A hard disk expansion device and method

Abstract

An embodiment of the present invention provides a hard disk expansion device and method. For the hard disk expansion device connected to the serial bus interface of the server motherboard, first, the basic management controller of the motherboard detects the identity information of the devices connected to the serial expansion bus interface; when it is determined that the connected device is a hard disk expansion device, according to the interface serial number of the upper link interface of the device, the presence detection of hard disks is sequentially performed on multiple link interfaces of the hard disk expansion device; when it is determined through the presence detection that a hard disk is connected to a link interface, clock synchronization is performed on the clock channel corresponding to the link interface to which the hard disk is connected; finally, the channel enabling of the high-speed serial expansion bus interface of the server motherboard is triggered, so that data interaction between the hard disk and the server motherboard starts, and hard disk expansion is completed. The hard disk expansion device can be installed according to the usage needs and connected to the hard disk to be expanded, without being limited to the structural design of the existing motherboard, improving the flexibility of the hard disk expansion method.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the technical field of power system operation and maintenance, and particularly relates to a hard disk expansion device, method, electronic device and computer-readable storage medium. Background Art

[0002] Benefiting from its unique structural design and operation mode, the NVMe solid-state drive has an absolute advantage in read / write speed and read latency compared with traditional hard disks, and its market share in the commercial server field is also increasing continuously. However, in practical applications, the number of hard disks that a single host device can load is limited, and the total hard disk storage capacity of existing devices can no longer meet the growing demand for massive data storage.

[0003] In related technologies, to expand the number of hard disks that a host device can carry, a PCIE Switch chip is often installed on the server motherboard to expand the solid-state drive.

[0004] However, in the existing technical solutions, this chip component needs to be planned in advance during the design and development stage of the motherboard, and cannot be installed separately in the later stage of production and use, so the application flexibility is poor. Summary of the Invention

[0005] Embodiments of the present invention provide a hard disk expansion device and method to solve the problem of poor application flexibility of the existing solution for installing additional expansion hard disks on the device motherboard.

[0006] In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a hard disk expansion device installed in a server. The device includes: a plurality of link interfaces, a central control manager, and conductive contacts; wherein, the link interfaces are used to connect the hard disks to be expanded;

[0007] The central control manager is respectively connected to the plurality of link interfaces; the central control manager is also connected to the conductive contacts;

[0008] The conductive contacts are used to insert into the serial bus interface on the server motherboard to realize the connection between the hard disk expansion device and the server motherboard;

[0009] The server motherboard supplies power to the central control manager through the serial bus interface and the conductive contacts in sequence, so that the central control manager supplies power to drive the link interfaces according to preset interface power consumption parameters for the hard disks connected to the link interfaces to work;

[0010] The serial bus interface corresponding to the link interface, the conductive contacts and the central control manager together form a data transmission link, and the hard disks connected to the link interfaces are used to obtain data from the server motherboard and send data to the server motherboard through the data transmission link.

[0011] Second aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a hard disk expansion method, which is applied to a server motherboard; the server motherboard includes an integrated base management controller; the method includes:

[0012] Detect the identity information of the devices connected to the high-speed serial expansion bus interface of the server motherboard through the base management controller;

[0013] When it is determined that the connected device is a hard disk expansion device, perform in-position detection of the hard disks on the multiple link interfaces of the hard disk expansion device in sequence according to the interface serial numbers of the link interfaces;

[0014] When it is determined through the in-position detection that the link interface is connected to a hard disk, perform clock synchronization on the clock channel corresponding to the link interface to which the hard disk is connected;

[0015] Trigger the channel enable of the high-speed serial expansion bus interface of the server motherboard, so that the hard disk and the server motherboard start to perform data interaction, and complete the hard disk expansion.

[0016] Third aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides an electronic device, including: a processor;

[0017] A memory for storing executable instructions of the processor;

[0018] Wherein, the processor is configured to execute the instructions to implement the method.

[0019] Fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a readable storage medium, when the instructions in the readable storage medium are executed by the processor of the electronic device, the electronic device can execute the method.

[0020] In the embodiment of the present invention, for the hard disk expansion device connected to the serial bus interface of the server motherboard, first detect the identity information of the devices connected to the serial expansion bus interface through the base management controller of the motherboard; when it is determined that the connected device is a hard disk expansion device, perform in-position detection of the hard disks on the multiple link interfaces of the hard disk expansion device in sequence according to the interface serial numbers of the link interfaces on the device; when it is determined through the in-position detection that the link interface is connected to a hard disk, perform clock synchronization on the clock channel corresponding to the link interface to which the hard disk is connected; finally trigger the channel enable of the high-speed serial expansion bus interface of the server motherboard, so that the hard disk and the server motherboard start to perform data interaction, and complete the hard disk expansion. According to the usage needs, the hard disk expansion device can be installed and connected to the hard disk to be expanded immediately, without being limited to the structural design of the existing motherboard, improving the flexibility of the hard disk expansion method.

