NVMe Drive Management Controller With SGPIO Bus
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current solutions for managing multiple NVMe drives in large deployments are costly, inflexible, and cumbersome due to the need for multiple input/output expander chips, and existing LED controllers require individual control lines for each LED, making them inefficient for managing a large number of LEDs.
Innovation Solution
A controller system that allows multiple NVMe drives to connect through a register without multiple input/output expander chips, using a serial general purpose input/output (SGPIO) bus to manage and monitor groups of drives, and a cascaded configuration to control a higher number of LEDs with a reduced number of control lines, enabling failover paths for communication failures.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If multiple input/output expander chips are used to connect each NVMe drive to a processor, then each drive can be individually managed, but the system cost and device complexity increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple expander chip functions into a single integrated controller that can manage multiple NVMe drives through a register interface. Instead of requiring separate expander chips for each drive, the controller consolidates the expansion functionality and uses a time-multiplexed register interface to communicate with multiple drives, thereby reducing the number of components while maintaining management capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The controller is designed with universal functionality to manage multiple NVMe drives through a single register interface. The same controller and register mechanism can handle different drives at different time intervals, making the system multi-functional without requiring dedicated hardware for each drive type or connection scenario.
2Ease of operation
If individual control lines are assigned to each LED for status indication, then each LED can be independently controlled, but the number of control lines and wiring complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The controller uses periodic time-multiplexed action to control multiple LEDs through a reduced number of control lines. By sequentially activating different LEDs at different time intervals and using pulse-width modulation or similar techniques, the controller can independently control each LED's state while sharing the same physical control lines, thereby maintaining LED control flexibility while reducing wiring complexity.
3Ease of operation
If a direct one-to-one connection is used between processor and NVMe drive, then management is simple, but scalability to large deployments is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the management function by introducing a controller layer that intermediates between the processor and multiple NVMe drives. The controller divides the management task into time-sliced segments, where different drives are managed at different time intervals through the same register interface. This segmentation enables the system to scale to large deployments while maintaining relatively simple management protocols.
Data Source
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AI summary
In some embodiments, a system for flexible non-volatile memory express drive management can include a first controller including a first drive register and a second drive register, a first processor communicatively coupled with the first drive register via a first serial bus, and a second processor communicatively coupled with the second drive register via a second serial bus. The system can also include a first set of non-volatile memory express drives communicatively coupled with the first processor via the first drive register, and a second set of non-volatile memory express drives communicatively coupled with the second processor via the second drive register and the second serial bus.