Quick-release storage medium and status lamp control method and hot plug method thereof

Abstract

The invention discloses a quick-release storage medium, which comprises a storage card core and a quick-release connector, and is characterized in that the storage card core provides a data storage physical space and comprises a main controller, a work indicating lamp, an alarm indicating lamp and a control circuit; wherein the main controller outputs a main controller signal to the control circuit according to the state of the quick-release storage medium; the control circuit controls the on, off and flicker of the work indicating lamp and the alarm indicating lamp according to a certain logic by cooperating a main controller signal with a host control signal input by an upper computer through a pin of the quick-release connector so as to represent the current state of the storage medium; and outputting the storage medium ready signal and the storage medium alarm signal to an upper computer through a quick-release connector. The state of the indicating lamp of the storage medium can be controlled without a backboard, the problem of state indicating lamp control when the storage medium is used on the upper computer is solved, and the cost generated by traditionally using the backboard to control the state of the indicating lamp is reduced.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the technical field of computer devices, and in particular to a storage medium supporting fast unloading, a status light control method therefor, and a hot plugging method therefor. Background Art

[0002] Solid State Disk (SSD) is the most commonly used data storage medium at present, and is widely used in data storage servers. Most of them are mainly based on U.2 / U.3 standard interfaces and follow SAS / SATA / NVMe protocol specifications. In order to facilitate the management and maintenance of each hard disk, a backplane is usually used to implement various operations on the solid state disk. The backplane is designed with hard disk insertion slots and hard disk status indicators. The indicators are generally controlled by a CPLD (Complex Programmable Logic Device) on the backplane. Technicians can judge whether the SSD in the corresponding slot is abnormal according to the indicator status, and perform a card removal and replacement operation on the SSD when an abnormality is found.

[0003] Airborne recording devices also use SSDs as storage media for bus and sensor data. Different from ground data storage servers, airborne product designs have strict requirements for the weight, power consumption, volume, environmental adaptability, etc. of the devices. The backplane undoubtedly increases the additional resource burden; at the same time, data needs to be quickly unloaded frequently, and the gold fingers used in conventional U.2 / U.3 connectors cannot meet the requirements of tens of thousands of plug and unplug operations. Therefore, it is necessary to design a fast unloading storage medium that supports more than ten thousand plug and unplug operations, and based on this fast unloading storage medium, implement the storage medium status light control and hot plugging functions without adding a backplane. Summary of the Invention

[0004] The invention purpose of the present invention is to provide a fast unloading storage medium, a status light control method therefor, and a hot plugging method therefor. The fast unloading storage medium can achieve no less than 60,000 plug and unplug times, meeting harsh usage requirements; the status indicator control method designed based on this fast unloading storage medium can control the indicator status without a backplane, reducing the design complexity and production cost, and is particularly suitable for airborne devices with extremely high environmental requirements; at the same time, the hot plugging method designed based on this fast unloading storage medium can achieve safe and reliable hot plugging of the storage medium, and solve the problem of damage to the storage medium or storage system caused by hot plugging and violent plugging.

[0005] The invention purpose of the present invention is achieved through the following technical solutions:

[0006] A fast unloading storage medium, comprising a memory card core and a fast unloading connector, wherein:

[0007] The memory card core provides a physical space for data storage, including a main controller, a cache chip, a non-volatile storage chip, a working indicator light, an alarm indicator light, and a control circuit. Among them, data interaction and data erasure are carried out between the main controller and the non-volatile storage chip, and a main controller signal is output to the control circuit according to the state of the quick-release storage medium. The control circuit is connected to the main controller through a serial data channel and a digital signal, and is connected to some pins of the quick-release connector through a digital signal. The control circuit controls the on, off, and flashing of the working indicator light and the alarm indicator light according to a certain logic by coordinating the main controller signal and the host control signal input by the upper computer through the pins of the quick-release connector to characterize the current state of the storage medium, and outputs the storage medium ready signal and the storage medium alarm signal to the upper computer through the quick-release connector.

[0008] Preferably, the control circuit receives the storage medium power-on control signal, the working indicator light signal, and the alarm indicator light signal in the host control signal input by the upper computer through the single-ended signals 1, 8, and 9 on the quick-release connector, and controls the on, off, and flashing of the working indicator light and the alarm indicator light according to a certain logic in combination with the working indicator light signal and the alarm indicator light signal in the main control signal of the main controller, and outputs the storage medium ready signal and the storage medium alarm signal through the single-ended signals 0 and 2 on the quick-release connector.

[0009] Preferably, the control method of the working indicator light and the alarm indicator light is as follows:

[0010] a) After the quick-release storage medium is inserted into the upper computer, after the control circuit receives the storage medium power-on control signal input by the upper computer through the single-ended signal 1, it controls the quick-release storage medium to power on and start the initialization operation. At the same time, after receiving the low-level working indicator light signal and the 4Hz square wave alarm indicator light signal input by the upper computer through the single-ended signals 8 and 9, it controls the working indicator light to turn off and the alarm indicator light to flash.