[0021] The above description is only an overview of the technical solution of the present invention. In order to better understand the technical means of the present invention, it can be implemented according to the content of the specification. And in order to make the above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention more obvious and understandable, the following specific embodiments of the present invention are given. Brief Description of the Drawings

[0022] By reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments, various other advantages and benefits will become clear to those of ordinary skill in the art. The drawings are only for the purpose of illustrating the preferred embodiments and are not considered to be a limitation of the present invention. Moreover, throughout the drawings, the same reference numerals are used to represent the same components. In the drawings:

[0023] Figure 1 is a schematic flowchart of the brief implementation steps of a hard disk expansion method provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

[0024] Figure 2 is a topology relationship diagram of a high-speed serial expansion bus of a server motherboard provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

[0025] Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of the hard disk expansion initialization process provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

[0026] Figure 4 is a clock control logic relationship diagram of a hard disk expansion device provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

[0027] Figure 5 is a detailed implementation step flowchart of a hard disk expansion method provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

[0028] Figure 6 is a schematic circuit diagram of the hardware identity detection of a hard disk expansion device provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

[0029] Figure 7 is a logic relationship diagram of the hard disk presence detection provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

[0030] Figure 8 A structural diagram of a hard disk expansion device provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

[0031] Figure 9 is a schematic diagram of the out-of-band channel working principle of a hard disk expansion device provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

[0032] Figure 10 is a functional component relationship diagram of an electronic device provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

[0033] Figure 11 is another functional component relationship diagram of an electronic device provided by an embodiment of the present invention. Detailed Embodiments

[0034] Exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in more detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Although the exemplary embodiments of the present invention are shown in the drawings, it should be understood that the present invention can be implemented in various forms and should not be limited by the embodiments set forth herein. On the contrary, these embodiments are provided so that the present invention can be more thoroughly understood and the scope of the present invention can be fully conveyed to those skilled in the art.

[0035] Referring to Figure 1 , Figure 1 is a simplified flowchart of the implementation steps of a hard disk expansion method provided by an embodiment of the present invention; as Figure 1 shown, the method includes:

[0036] Step 101: Detect the identity information of the devices connected to the high-speed serial expansion bus interface of the server motherboard through the basic management controller.

[0037] A hard disk expansion device provided by an embodiment of the present invention adopts the form of an adapter card based on the high-speed serial computer expansion bus standard (PCI-Express, Peripheral Component Interconnect Express) interface of the computer device motherboard. A plurality of solid-state drive interfaces are provided on the expansion device, and the interfaces are designed based on the Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) specification, which can cooperate with the PCIE standard bus to achieve high-speed and low-latency data transmission. And a rich variety of components can be expanded based on this interface, including but not limited to: graphics display cards, network cards, sound capture cards, etc.

[0038] Referring to Figure 2 , a topology diagram of the high-speed serial expansion bus of a server motherboard provided by an embodiment of the present invention is shown. As Figure 2 shown, the server motherboard includes at least three PCIE interface slots, namely serial bus interface slot_0, serial bus interface slot_1, and serial bus interface slot_2. The slots are directly connected to the central processing unit (CPU) through the PCIE serial bus to achieve data interaction. Each serial bus interface slot is equipped with an independent direct power supply module to ensure that the inserted expansion device can be normally powered and driven when an external device is connected.

[0039] Meanwhile, the main board is integrated with a Baseboard Management Controller (BMC), also known as an out-of-band management chip for servers, and other basic components. Among them, the basic management controller is used to control and manage all external expansion devices on the main board through the system management bus.

[0040] A hard disk expansion method provided by an embodiment of the present invention, after the hard disk expansion device is inserted into the serial bus interface slot as shown in Figure 2 First, the server main board performs a hardware identity detection on the inserted expansion device to determine the type of the inserted expansion device and drive the expansion device to operate normally through the corresponding preset driving method.

[0041] In practical applications, the PCIE interface has a variety of different data transmission channel standards, and different expansion devices have different requirements for the actual throughput of data during the expansion process. The initialization of PCIE expansion needs to identify the type of the expansion device to notify the CPU to adjust the data transmission channel mode of this interface to a mode corresponding to the transmission requirements of the expansion device. Therefore, correctly identifying the device type of the inserted expansion device is of great significance for expansion initialization.

[0042] Step 102: When it is determined that the inserted device is a hard disk expansion device, the in-position detection of the hard disks is sequentially performed on multiple said link interfaces on the hard disk expansion device according to the interface serial number of the link interface.

[0043] A hard disk expansion method provided by an embodiment of the present invention, when it is determined that the expansion device inserted into the serial bus interface slot of the current main board is a hard disk expansion device, the in-position detection of the hard disks needs to be performed on multiple hard disk link interfaces provided on the hard disk expansion device.

[0044] Refer to Figure 3 , which shows a schematic diagram of a hard disk expansion initialization process provided by an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in Figure 3 , after performing the identity detection of the expansion device, no special processing is performed on other serial expansion bus devices that are not of the hard disk expansion type for the time being. When it is determined that the expansion device inserted into the serial bus interface slot of the current main board is a hard disk expansion device, the in-position detection of the hard disks is performed, and further initialization operations are performed on the link interfaces determined to have inserted expansion hard disks.

