Single PCB Integration for Data Storage System Components
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Solution Overview
Problem
Prior data storage systems require multiple printed circuit boards (PCBs) for storage processors, multiplexers, arbiters, and midplanes, leading to increased cost, complexity, and power supply complications due to separate PCBs and high-speed serial connections.
Innovation Solution
Integrating storage processors, multiplexers, arbiters, and midplanes onto a single printed circuit board, simplifying connections and reducing power supply requirements, with a single power connector and overcurrent protection device, and utilizing a cost-effective parallel Common Message Interface (CMI) path.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If multiple discrete PCBs are used for storage processors, multiplexers, arbiters, and midplanes, then system modularity and component independence are improved, but manufacturing cost and device complexity increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines storage processors, multiplexers, arbiters, and midplanes onto a single PCB, eliminating the need for multiple discrete boards and their interconnections. This merging approach reduces the number of components while maintaining all necessary functions, directly addressing the contradiction by prioritizing complexity reduction over modularity.
2Reliability
If multiple discrete PCBs with separate power connectors are used, then power supply redundancy is improved, but power routing complexity and manufacturing cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent consolidates power connectors and power distribution onto a single PCB, reducing multiple separate power routing paths into unified traces. This approach maintains power supply functionality while dramatically simplifying manufacturing and reducing cost, accepting a trade-off in power supply redundancy.
3Speed
If separate PCBs with high-speed serial protocol chips are used for interconnection, then communication speed between components is improved, but manufacturing cost and connector complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
By placing all components on a single PCB, the patent eliminates the need for external high-speed serial protocol chips and complex connectors. Components communicate through standard PCB traces, which simplifies the system while maintaining adequate communication speeds for the application, thereby resolving the contradiction between speed and complexity.
4Reliability
If each board requires its own DC power connector and overcurrent protection circuit, then component protection is improved, but manufacturing cost and assembly complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent consolidates power connectors and overcurrent protection circuits onto a single PCB, reducing the number of discrete protective components. This approach maintains essential protection functionality while significantly reducing assembly complexity and manufacturing cost, accepting a trade-off in the level of component protection.
Data Source
AI summary
A data storage system includes a first storage processor for storing and retrieving data from a data storage array for at least one host computer; a second storage processor, coupled to the first storage processor by a communication link, for storing and retrieving data from the data storage array for the at least one host computer; a number M of multiplexers, M being greater than one, each of the multiplexers being coupled to the first storage processor and the second storage processor for receiving data signals from the first storage processor and the second storage processor and transmitting the data signals to a disk drive device; a number A of arbiters, each being coupled to the first storage processor, the second storage processor and a number N of the plurality of multiplexers, for receiving arbiter control signals from the first storage processor and the second storage processor and transmitting multiplexer control signals to each of the number N of the plurality of multiplexers; and a midplane device coupled between the plurality of multiplexers and the data storage array for transferring the data signals from the plurality of multiplexers to the data storage array. The first storage processor, the second storage processor, the plurality of multiplexers, the plurality of arbiters and the midplane are all mounted on a single printed circuit board.