[0011] b) The main controller outputs the working indicator light signal and the alarm indicator light signal to the control circuit according to the initialization and self-detection results, and the control circuit controls the working indicator light and the alarm indicator light. Specifically, if the storage medium initialization and self-check are both normal, the main controller outputs a high-level working indicator light signal and a low-level alarm indicator light signal to the control circuit, then the control circuit controls the working indicator light to be always on and the alarm indicator light to turn off, and outputs a high-level storage medium ready signal to the upper computer through the single-ended signal 0 and a low-level storage medium alarm signal through the single-ended signal 2. Otherwise, the main controller outputs a low-level working indicator light signal and a high-level alarm indicator light signal to the control circuit, the control circuit controls the working indicator light to turn off and the alarm indicator light to be always on, and outputs a low-level storage medium ready signal to the upper computer through the single-ended signal 0 and a high-level storage medium alarm signal through the single-ended signal 2.

[0012] c) The host computer identifies the ready / alarm signal of the storage medium, and outputs the working indicator signal and the alarm indicator signal to the storage medium control circuit according to the registration of the storage medium block device and the result of the file system mounting in the storage system. Specifically, when the host computer identifies that the storage medium alarm signal is at a high level, the control circuit will receive the low-level working indicator signal and the high-level alarm indicator signal input by the host computer through single-ended signals 8 and 3, and control the working / alarm indicator to be in the off / constant-on state respectively; when the host computer identifies that the storage medium alarm / ready signal is at a low / high level, if the registration of the host computer storage medium block device and the file system mounting are both normal, the control circuit will receive the high-level working indicator signal and the low-level alarm indicator signal input by the host computer through single-ended signals 8 and 9, and control the working / alarm indicator to be in the constant-on / off state respectively, otherwise it will receive the low-level working indicator signal and the 2Hz square-wave alarm indicator signal input by the host computer, and control the working / alarm indicator to be in the off / flashing state respectively;

[0013] d) When the host computer accesses data from the storage medium, the storage medium main controller monitors the data transmission status and generates a 2Hz square-wave working indicator signal to the control circuit during the data transmission process, and the control circuit controls the working indicator to be in the flashing state;

[0014] e) During the hot-plugging process of the storage medium, the control circuit receives the high-level working indicator signal and the 2Hz square-wave alarm indicator signal input by the host computer through single-ended signals 8 and 9, and controls the working / alarm indicator to be in the constant-on / flashing state respectively;

[0015] f) During the destruction process of the storage medium, the control circuit receives the 2Hz square-wave working indicator signal and the 2Hz square-wave alarm indicator signal input by the host computer through single-ended signals 8 and 9, and controls the working / alarm indicator to be in the flashing / flashing state.

[0016] Preferably, the priority of the working indicator signal and the alarm indicator signal received by the control circuit through single-ended signals 8 and 9 on the quick-release connector is higher than that of the working indicator signal and the alarm indicator signal of the main controller.

[0017] Preferably, the quick-release connector includes a plurality of contacts and a housing, and all the contacts are hyperbolic line-spring holes.

[0018] Preferably, the contacts of the quick-release connector are divided into long-pin contacts and short-pin contacts. There are 2 short-pin contacts, which are short-circuited through a printed circuit board, and after the quick-release storage medium is inserted into the host computer, a closed circuit is formed with the connector of the host computer to determine the closure of the connector; the remaining contacts are all long contacts.

[0019] Preferably, the quick-release storage medium further includes a storage medium structural member and a quick-release locking device. The memory card core and the quick-release connector are located on the same printed circuit board and are installed inside the storage medium structural member. The quick-release locking device is installed on the storage medium structural member and includes locking bars on both sides and a handle at the top. After the quick-release connector is inserted into the host computer, the handle is pressed to lock the storage medium structural member, and the storage medium structural member is unlocked by releasing the handle.

[0020] Preferably, two short pin contacts are used as single-ended signals 10 and 11. The storage medium power-on control signal, the working indicator signal, the alarm indicator signal, and the enable storage medium read / write protection signal in the host control signal input by the host computer are received through single-ended signals 1, 8, 9, 14, and 15 on the quick-release connector, and together with the storage medium ready signal and the storage medium alarm signal output by single-ended signals 0 and 2, they control the hot plugging of the quick-release storage medium.

[0021] Preferably, the hot insertion process of the quick-release storage medium is as follows:

[0022] Step 1: After the host computer is powered on and running, the quick-release storage medium is inserted into the host computer and locked by the quick-release locking device. At this time, the present signal on single-ended signals 10-11 of the quick-release connector is connected to the host computer signal to form a closed loop.

[0023] Step 2: The host computer reads single-ended signals 10-11 of the quick-release connector to determine whether the quick-release storage medium is present and the type of the quick-release storage medium. When it is determined that the quick-release storage medium is present, the storage medium power-on control signal is input to the storage medium control circuit through single-ended signal 1 to enable the storage medium power supply.