[0045] Specifically, for example, during a certain device expansion operation, a certain hard disk expansion device has 4 accessible hard disk interfaces, but currently only 2 interfaces are connected to the hard disks to be expanded, and the remaining two are empty interfaces. After determining the identity information of the expansion device, in the order of the interface serial numbers of the link interfaces, for example: link interface_0 → link interface_1 → link interface_2 → link interface_3, the hard disk presence detection is performed in sequence.

[0046] After performing the hard disk presence detection, the system can correctly identify the connection relationship between the link interface and the PCIE bus during operation to ensure the correctness of the data transmission relationship during operation and prevent the system from reporting errors and crashing.

[0047] Step 103: In the case where it is determined through the presence detection that the link interface is connected to a hard disk, perform clock synchronization on the clock channel corresponding to the link interface to which the hard disk is connected.

[0048] After the expansion device is enabled, it will work at a certain clock frequency. For data interaction between multiple devices, clock state matching is required for support. The matching expansion of the clock state needs to use a dedicated control clock buffer (Clock Buffer) to perform phase locking and edge shaping on the clock introduced by the gold finger, and output multiple clocks with consistent phases to each NVMe hard disk link interface.

[0049] Following step 102, after the BMC detects the presence of the hard disk, it will control the clock buffer (Clock Buffer) through the system management bus (SMBus, System Management Bus) to enable the clock channel output to the corresponding NVMe connector.

[0050] Specifically refer to Figure 4 , which shows a clock control logic relationship diagram of a hard disk expansion device provided by an embodiment of the present invention. As Figure 4 shown, after the hard disk expansion device is connected to the motherboard through the PCIE interface conductive contact (commonly known as "gold finger"), the BMC sends a target clock frequency signal to the clock buffer through the system management bus, and the clock buffer enables the clock channel output to the corresponding NVME hard disk link interface. The current target clock frequency is 100 megahertz (Mhz).

[0051] Conversely, if no NVMe hard disk is detected, the clock output is prohibited to prevent signal integrity problems caused by no load.

[0052] Step 104: Trigger the channel enable of the high-speed serial expansion bus interface of the server motherboard, so that the hard disk and the server motherboard start to perform data interaction to complete the hard disk expansion.

[0053] After all functions of the out-of-band channel controlled by the BMC are normal, the enabling action of the in-band channel will be started. For example, the Basic Input Output System (BIOS) enumerates PCIe devices, the operating system loads NVMe device drivers, etc., and then the expansion device can work normally.

[0054] In summary, for a hard disk expansion method provided by an embodiment of the present invention, for a hard disk expansion device connected to the serial bus interface of a server motherboard, first, the basic management controller of the motherboard detects the identity information of the devices connected to the serial expansion bus interface; when it is determined that the connected device is a hard disk expansion device, the presence detection of hard disks is sequentially performed on multiple link interfaces of the hard disk expansion device according to the interface serial number of the upper link interface of the device; when it is determined through the presence detection that a hard disk is connected to the link interface, clock synchronization is performed on the clock channel corresponding to the link interface to which the hard disk is connected; finally, the channel enabling of the high-speed serial expansion bus interface of the server motherboard is triggered, so that the hard disk starts to perform data interaction with the server motherboard, completing the hard disk expansion.

[0055] Refer to Figure 5 , which is a detailed implementation step flowchart of a hard disk expansion method provided by an embodiment of the present invention; as Figure 5 shown, the steps of the method include:

[0056] Step 201: The hard disk expansion device is connected to the high-speed serial expansion bus interface of the server motherboard.

[0057] In practical applications, first, the hard disk expansion device needs to be inserted into the high-speed serial expansion bus interface of the server motherboard, and this process is manually completed by the operation and maintenance personnel according to the usage requirements. Since the server motherboard is designed to ensure that the server can adapt to various application scenarios, the number of PCIe slots is often more than the number actually used, that is, there will be idle PCIe slots in actual use.

[0058] The hard disk expansion method provided by the embodiment of the present invention can make full use of the idle PCIe slot interfaces of the motherboard and expand multiple solid-state hard disks. Compared with the existing expansion methods, without increasing the number of PCIe interfaces, data channels are divided and allocated to multiple hard disk link interfaces, which has a significant advantage in expanding the number of hard disks. For example: SilverStone's ST-ECM28 PCIe x4 adapter card can intelligently connect at most one solid-state hard disk based on the NVMe protocol when occupying one PCIe interface slot. However, for the hard disk expansion device provided by the embodiment of the present invention, when occupying one PCIe interface slot in the same way, a PEIe x16 specification channel is allocated to 44 different link interfaces to achieve simultaneous connection of 4 solid-state hard disks.

[0059] Step 202: Detect the identity information of the devices connected to the high-speed serial expansion bus interface of the server motherboard through the base management controller.

[0060] This step can specifically refer to the above-mentioned step 101, which will not be elaborated here in this embodiment.

