to parallel, extracting signals such as WAKE and sending them to the PCIe interface.

[0019] The motherboard of a host or server has a PCIe slot, into which a PCIe adapter card can be inserted. For front-end systems (also called front-end boards or front-ends) located outside the host or server chassis, a common example is using an FPGA to implement the PCIe protocol. A front-end board typically includes an FPGA and an optical module, capable of transmitting and receiving data and processing data, which is then sent to the back-end host or server for storage. For situations where the front-end board only has an optical module and cannot transmit high-speed data to the back-end server via fiber optic cable, this invention proposes a multi-functional remote PCIe adapter card based on fiber optic communication. The front-end board receives data and control signals from this PCIe adapter card in two ways.

[0020] The first method is as follows Figure 4 As shown, the PCIe data channel on the front-end board is directly connected to the corresponding FPGA hard core. The control signals are encoded and decoded by a serial-to-parallel converter chip (TLK2501 can be used, but is not limited to this) and then interact with the FPGA. The serial-to-parallel converter chip TLK2501 extracts the PCIe clock and control signals for the PCIe hard core and receives status signals such as WAKE.

[0021] The second method is as follows: Figure 5 As shown, the control and status electrical signals transmitted by the front-end board SFP are directly input to the MGT high-speed transceiver inside the FPGA. The MGT high-speed transceiver and the FPGA internal firmware implement serial-to-parallel conversion and 8B10B decoding similar to TLK2501, and the extracted control signals and clock are sent to the relevant PCIe modules. The status signals in the opposite direction are encoded in 8B10B and converted from parallel to serial by the MGT before being sent out through the SFP.

[0022] In summary, it can be seen that the fiber optic communication-based remote PCIe adapter card of this invention can realize three different PCIe expansion card functions through different connection methods. This invention directly connects the PCIe data line to the optical module for optical transmission. This invention uses the commercially available and relatively inexpensive TLK2501 transceiver to combine multiple PCIe control lines into a single serial signal for optical transmission, while simultaneously embedding a PCIe clock signal. This innovation is not limited to the TLK series transceivers. Finally, the invention proposes two schemes for front-end boards to extract PCIe clock and control signals.

Claims

1. A multi-functional remote PCIe adapter card based on fiber optic communication, characterized in that, include: Optical communication interface; The PCIe interface includes high-speed data transmission lines and control lines. The signals of the control lines are converted by a serial-to-parallel converter chip. The clock from the PCIe interface drives the serial-to-parallel converter chip. The control lines of the PCIe interface are connected to the low-speed parallel port of the serial-to-parallel converter chip. The serial-to-parallel converter chip encodes the data from multiple parallel ports and sends it to the front end via SFP. The serial signals from the front end are decoded by the serial-to-parallel converter chip and converted into serial signals. The decoded signals are then sent to the PCIe interface. Two electrical connection interfaces, one of which is connected to the optical communication interface, and the other of which is connected to the PCIe interface; as well as The connector, when connecting one of the two electrical connection interfaces to the electrical connection interface of the main PCIe card, can expand the number of optical communication channels of the main PCIe card; when connecting the other of the two electrical connection interfaces to the electrical connection interface of the main PCIe card, it can expand the PCIe interface channels of the main PCIe card; when interconnecting the two electrical connection interfaces, it can realize the remote PCIe interface function of optical communication.

2. A front-end board, characterized in that, It is capable of receiving data and control signals from the multi-functional remote PCIe adapter card based on optical fiber communication as described in claim 1.

3. The front-end board according to claim 2, characterized in that, The PCIe data channel on the front-end board is directly connected to the corresponding FPGA hard core. The control signal is encoded and decoded by another serial-to-parallel converter chip and then interacts with the FPGA. The other serial-to-parallel converter chip extracts the PCIe clock and control signal for the PCIe hard core and receives the WAKE status signal.

4. The front-end board according to claim 2, characterized in that, The control and status electrical signals transmitted by the SFP on the front-end board are directly input to the MGT high-speed transceiver inside the FPGA. The MGT high-speed transceiver and the firmware inside the FPGA realize serial-to-parallel conversion and decoding. The control signals and clock extracted by the MGT high-speed transceiver will be sent to the PCIe related modules. The status signals in the opposite direction will be encoded and converted from parallel to serial by the MGT high-speed transceiver and then sent out through the SFP.

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