[0024] Step 3: After the quick-release storage medium is powered on, it starts to initialize. During the initialization process, the main controller outputs the main control signal to the control circuit, and the control circuit controls the alarm indicator to flash.

[0025] Step 4: The control circuit outputs the storage medium ready / alarm signal through single-ended signals 0 and 2 according to the storage medium initialization result. After the host computer reads this signal, it inputs the release storage medium read / write protection signal to the control circuit through single-ended signals 14-15, and at the same time starts block device registration and file system mounting. The host computer inputs the 2HZ square wave alarm indicator signal to the control circuit through single-ended signal 9 to control the alarm indicator to flash.

[0026] Step 5: After the host computer initialization is completed, the host computer outputs the control signal to the control circuit according to the system initialization result, and the control circuit controls the state of the alarm indicator, and the hot insertion is completed.

[0027] During the flashing of the alarm indicator, hot removal is prohibited.

[0028] Preferably, the hot plugging process of the quick-release storage medium is as follows:

[0029] Step 1: The quick-release locking device is lifted, and the quick-release storage medium starts hot plugging.

[0030] Step 2: During the process of pulling out the storage medium, the in-position signal on the single-ended signal 10-11 of the quick-release connector is first disconnected from the closed loop formed with the host computer, triggering the host computer to perform hot plugging processing of the storage medium.

[0031] Step 3: The host computer immediately inputs an enabling storage medium read / write protection signal to the control circuit through the single-ended signals 14-15, prohibiting any read / write behavior at the block device layer; at the same time, the main controller of the storage medium recognizes the storage medium read / write protection signal and prohibits any data read / write commands.

[0032] Step 4: If there are still commands to be executed by the quick-release storage medium at this moment, the main controller cancels this command and immediately returns the execution result; the host computer performs the storage medium unloading operation.

[0033] Step 5: The host computer inputs a signal to prohibit power supply to the storage medium to the control circuit through the single-ended signal 1, and at this time, the quick-release storage medium is powered off.

[0034] Step 6: The quick-release storage medium is pulled out, and the quick-release connector is completely detached from the host computer, and the hot plugging is completed.

[0035] The beneficial effects of the present invention are as follows:

[0036] This application proposes a quick-release storage medium. The contact spring holes of the quick-release connector support more than 60,000 plugging and unplugging times, with extremely high seismic resistance and reliability, solving the problem of insufficient plugging and unplugging times of the storage medium in specific scenarios; based on the definition of the pins of the quick-release connector, a control method for controlling the status of the storage medium indicator light without a backplane is proposed. This method arbitrates the indicator light control signal through the control circuit on the storage medium, solving the problem of controlling the status indicator light when using the storage medium on the storage device and the unloader, and reducing the cost caused by the traditional use of the backplane to control the status of the indicator light; at the same time, based on the quick-release storage medium, the pin definition and hot plugging implementation method for quick release are proposed, solving the problem of damage to the storage medium or storage system caused by hot plugging and violent plugging, and providing a hot plugging implementation path for storage systems using PCIe controllers that do not support the hot plugging function. Description of the Drawings

[0037] Figure 1 It is a schematic diagram of the composition of the quick-release storage medium.

[0038] Figure 2 It is a schematic diagram of the control of the working indicator light and the warning indicator light.

[0039] Figure 3 It is a schematic diagram of the hot insertion process of a quick-release storage medium.

[0040] Figure 4 It is a schematic diagram of the hot removal process of a quick-release storage medium. Specific implementation manners

[0041] The present invention will be further described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and embodiments.

[0042] Refer to Figure 1 As shown, a quick-release storage medium shown in this embodiment includes a memory card core 1, a quick-release connector 2, a storage medium structural member 3, and a quick-release locking device 4. Among them, the memory card core and the quick-release connector are located on the same printed circuit board and are installed inside the storage medium structural member; the storage medium structure is used to fix the printed circuit board, and working indicator positions and warning indicator positions are also configured on the storage medium structure; the quick-release locking device is installed on the storage medium structural member and includes locking bars on both sides and a quick-release handle at the top, and is used to fix the quick-release storage medium to the host computer.

[0043] Refer to Figure 2 As shown, the memory card core provides a physical space for data storage of the quick-release storage medium, and is composed of a main controller and its peripheral circuits, a cache chip, a non-volatile storage chip, a working indicator, a warning indicator, and a control circuit, etc. Among them, the main controller is a CPU or FPGA chip, on which a firmware program runs, and together with its peripheral circuits, it realizes standard protocol specification interfaces, such as PCIe / NVMe, etc., and realizes functions such as data interaction (reading or writing), data erasure (soft destruction) with the non-volatile storage chip, and outputs a main controller signal to the control circuit according to the state of the storage medium; the cache chip is used to cache program data and user read / write data when the main controller runs the program; the non-volatile storage medium provides an actual physical space for data storage and is managed by the main controller; the control circuit is composed of a single-chip microcomputer and several logic gates, which is connected to the main controller through a serial data channel and digital signals, and is connected to some pins of the quick-release connector through digital signals. The control circuit combines the second status indicator control signal in the main controller signal with the first status indicator control signal in the host control signal input through the quick-release connector pins by the host computer, and controls the lighting and extinguishing of the working indicator and the warning indicator according to a certain logic to represent the current state of the storage medium, and outputs the main control signal to the host computer.