[0061] In an alternative embodiment, step 202 may further include:

[0062] Sub-step 2021: Invoke the base management controller to read the device numerical information of the device.

[0063] In the hard disk expansion method provided by the embodiment of the present invention, after the expansion device is connected to the high-speed serial expansion bus interface of the server motherboard, the server will actively invoke the BMC to read the identity (ID, Identity Document) numerical information of the connected device, and determine the device type of the connected device with this as the parameter value.

[0064] Specifically refer to Figure 6 , which shows the schematic diagram of the hardware identity detection circuit of a hard disk expansion device provided by the embodiment of the present invention. The BMC on the server motherboard detects whether the device on each PCIe interface is the hard disk expansion card in the present invention through the SMBus bus, which is realized by the system management bus input / output expander (SMBus I / O Expander) chip on the hard disk expansion card. As Figure 6 shown, there are a total of 8 wire pins extended from the system management bus input / output expander chip, including D0 - D7.

[0065] The detected device ID value is determined by multiple pull-up and pull-down resistors 300 connected to the I / O expansion chip. As Figure 6 shown, when all the pull-up resistors 300 are soldered and all the pull-down resistors 300 are not soldered, the D0 - D7 pins are all set to high level, and the device ID value read by the BMC will be 0xFF (hexadecimal representation method, converted to decimal is 255); similarly, when all the pull-down resistors 300 are soldered and all the pull-up resistors 300 are not soldered, the D0 - D7 pins are all set to low level, and the identity ID value read by the BMC will be 0. By whether the pull-up and pull-down resistors 300 at the D7 - D0 positions are soldered, the value of the device ID can be set to any value in the range of 0 - 255.

[0066] Sub-step 2022: When the device numerical information is the same as the preset numerical information, it is determined that the device connected to the current expansion slot is a hard disk expansion device.

[0067] The BMC on the server motherboard detects whether the device on each PCIe interface is the hard disk expander card in the present invention through the SMBus bus, which is implemented by the system management bus input / output expander (SMBus I / O Expander) chip on the hard disk expander card. There are multiple I / O pins on the I / O expander chip, and some of the pins are connected to the device information detection circuit. If the device information value detected by the BMC is consistent with the preset value, it can be determined that the device on the PCIe interface is the hard disk expander card in the present invention, thus facilitating the subsequent function implementation.

[0068] Step 203: In the case where it is determined that the connected device is a hard disk expansion device, the presence detection of the hard disk is sequentially performed on multiple said link interfaces on the hard disk expansion device according to the interface serial number of the link interface.

[0069] This step can specifically refer to the above step 102, which will not be elaborated here in this embodiment.

[0070] In an alternative embodiment, step 203 may further include:

[0071] Sub-step 2031: Perform the presence detection of the hard disk on multiple link interfaces on the hard disk expansion device in ascending order of the interface serial number of the link interface.

[0072] Refer to Figure 7 , which shows a logic relationship diagram of the hard disk presence detection provided by the embodiment of the present invention. For multiple link interfaces on the hard disk expansion device, the initialization of the hard disk presence detection is first performed, and polling is performed according to the interface serial number of each link interface, starting from the link interface with the smallest interface serial number (usually number 0).

[0073] As Figure 7 shown, the pins of the link interface send the potential information of the current link interface to the system management bus input / output expander (SMBus I / O Expander) chip, and then send it to the BMC of the motherboard through the PCIe conductive contact via the system management bus.

[0074] In an alternative embodiment, sub-step 2031 may further include:

[0075] Sub-step 20311: Invoke the basic management controller to detect the pin potential in the link interface through the extended management unit.

[0076] The BMC also implements the in-position detection of the hard disk through the System Management Bus Input / Output Expander (SMBus I / O Expander) chip on the hard disk expansion device. There is a presence signal pin for detection on each hard disk link interface. When the pin is at a low level, it indicates that there is a hard disk present; when the pin is at a high level, it indicates that there is no hard disk present.

[0077] Sub-step 20312: When the potential of the pin is at a high level, it is determined that the hard disk has been connected to the link interface; when the potential of the pin is at a low level, it is determined that the hard disk has not been connected to the link interface.

[0078] As described in sub-step 20311, in the above in-position detection result, when the potential of the pin of the link interface is at a high level, it is determined that the hard disk has been connected to the link interface; on the contrary, when the potential of the pin is at a low level, it is determined that the hard disk has not been connected to the link interface. Subsequently, the system will perform targeted special processing according to different detection results.

[0079] Sub-step 2032: When it is determined that the hard disk has been connected to the link interface, clock synchronization is performed on the clock channel corresponding to the link interface to which the hard disk is connected, and then it jumps to the next link interface in the order of the interface serial number to continue the in-position detection of the next link interface.

[0080] For the link interface with the detection result that a hard disk has been connected currently, the system will notify the clock buffer module to perform clock synchronization on the clock channel corresponding to this interface. In contrast, if the detection result shows that no hard disk is connected to the current link interface, the BMC will continue to poll the next link interface according to the interface serial number until all the interfaces on the current expansion device have been polled.

[0081] Step 204: When it is determined through the in-position detection that the hard disk has been connected to the link interface, clock synchronization is performed on the clock channel corresponding to the link interface to which the hard disk is connected.

[0082] This step can specifically refer to the above step 103, which will not be elaborated here in this embodiment.

[0083] In an optional embodiment, step 204 may further include:

[0084] Sub-step 2041: Send a preset target working clock frequency to the clock buffer unit;

[0085] As Figure 4 shown, the main board BMC sends the preset target working clock frequency to the clock buffer unit through the PCIe interface and the SMBus bus.

[0086] Sub-step 2042: According to the target working clock frequency, perform clock synchronization on the link interface through the clock buffer unit, so that the link interface operates according to the target working clock frequency.

[0087] After receiving the target clock frequency sent by the BMC, the clock buffer unit enables the output to the clock channel corresponding to the corresponding link interface to complete clock synchronization.

[0088] Step 205: Trigger the channel enable of the high-speed serial expansion bus interface of the server motherboard, so that the hard disk and the server motherboard start data interaction to complete hard disk expansion.

[0089] This step can specifically refer to the above step 104, which will not be elaborated here in this embodiment.

[0090] In summary, for the hard disk expansion device connected to the serial bus interface of the server motherboard, the hard disk expansion method provided by the embodiment of the present invention first detects the identity information of the devices connected to the serial expansion bus interface through the basic management controller of the motherboard; when it is determined that the connected device is a hard disk expansion device, according to the interface serial number of the link interface on the device, the in-position detection of multiple hard disks on the hard disk expansion device is sequentially performed; when it is determined through the in-position detection that the link interface is connected to a hard disk, clock synchronization is performed on the clock channel corresponding to the link interface connected to the hard disk; finally, the channel enable of the high-speed serial expansion bus interface of the server motherboard is triggered, so that the hard disk and the server motherboard start data interaction to complete hard disk expansion. According to the usage needs, the hard disk expansion device can be installed and connected to the hard disk to be expanded immediately, without being limited to the existing motherboard structure design. By using the idle serial expansion bus interface of the server motherboard to connect the hard disk expansion device, multiple hard disks can be connected conveniently and quickly, improving the flexibility of the hard disk expansion method.

[0091] Refer to Figure 8 , Figure 8 is the structural diagram of a hard disk expansion device provided by the embodiment of the present invention; as Figure 8 shown, the device includes: multiple link interfaces, a central control manager, and conductive contacts 301 (commonly known as "gold fingers"); among them, the link interfaces are used to connect the hard disks to be expanded; the central control manager is respectively connected to multiple link interfaces, and the central control manager is also connected to the conductive contacts 301; the conductive contacts 301 are used to insert into the serial bus interface on the server motherboard to realize the connection between the hard disk expansion device and the server motherboard.

[0092] Refer to Figure 9, which shows the working principle diagram of the out-of-band channel of a hard disk expansion device provided by an embodiment of the present invention. The server motherboard supplies power to the central control manager in sequence through the serial bus interface and the conductive contact 301, so that the central control manager supplies power to drive the link interface according to the preset interface power consumption parameters for the hard disk connected to the link interface to work; the system management bus input / output expander (SMBus I / O Expander) chip is responsible for detecting the device identity information of the device connected to the PCIe interface and detecting the presence of the hard disk. The serial bus interface, the conductive contact and the central control manager corresponding to the link interface together form a data transmission link, and the hard disk connected to the link interface is used to obtain data from the server motherboard and send data to the server motherboard through the data transmission link.

[0093] Optionally, in one embodiment, the central control manager includes: an expansion management unit, a clock buffer unit, and a system bus management unit; the expansion management unit sequentially detects the presence of multiple link interfaces to determine whether a hard disk is connected to the link interface.

[0094] When it is determined that a hard disk is connected to the link interface, the clock buffer unit receives the target working clock frequency sent by the server and synchronizes the clock of the clock channel corresponding to the link interface according to the target working clock frequency.

[0095] The bus management unit is used to enable or disconnect the data transmission link between the hard disk and the server motherboard.

[0096] Optionally, in one embodiment, the conductive contact has various different size specifications, and the number of contacts included in the conductive contacts of different specifications is different.

[0097] The number of contacts of the conductive contact is in a proportional relationship with the number of data channels carried by the expansion device.

[0098] Optionally, in one embodiment, the size specifications of the conductive contact include any one of the conductive contact with 16 data channels, the conductive contact with 8 data channels, and the conductive contact with 4 data channels.

[0099] In the prior art, common specifications for the number of channels in serial expansion buses include PCIe×16, PCIe×8, PCIe×1, etc. Specifically, the full length of a PCIe x16 slot is 89 mm, with 164 pins. There is a bayonet at the outer end near the motherboard, dividing the 16x into two groups, front and back. The shorter slot has 22 pins, mainly for power supply, and the longer slot has 142 pins, mainly for data transmission, offering high bandwidth brought by 16 channels. It is mainly used for graphics cards and hard disk array cards, etc., and has excellent compatibility, being able to be backward compatible with devices of x1 / x4 / x8 levels. Since the PCIe x16 slot is often used for graphics cards and is directly connected to the CPU, physically close to the CPU, the data exchange between the graphics card and the processor can reduce latency, enabling the system performance to be fully exerted.