[0044] The quick-release locking device includes two locking bars and one handle, which are made of lightweight wear-resistant alloy. After the quick-release connector is inserted into the host computer, the handle is pressed to lock the storage medium structure. When the handle is released, the storage medium structure is unlocked. With this quick-release locking device, the quick-release storage medium can greatly improve its heat dissipation capacity and anti-vibration capacity on the premise of meeting the requirements of sufficient insertion and extraction times and convenient and fast locking / unlocking, so as to meet the usage requirements of higher speeds and more stringent environments.

[0045] The quick-release connector is composed of several contact components and a housing, etc. Different from the gold finger contact components used in U.2 / U.3 data cards, the contact components of the quick-release connector in this embodiment are all hyperbolic line-spring holes. When the quick-release connector is inserted, multiple elastic metal wires inside the line-spring holes closely fit the pins to form multi-line contact. While reducing the contact resistance and increasing the current-carrying capacity, it has the advantages of small pin resistance, low contact component wear, and anti-vibration and impact resistance. As a result, the signal transmission rate of a single contact component is not less than 16 Gbps, and there will be no obvious contact component wear and signal attenuation after 60,000 insertions and extractions. The contact components of the quick-release connector are divided into long-pin contact components and short-pin contact components. Different from connectors like U.2 that achieve hot plugging through the way of long power pins and short signal pins, there are 2 short-pin contact components in this embodiment, which are short-circuited through a printed circuit board. After the quick-release storage medium is inserted into the host computer, a closed loop is formed with the connector of the host computer to determine the closure of the connector; the remaining contact components, including signals, power supplies, etc., are all long contact components.

[0046] As a bridge for data interaction between the host computer and the main controller and control signal interaction between the host computer and the control circuit, this embodiment proposes a pin definition for the quick-release connector, which includes at least 5 pairs of differential pairs, 16 single-ended signals, and power supply / ground signals. The differential pairs are used to transmit high-speed differential signals and PCIe clock signals (differential pairs No. 0 to 4). The single-ended signals include: storage medium ready status output (single-ended signal 0), storage medium power-on control input (single-ended signal 1), storage medium alarm output (single-ended signal 2), storage medium serial port debugging input / output (single-ended signals 3 to 5), destruction control input and destruction completion output (single-ended signals 6 to 7), status indicator input (single-ended signals 8 to 9), storage medium presence and category output (single-ended signals 10 to 11), interface module configuration input (single-ended signals 12 to 13), read / write protection control signal input (single-ended signals 14 to 15).

[0047] The single-ended signal 0 indicates that the quick-release storage medium is in a ready state, with high level being valid; the single-ended signal 1 is used to control the power supply of the quick-release storage medium, and high level enables the power supply; the single-ended signal 2 is used to output the storage medium alarm signal to the host computer, with high level being valid; the single-ended signals 3 to 5 are the input / output of the debug serial port of the quick-release storage medium, and this signal is mainly used for the online debugging or firmware upgrade of the quick-release storage medium.

[0048] The single-ended signal 6 is used for the host computer to input the storage medium destruction signal, with low level being valid; the single-ended signal 7 is used to output the destruction completion signal to the host computer after the quick-release storage medium destruction is completed, with high level being valid; specifically, when the control circuit detects a low-level input of the single-ended signal 6 for more than 1 second, data destruction is performed, and after the destruction execution is completed, a high-level destruction completion signal is output through the single-ended signal 7 to indicate that the destruction process is completed.

[0049] The single-ended signals 8 to 9 are used for the host computer to input the first status indicator control signal, including the working indicator signal and the alarm indicator signal. When the indicator blinks, it is not allowed to unplug the quick-release storage medium from the host computer.

[0050] The single-ended signals 10 to 11 are short-pin contacts, which form a closed circuit by connecting with the host computer contacts and serve as the in-position identification signal of the quick-release storage medium; at the same time, this single-ended signal represents different types of quick-release storage media through the combination of internal high and low levels. Specifically, the combination of the single-ended signals 10 to 11 and the quick-release storage media they represent are as follows:

[0051]

[0052]

[0053] The single-ended signals 12 to 13 are used for the host computer to configure the PCIe interface mode of the quick-release storage medium. Specifically, the combination of the single-ended signals 12 to 13 and the PCIe interface modes they represent are as follows:

[0054] PCIe interface mode of storage medium Single-ended signal 12 Single-ended signal 13 PCIe Gen3 (default x4) 0 0 PCIe Gen4 (default x4) 0 1 Forced x2 1 0 Adaptive 1 1

[0055] The single-ended signals 14 to 15 are the read and write protection signals of the quick-release storage medium. The read and write protection is enabled by default and is unlocked by the host computer pulling down the level.