[0100] The full length of a PCIe x8 slot is 56 mm, with 98 pins. Compared with PCIe x16, mainly the data pins are reduced to 76, and the short power supply pins remain 22. For compatibility, the PCIe x8 slot is usually processed in the form of a PCIe x16 slot, but only half of the data pins are effective, that is, the actual bandwidth is only half of that of a true PCI-E x16 slot. One can observe the motherboard wiring, and there are no connections or soldered pins in the second half of the x8.

[0101] The length of a PCI-E x4 slot is 39 mm. Similarly, it is achieved by reducing the data pins on the basis of a PCI-E x16 slot. It is mainly used for PCI-E SSD solid-state drives or M.2 SSD solid-state drives installed through a PCI-E adapter card.

[0102] PCIe x4 slots are usually extended from motherboard chips. However, with the increase in the number of PCIe channels inside the CPU, now some high-end motherboards can start to provide PCIe x4 slots directly connected to the CPU for installing PCIe solid-state drives.

[0103] Optionally, in one embodiment, the number of link interfaces of the expansion device is: the ratio of the number of data channels corresponding to the conductive contacts in the expansion device to the number of data channels required for a single link interface.

[0104] In-band channel expansion realizes dividing the transceiver channels of x8 or x16 of a PCIe slot into a plurality of transceiver channels with an x4 width and connecting them to the hard disk link interfaces on the board. If the PCIe slot is x8 wide, the transceiver channels are divided into two hard disk link interfaces; if the PCIe slot is x16 wide, the transceiver channels are divided into four hard disk link interfaces. For example Figure 8In the device shown, the number of PCIe channels is not actually increased. Instead, by routing on the printed circuit board (PCB) of the hard disk expansion card, the transceiver channels are extended from the gold fingers to the hard disk link interface, which can effectively reduce the cost of the entire system while achieving the goal.

[0105] Specifically referring to Figure 8 , Figure 8 The shown hard disk expansion card is in the PCIe x16 specification, that is, 16 data paths. In actual applications, the CPU allocates data channels with an x4 width for each link interface according to the number of hard disks present. They respectively correspond to hard disk link interface_0, hard disk link interface_1, hard disk link interface_2, and hard disk link interface_3.

[0106] In summary, for the hard disk expansion device provided in the embodiment of the present invention, for the hard disk expansion device connected to the serial bus interface of the server motherboard, first, the basic management controller of the motherboard detects the identity information of the devices connected to the serial expansion bus interface; when it is determined that the connected device is a hard disk expansion device, the presence detection of the hard disks is sequentially performed on multiple link interfaces of the hard disk expansion device according to the interface serial numbers of the link interfaces on the device; when it is determined through the presence detection that a hard disk is connected to a link interface, clock synchronization is performed on the clock channel corresponding to the link interface to which the hard disk is connected; finally, the channel enabling of the high-speed serial expansion bus interface of the server motherboard is triggered, so that the hard disk and the server motherboard start data interaction to complete the hard disk expansion.

[0107] Figure 10 FIG. is a block diagram of an electronic device 600 shown according to an exemplary embodiment. For example, the electronic device 600 can be a mobile phone, a computer, a digital broadcast terminal, a messaging device, a game console, a tablet device, a medical device, a fitness device, a personal digital assistant, etc.

[0108] Referring to Figure 10 , the electronic device 600 may include one or more of the following components: a processing component 602, a memory 604, a power component 606, a multimedia component 608, an audio component 610, an input / output (I / O) interface 612, a sensor component 614, and a communication component 616.

[0109] The processing component 602 generally controls the overall operation of the electronic device 600, such as operations associated with display, telephone calls, data communication, camera operations, and recording operations. The processing component 602 may include one or more processors 620 to execute instructions to complete all or part of the steps of the above-described methods. In addition, the processing component 602 may include one or more modules to facilitate the interaction between the processing component 602 and other components. For example, the processing component 602 may include a multimedia module to facilitate the interaction between the multimedia component 608 and the processing component 602.

[0110] The memory 604 is used to store various types of data to support the operation of the electronic device 600. Examples of such data include instructions for any application or method operating on the electronic device 600, contact data, phone book data, messages, pictures, multimedia, and the like. The memory 604 can be implemented by any type of volatile or non-volatile storage device or a combination thereof, such as static random access memory (SRAM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), programmable read-only memory (PROM), read-only memory (ROM), magnetic memory, flash memory, a magnetic disk, or an optical disk.

[0111] The power component 606 provides power to various components of the electronic device 600. The power component 606 may include a power management system, one or more power sources, and other components associated with generating, managing, and distributing power for the electronic device 600.

[0112] The multimedia component 608 includes a screen that provides an output interface between the electronic device 600 and the user. In some embodiments, the screen may include a liquid crystal display (LCD) and a touch panel (TP). If the screen includes a touch panel, the screen can be implemented as a touch screen to receive input signals from the user. The touch panel includes one or more touch sensors to sense touches, swipes, and gestures on the touch panel. The touch sensors can sense not only the boundaries of touch or swipe actions but also detect the duration and pressure associated with the touch or swipe operation. In some embodiments, the multimedia component 608 includes a front camera and / or a rear camera. When the electronic device 600 is in an operating mode, such as a shooting mode or a multimedia mode, the front camera and / or the rear camera can receive external multimedia data. Each of the front camera and the rear camera can be a fixed optical lens system or have a focal length and optical zoom capabilities.

[0113] The audio component 610 is used to output and / or input audio signals. For example, the audio component 610 includes a microphone (MIC). When the electronic device 600 is in an operating mode, such as a call mode, a recording mode, and a voice recognition mode, the microphone is used to receive external audio signals. The received audio signals can be further stored in the memory 604 or transmitted via the communication component 616. In some embodiments, the audio component 610 further includes a speaker for outputting audio signals.

[0114] The I / O interface 612 provides an interface between the processing component 602 and a peripheral interface module, and the peripheral interface module can be a keyboard, a click wheel, buttons, etc. These buttons can include but are not limited to: a home button, a volume button, a start button, and a lock button.

[0115] The sensor component 614 includes one or more sensors for providing status assessments of various aspects of the electronic device 600. For example, the sensor component 614 can detect the on / off state of the electronic device 600, the relative positioning of components, such as the display and keypad of the electronic device 600. The sensor component 614 can also detect a change in the position of the electronic device 600 or a component of the electronic device 600, the presence or absence of user contact with the electronic device 600, the orientation or acceleration / deceleration of the electronic device 600, and the temperature change of the electronic device 600. The sensor component 614 can include a proximity sensor configured to detect the presence of nearby objects without any physical contact. The sensor component 614 can also include a light sensor, such as a CMOS or CCD image sensor, for use in imaging applications. In some embodiments, the sensor component 614 can further include an acceleration sensor, a gyroscope sensor, a magnetic sensor, a pressure sensor, or a temperature sensor.

[0116] The communication component 616 is used to facilitate communication between the electronic device 600 and other devices in a wired or wireless manner. The electronic device 600 can access a wireless network based on a communication standard, such as WiFi, a carrier network (such as 2G, 3G, 4G, or 5G), or a combination thereof. In an exemplary embodiment, the communication component 616 receives a broadcast signal or broadcast-related information from an external broadcast management system via a broadcast channel. In an exemplary embodiment, the communication component 616 further includes a near field communication (NFC) module to facilitate short-range communication. For example, the NFC module can be implemented based on radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, infrared data association (IrDA) technology, ultra-wideband (UWB) technology, Bluetooth (BT) technology, and other technologies.

[0117] In an exemplary embodiment, the electronic device 600 may be implemented by one or more application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), digital signal processors (DSPs), digital signal processing devices (DSPDs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), controllers, microcontrollers, microprocessors, or other electronic components, and is used to implement a hard disk expansion method provided by an embodiment of the present invention.

[0118] In an exemplary embodiment, a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium including instructions is further provided, such as a memory 604 including instructions. The above instructions can be executed by a processor 620 of the electronic device 600 to complete the above method. For example, the non-transitory storage medium may be a ROM, a random access memory (RAM), a CD-ROM, a magnetic tape, a floppy disk, an optical data storage device, or the like.

[0119] Figure 11 FIG. is a block diagram of an electronic device 700 shown according to an exemplary embodiment. For example, the electronic device 700 may be provided as a server. Referring to Figure 11 , the electronic device 700 includes a processing component 722, which further includes one or more processors, and memory resources represented by a memory 732 for storing instructions executable by the processing component 722, such as application programs. The application programs stored in the memory 732 may include one or more modules each corresponding to a set of instructions. In addition, the processing component 722 is configured to execute instructions to perform a hard disk expansion method provided by an embodiment of the present invention.

[0120] The electronic device 700 may further include a power supply component 726 configured to perform power management of the electronic device 700, a wired or wireless network interface 750 configured to connect the electronic device 700 to a network, and an input / output (I / O) interface 758. The electronic device 700 may operate based on an operating system stored in the memory 732, such as Windows ServerTM, Mac OS XTM, UnixTM, LinuxTM, FreeBSD TM, or the like.

[0121] Those skilled in the art will readily conceive of other embodiments of the present invention after considering the specification and practicing the invention disclosed herein. The present invention is intended to cover any variations, uses, or adaptations of the present invention, which follow the general principles of the present invention and include common general knowledge or conventional technical means in the technical field not disclosed in the present disclosure. The specification and embodiments are only to be considered exemplary, and the true scope and spirit of the present invention are pointed out by the following claims.

[0122] It should be understood that the present invention is not limited to the exact structures described above and shown in the drawings, and various modifications and changes can be made without departing from its scope. The scope of the present invention is only limited by the appended claims.