[0056] Based on this quick-release storage medium, this application proposes a control method for controlling the status of the storage medium indicator without a backplane. The control circuit outputs a pulse waveform to control the indicator status according to the main controller signal received from the main controller and the host control signal of the host computer received through the quick-release connector; the indicators include a working indicator (green) and an alarm indicator (yellow), see Figure 2 .

[0057] The host computer generates a host control signal based on the storage medium status and the operation status of the host computer software. When the quick-release storage medium is connected to the host computer, the host control signal is input to the control circuit on the quick-release storage medium through the quick-release connector. The host control signal includes a storage medium power-on control signal (corresponding to single-ended signal 1), a destruction control signal (corresponding to single-ended signal 6), a first status indicator control signal (corresponding to single-ended signals 8-9), an interface module configuration signal (corresponding to single-ended signals 12-13), and a read / write protection control signal (corresponding to single-ended signals 14-15). The main controller monitors the status of the quick-release storage medium, receives data from the host computer, and generates a main controller signal to output to the control circuit. The control circuit will control the working indicator light and the warning indicator light according to the main controller signal, and output the main control signal to the host computer through the quick-release connector. The main controller signal includes a storage medium ready signal (corresponding to single-ended signal 0), a storage medium warning output signal (corresponding to single-ended signal 2), a destruction completion signal (corresponding to single-ended signal 7), and a second status indicator control signal (including a working indicator light signal and a warning indicator light signal, which is connected to the control circuit inside the storage medium). The control circuit outputs corresponding level signals based on the priority mode and according to a certain logic according to the first status indicator control signal and the second status indicator signal to control the on / off or flashing of the working indicator light and the warning indicator light on the storage medium; among them, the priority of the first status indicator is higher than that of the second status indicator. The purpose and advantages are as follows: 1. The status of the indicator light can not only represent the status of the storage medium, but also represent the status of the current data access of the system using this storage medium; 2. When the quick-release storage medium is connected to the unloader for data unloading, the indicator light represents the current status of the storage medium, and is not restricted by the unloader without an indicator light control circuit or the backplane. The host control signal, the main controller signal, and the indicator light control signal are all implemented through conventional GPIO pins, and no additional logic circuit is required.

[0058] Specifically, when the quick-release storage medium is inserted into the host computer, the following operations are performed: a) After the host computer recognizes the insertion of the storage medium and outputs a host control signal, the control circuit receives the power-on control signal of the storage medium input by the host computer through the single-ended signal 1, controls the storage medium to power on and start the initialization operation. At the same time, after receiving the low-level working indicator signal and the 4Hz square-wave warning indicator signal input by the host computer through the single-ended signals 8 and 9, the control circuit controls the working indicator to turn off and the warning indicator to blink (4Hz); b) The main controller of the storage medium outputs a second status indicator control signal to the control circuit according to the initialization and self-detection results of the storage medium, and the control circuit controls the working indicator and the warning indicator according to the second status indicator control signal.Specifically, when both the initialization and self-check of the storage medium are normal, the main controller outputs a high-level working indicator signal and a low-level warning indicator signal to the control circuit. Then the control circuit controls the working indicator to be constantly on and the warning indicator to be off, and outputs a high-level storage medium ready signal through single-ended signal 0 to the host computer and a low-level storage medium warning signal through single-ended signal 2. Otherwise, the main controller outputs a low-level working indicator signal and a high-level warning indicator signal to the control circuit. The control circuit controls the working indicator to be off and the warning indicator to be constantly on, and outputs a low-level storage medium ready signal through single-ended signal 0 to the host computer and a high-level storage medium warning signal through single-ended signal 2. c) The host computer identifies the storage medium ready / warning signal and outputs a second state indicator control signal to the storage medium control circuit according to the registration of the storage medium block device and the result of file system mounting in the storage system. Specifically, when the host computer identifies that the storage medium warning signal is high level, the control circuit will receive a low-level working indicator signal and a high-level warning indicator signal from the host computer through single-ended signals 8 and 3, and control the working / warning indicators to be off / constantly on states respectively. When the host computer identifies that the storage medium warning / ready signal is low / high level, if the registration of the storage medium block device and the file system mounting in the host computer are both normal, the control circuit will receive a high-level working indicator signal and a low-level warning indicator signal input by the host computer through single-ended signals 8 and 9, and control the working / warning indicators to be constantly on / off states respectively. Otherwise, it will receive a low-level working indicator signal and a 2Hz square wave warning indicator signal input by the host computer, and control the working / warning indicators to be off / flashing (2Hz) states respectively. d) When the host computer accesses data on the storage medium, the storage medium main controller monitors the data transmission status and generates a 2Hz square wave working indicator signal to the control circuit during the data transmission process. The control circuit controls the working indicator state to be flashing (2Hz). e) During the hot plug-out process of the storage medium, the control circuit receives a high-level working indicator signal and a 2Hz square wave warning indicator signal input by the host computer through single-ended signals 8 and 9, and controls the working / warning indicators to be constantly on / flashing (2Hz) states respectively. f) During the destruction process of the storage medium, the control circuit receives a 2Hz square wave working indicator signal and a 2Hz square wave warning indicator signal input by the host computer through single-ended signals 8 and 9, and controls the working / warning indicators to be flashing (2Hz) / flashing (2Hz) states respectively.