Claims

1. A hard disk expansion device, characterized in that, it is installed on the server motherboard; the device includes: a plurality of link interfaces, a central control manager, and conductive contacts; wherein, the link interfaces are used to connect the hard disks to be expanded; the central control manager is respectively connected to the plurality of link interfaces; the central control manager is also connected to the conductive contacts; the conductive contacts are used to insert into the serial bus interface on the server motherboard to realize the connection between the hard disk expansion device and the server motherboard; the server motherboard supplies power to the central control manager through the serial bus interface and the conductive contacts in sequence, so that the central control manager supplies power to drive the link interfaces according to the preset interface power consumption parameters for the hard disks connected to the link interfaces to work; the serial bus interface corresponding to the link interface, the conductive contacts, and the central control manager jointly form a data transmission link, and the hard disks connected to the link interfaces are used to obtain data from the server motherboard and send data to the server motherboard through the data transmission link; the central control manager includes: an expansion management unit, a clock buffer unit, and a system bus management unit; the expansion management unit sequentially performs in-position detection on the plurality of link interfaces to determine whether a hard disk is connected to the link interface; the clock buffer unit receives the target working clock frequency sent by the server when it is determined that a hard disk is connected to the link interface, and synchronizes the clock of the clock channel corresponding to the link interface according to the target working clock frequency; the bus management unit is used to enable or disconnect the data transmission link between the hard disk and the server motherboard.

2. The device according to claim 1, characterized in that, the conductive contacts have various different size specifications, and the number of contact pieces included in the conductive contacts of different specifications is different; the number of contact pieces of the conductive contacts is in a proportional relationship with the number of data channels carried by the expansion device.

3. The device according to claim 2, characterized in that, the size specifications of the conductive contacts include any one of the conductive contacts with 16 data channels, the conductive contacts with 8 data channels, and the conductive contacts with 4 data channels.

4. The device according to claim 2, characterized in that, the number of link interfaces of the expansion device is: the ratio of the number of data channels corresponding to the conductive contacts in the expansion device to the number of data channels required by a single link interface.

5. The expansion device according to any one of claims 1-4, characterized in that, the expansion hard disk connected through the link interface is specifically a hard disk operating based on the Non-Volatile Memory Host Controller Interface Specification.

6. A hard disk expansion method, characterized in that, it is applied to the server motherboard; the server motherboard includes an integrated basic management controller; the method includes: detecting the identity information of the devices connected to the high-speed serial expansion bus interface of the server motherboard through the basic management controller; When it is determined that the accessed device is a hard disk expansion device, in accordance with the interface serial number of the link interface, the presence detection of the hard disk is sequentially performed on multiple said link interfaces on the hard disk expansion device; When it is determined through the presence detection that the link interface has accessed a hard disk, clock synchronization is performed on the clock channel corresponding to the link interface accessing the hard disk; Trigger the channel enable of the high-speed serial expansion bus interface of the server motherboard, so that the hard disk and the server motherboard start data interaction to complete hard disk expansion; The sequentially performing the presence detection of the hard disk on multiple link interfaces on the hard disk expansion device in accordance with the interface serial number of the link interface includes: Performing the presence detection of the hard disk on multiple link interfaces on the hard disk expansion device in the order from small to large of the interface serial number of the link interface; When it is determined that the link interface has not accessed a hard disk, jump to the next said link interface in the order of the interface serial number and continue the presence detection of the hard disk.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein, The detecting the identity information of the device accessed in the expansion slot of the server motherboard by the base management controller includes: Invoking the base management controller to read the device numerical information of the device; When the device numerical information is the same as the preset numerical information, it is determined that the device accessed in the current expansion slot is a hard disk expansion device.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein, The method further includes: When it is determined that the link interface has accessed a hard disk, performing clock synchronization on the clock channel corresponding to the link interface accessing the hard disk, and jumping to the next said link interface in the order of the interface serial number to continue the presence detection of the next link interface.

9. The method according to claim 7, wherein, The performing the presence detection of the hard disk on multiple link interfaces on the hard disk expansion device includes: Invoking the base management controller to detect the pin potential in the link interface through the expansion management unit; When the pin potential is a high potential, it is determined that the link interface has accessed a hard disk; when the pin potential is a low potential, it is determined that the link interface has not accessed a hard disk.

10. The method according to claim 6, wherein, The performing clock synchronization on the clock channel corresponding to the link interface accessing the hard disk includes: Sending a preset target operating clock frequency to the clock buffer unit; According to the target operating clock frequency, performing clock synchronization on the link interface through the clock buffer unit so that the link interface operates in accordance with the target operating clock frequency.

11. An electronic device, wherein, comprises: a processor; a memory for storing executable instructions of the processor; wherein, the processor is configured to execute the instructions to implement the method according to any one of claims 6 to 10.

12. A computer-readable storage medium, wherein, When the instructions in the computer-readable storage medium are executed by a processor of an electronic device, the electronic device is enabled to execute the method according to any one of claims 6 to 10.

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