[0059] When a quick-release storage medium is inserted into the unloading device for data unloading: a) The main controller outputs a main controller signal to the control circuit according to the initialization and self-detection results of the storage medium, and the control circuit outputs an indicator light control signal; specifically, when the initialization and self-detection of the storage medium are both normal, the main controller outputs working / warning indicator lights as constant-on / extinguished signals respectively, otherwise the main controller outputs working / warning indicator lights as extinguished / constant-on signals respectively; b) During the data unloading process of the storage medium, the main controller of the storage medium monitors the data transmission status and generates a main controller signal during the data transmission process, controlling the working indicator light to blink (2Hz).

[0060] The control circuit simultaneously receives the host control signal and the main controller signal, and generates an indicator light control signal according to the combinational logic. Specifically, when the host control signal and the main controller signal are generated simultaneously, the control circuit preferentially selects the host control signal as the indicator light control signal and outputs it to the working / warning indicator lights, ignoring the indicator light control in the received main controller signal; when there is no host control signal input, the control circuit selects the main controller signal as the indicator light control signal and outputs it to the working / warning indicator lights. Through this control circuit, without the need for a backplane design, the problem of controlling the indicator light status when the storage medium is used in the storage system and the unloading device is solved.

[0061] Based on the quick-release storage medium, the present application also proposes a method for implementing hot plugging of the storage medium, which is used to realize safe and reliable hot plugging of the storage medium, and solve the problem of damage to the storage medium or the storage system caused by hot plugging and violent plugging. The hot plugging of the storage medium is divided into two processes: hot insertion ( Figure 3 ) and hot extraction ( Figure 4 ), and the specific implementation method is as follows.

[0062] a) Hot insertion of the storage medium

[0063] Step 1: After the storage device is powered on and running as the host, the quick-release storage medium is inserted into the storage device, and the storage medium is locked by the quick-release locking device. At this time, the quick-release connector in-position signal (single-ended signal 10-11) is connected to the host signal to form a closed loop;

[0064] Step 2: The storage device reads the single-ended signals 10-11 of the quick-release connector, judges whether the storage medium is in position and the type of the storage medium, and when it is determined that the storage medium is in position, inputs a storage medium power-on control signal to the storage medium control circuit through the single-ended signal 1 and then enables the power supply of the storage medium;

[0065] Step 3: After the storage medium is powered on, it starts to initialize. During the initialization process, the main controller outputs a main control signal to the control circuit, and the control circuit controls the warning indicator light to blink;

[0066] Step 4: The control circuit outputs a storage medium ready signal (single-ended signal 0) / alarm signal (single-ended signal 2) according to the initialization result of the storage medium. The host computer reads this signal and inputs a storage medium read / write protection release signal to the control circuit through single-ended signals 14 - 15. Meanwhile, the block device registration and file system mounting start. The storage device inputs an alarm indicator signal of a 2HZ square wave to the control circuit through single-ended signal 9 to control the alarm indicator to flash;

[0067] Step 5: After the host computer initialization is completed, the host computer outputs a control signal to the control circuit according to the system initialization result, and the control circuit controls the state of the alarm indicator, and the hot insertion is completed.

[0068] b) Hot removal of the storage medium

[0069] Step 1: The quick-release locking device of the storage medium is pulled up, and the storage medium starts to be hot removed;

[0070] Step 2: During the process of removing the storage medium, the closed loop formed by the quick-release connector presence signal (single-ended signals 10 - 11) and the host computer is disconnected first, triggering the host computer to perform the hot removal process of the storage medium;

[0071] Step 3: The host computer immediately inputs an enabling storage medium read / write protection signal to the control circuit through single-ended signals 14 - 15 to prohibit any read / write operations at the block device layer; meanwhile, the storage medium main controller recognizes the storage medium read / write protection signal and prohibits any data read / write commands;

[0072] Step 4: If there are still commands to be executed on the storage medium at this moment, the storage medium main controller cancels this command and immediately returns the execution result; the host computer executes the storage medium unloading operation;

[0073] Step 5: The host computer inputs a signal to prohibit power supply to the storage medium to the control circuit through single-ended signal 1, and at this time the storage medium is powered off;

[0074] Step 6: The quick-release storage medium is pulled out, and the quick-release connector is completely detached from the host computer, and the hot removal is completed.

[0075] The described method for hot plugging and unplugging the storage medium ensures that the storage medium is in a powered-off state at the moment when the connector is disconnected during the plugging and unplugging process, reducing the risk of device damage caused by hot plugging; meanwhile, the quick-release connector presence signal uses short pins. When the storage medium is being pulled out, the presence signal is disconnected first, and the host computer and the storage medium immediately perform the hot removal process, and directly return the execution status for the commands that have not been completed on the storage medium, facilitating the closed-loop of the host computer command processing process, avoiding the host computer system crash caused by violent plugging and unplugging, and especially providing the hot plugging and unplugging implementation ability for PCIe controllers that do not support the hot plugging function.

[0076] It will be understood that those of ordinary skill in the art can make equivalent substitutions or alterations according to the technical solutions of the present invention and its inventive concept, and all such alterations or substitutions should fall within the protection scope of the appended claims of the present invention.

Claims

1. A quick-release storage medium, comprising a memory card core and a quick-release connector, characterized in that: The memory card core provides a physical space for data storage, and includes a main controller, a cache chip, a non-volatile storage chip, a working indicator light, an alarm indicator light and a control circuit; wherein, data interaction and data erasure are carried out between the main controller and the non-volatile storage chip, and a main controller signal is output to the control circuit according to the state of the quick-release storage medium; the control circuit is connected to the main controller through a serial data channel and a digital signal, and is connected to some pins of the quick-release connector through a digital signal. The control circuit controls the on, off and flashing of the working indicator light and the alarm indicator light according to a certain logic by coordinating the main controller signal and the host control signal input by the host through the quick-release connector pins to characterize the current state of the storage medium, and outputs the storage medium ready signal and the storage medium alarm signal to the host through the quick-release connector.

2. The quick-release storage medium according to claim 1, characterized in that The control circuit receives the storage medium power-on control signal, the working indicator light signal and the alarm indicator light signal in the host control signal input by the host through the single-ended signals 1, 8, 9 on the quick-release connector, and controls the on, off and flashing of the working indicator light and the alarm indicator light according to a certain logic with the working indicator light signal and the alarm indicator light signal in the main control signal of the main controller, and outputs the storage medium ready signal and the storage medium alarm signal through the single-ended signals 0, 2 on the quick-release connector.

3. The quick-release storage medium according to claim 2, characterized in that The control method of the working indicator light and the alarm indicator light is as follows: a) After the quick-release storage medium is inserted into the host, after the control circuit receives the storage medium power-on control signal input by the host through the single-ended signal 1, it controls the quick-release storage medium to power on and start the initialization operation. At the same time, after receiving the low-level working indicator light signal and the 4Hz square-wave alarm indicator light signal input by the host through the single-ended signals 8 and 9, it controls the working indicator light to turn off and the alarm indicator light to flash; b) The main controller outputs the working indicator light signal and the alarm indicator light signal to the control circuit according to the initialization and self-detection results, and the control circuit controls the working indicator light and the alarm indicator light; specifically, if the storage medium initialization and self-check are both normal, the main controller outputs a high-level working indicator light signal and a low-level alarm indicator light signal to the control circuit, then the control circuit controls the working indicator light to be always on and the alarm indicator light to turn off, and outputs a high-level storage medium ready signal to the host through the single-ended signal 0 and a low-level storage medium alarm signal through the single-ended signal 2. Otherwise, the main controller outputs a low-level working indicator light signal and a high-level alarm indicator light signal to the control circuit, the control circuit controls the working indicator light to turn off and the alarm indicator light to be always on, and outputs a low-level storage medium ready signal to the host through the single-ended signal 0 and a high-level storage medium alarm signal through the single-ended signal 2; c) The host computer identifies the ready / warning signal of the storage medium, and outputs the working indicator signal and the warning indicator signal to the storage medium control circuit according to the registration of the storage medium block device and the result of the file system mounting of the storage system. Specifically, when the host computer identifies that the storage medium warning signal is at a high level, the control circuit will receive the low-level working indicator signal and the high-level warning indicator signal input by the host computer through single-ended signals 8 and 3, and control the working / warning indicators to be in the off / constant-on state respectively; when the host computer identifies that the storage medium warning / ready signal is at a low / high level, if the registration of the host computer storage medium block device and the file system mounting are both normal, the control circuit will receive the high-level working indicator signal and the low-level warning indicator signal input by the host computer through single-ended signals 8 and 9, and control the working / warning indicators to be in the constant-on / off state respectively, otherwise it will receive the low-level working indicator signal and the 2Hz square wave warning indicator signal input by the host computer, and control the working / warning indicators to be in the off / flashing state respectively; d) When the host computer accesses data from the storage medium, the storage medium main controller monitors the data transmission status and generates a 2Hz square wave working indicator signal for the control circuit during the data transmission process, and the control circuit controls the working indicator to be in the flashing state; e) During the hot plug-out process of the storage medium, the control circuit receives the high-level working indicator signal and the 2Hz square wave warning indicator signal input by the host computer through single-ended signals 8 and 9, and controls the working / warning indicators to be in the constant-on / flashing state respectively; f) During the destruction process of the storage medium, the control circuit receives the 2Hz square wave working indicator signal and the 2Hz square wave warning indicator signal input by the host computer through single-ended signals 8 and 9, and controls the working / warning indicators to be in the flashing / flashing state respectively.

4. A quick-release storage medium according to claim 2 or 3, characterized in that The priority of the working indicator signal and the warning indicator signal received by the control circuit through single-ended signals 8 and 9 on the quick-release connector is higher than that of the working indicator signal and the warning indicator signal of the main controller.

5. A quick-release storage medium according to claim 1, characterized in that The quick-release connector includes several contact parts and a housing, and all the contact parts are hyperbolic line-spring holes.

6. The quick-release storage medium according to claim 5, characterized in that The contact parts of the quick-release connector are divided into long-pin contact parts and short-pin contact parts. There are 2 short-pin contact parts, which are short-circuited through a printed circuit board, and after the quick-release storage medium is inserted into the host computer, a closed loop is formed with the connector of the host computer to determine the closure of the connector; the rest of the contact parts are all long contact parts.

7. A quick-release storage medium according to claim 6, characterized in that The quick-release storage medium also includes a storage medium structural part and a quick-release locking device. The memory card core and the quick-release connector are located on the same printed circuit board and are installed inside the storage medium structural part. The quick-release locking device is installed on the storage medium structural part and includes locking bars on both sides and a handle on the top. After the quick-release connector is inserted into the host computer, it presses the handle to lock the storage medium structural part, and releases the handle to unlock the storage medium structural part.

8. The quick-release storage medium according to claim 7, wherein Two short pin contacts are used as single-ended signals 10 and 11. The power-on control signal for the storage medium, the working indicator signal, the alarm indicator signal, and the signal to enable read / write protection of the storage medium in the host control signal input by the host computer are received through single-ended signals 1, 8, 9, 14, and 15 on the quick-release connector. Together with the storage medium ready signal and the storage medium alarm signal output by single-ended signals 0 and 2, they control the hot plugging and unplugging of the quick-release storage medium.

9. A quick-release storage medium according to claim 8, wherein The hot insertion process of the quick-release storage medium is as follows: Step 1: After the host computer is powered on and running, the quick-release storage medium is inserted into the host computer and locked by the quick-release locking device. At this time, the presence signal on single-ended signals 10 to 11 of the quick-release connector is connected to the host computer signal, forming a closed loop. Step 2: The host computer reads single-ended signals 10 to 11 of the quick-release connector to determine whether the quick-release storage medium is present and the type of the quick-release storage medium. When it is determined that the quick-release storage medium is present, the power-on control signal for the storage medium is input to the storage medium control circuit through single-ended signal 1, and then the power supply of the storage medium is enabled. Step 3: After the quick-release storage medium is powered on, it starts to initialize. During the initialization process, the main controller outputs the main control signal to the control circuit, and the control circuit controls the alarm indicator to flash. Step 4: The control circuit outputs the storage medium ready / alarm signal through single-ended signals 0 and 2 according to the initialization result of the storage medium. After the host computer reads this signal, it inputs the signal to release the read / write protection of the storage medium to the control circuit through single-ended signals 14 to 15. At the same time, block device registration and file system mounting start. The host computer inputs the alarm indicator signal of a 2HZ square wave to the control circuit through single-ended signal 9 to control the alarm indicator to flash. Step 5: After the host computer initialization is completed, the host computer outputs the control signal to the control circuit according to the system initialization result, and the control circuit controls the state of the alarm indicator. The hot insertion is completed. During the flashing of the alarm indicator, hot unplugging is prohibited.

10. A quick-release storage medium according to claim 8, characterized in that The hot unplugging process of the quick-release storage medium is as follows: Step 1: The quick-release locking device is pulled up, and the quick-release storage medium starts to be hot unplugged. Step 2: During the process of pulling out the storage medium, the closed loop formed by the presence signal on single-ended signals 10 to 11 of the quick-release connector and the host computer is first disconnected, triggering the host computer to perform the hot unplugging process of the storage medium. Step 3: The host computer immediately inputs the signal to enable read / write protection of the storage medium to the control circuit through single-ended signals 14 to 15, prohibiting any read / write operations at the block device layer; at the same time, the main controller of the storage medium recognizes the read / write protection signal of the storage medium and prohibits any data read / write commands. Step 4: If there are still commands to be executed on the quick-release storage medium at this moment, the main controller cancels this command and immediately returns the execution result; the host computer performs the storage medium unloading operation. Step 5: The host computer inputs the signal to prohibit power supply to the storage medium to the control circuit through single-ended signal 1. At this time, the quick-release storage medium is powered off. Step 6: The quick-release storage medium is pulled out, and the quick-release connector is completely detached from the host computer. The hot unplugging is completed.

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