High bandwidth network and storage card

Details High bandwidth network and storage card High bandwidth network and storage card

2000-09-06

2003-11-18

Vo, Tim (Department: 2181)

Electrical computers and digital data processing systems: input/

Intrasystem connection

Bus interface architecture

C710S303000, C709S220000, C709S239000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06651131

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to computer networks, and in particular, to a network and storage input/output (I/O) device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Computer systems connected to networks can be used as storage servers, i.e., their main function is to provide a facility for storing and retrieving data for use by clients connected to the network. The data is typically stored on disk drives and a client request and data travel on the network and enter/leave the storage server via a network controller card. One performance limitation of the storage server is the bandwidth of the communication path between its associated network controller and storage controller.
FIG. 1
depicts a simplified representation of a conventional storage server architecture
100
. In many implementations, a network controller
102
and a storage controller
104
are coupled to the same host system bus
106
. The operation of this conventional storage server architecture
100
is as follows. A data request made by a client is received by the network controller
102
from a network. The client request is transferred into a main memory
108
of a host computer system
110
and a host processor
112
is then notified of the transfer by an interrupt. The host processor
112
processes the client request in the main memory
108
. If the requested operation is a data fetch, the storage controller
104
sets up the DMA (direct memory access) transfer and the appropriate read commands are sent to a storage device. The data is then transferred from the storage device to the main memory
108
. When the transfer is completed, the host processor
112
sets up the DMA transfer to the network controller
102
and initiates the transfer. One major performance limitation imposed by this approach is that the requested data traverses the system bus
106
, is stored in the main memory
108
and then traverses the system bus
106
again. The bandwidth limitation of the system bus
106
and the main memory
112
restricts the number of network and storage controllers that can be supported by the storage server
100
, even though the host processor
112
may have sufficient cycles to support more network and storage controllers.
Previously, there have been proposals which combine a network controller and a storage controller on a single network and storage I/O card, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,974,496 and shown in FIG.
2
. In this network and storage I/O card
200
, a network controller
202
, a storage controller
206
, and an optional memory
204
are connected via a single PCI internal bus
208
. Some of the disadvantages associated with this network and storage I/O card architecture
200
are (1) only one storage controller
206
and one network controller
202
are utilized and (2) the single PCI internal bus
208
limits the bandwidth between the network controller
202
and the storage controller
206
.
Therefore, there is a need to provide an apparatus which addresses such bandwidth limitation problem imposed by the conventional network and storage server systems.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to one aspect of the invention, a network and storage I/O device is provided for use with a host computer system having a system bus coupled to a host processor and a main memory to provide a high bandwidth network server system. The network and storage I/O device includes a plurality of network controllers to communicate with client computers connected over a network, a plurality of storage controllers to transfer data to and from storage devices, at least one memory element to temporarily store data transferred between the network controllers and the storage controllers and a crossbar switch having a plurality of nodes to interconnect the plurality of network controllers, the plurality of storage controllers and the at least one memory element. The network and storage I/O device also includes a bridge coupled between one of the nodes and the system bus of the host computer.


REFERENCES:
patent: 5936955 (1999-08-01), Aimoto et al.
patent: 5937176 (1999-08-01), Beasley et al.
patent: 5953314 (1999-09-01), Ganmukhi et al.
patent: 5974496 (1999-10-01), Miller
patent: 6418492 (2002-07-01), Papa et al.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

Rating

High bandwidth network and storage card does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.

If you have personal experience with High bandwidth network and storage card, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and High bandwidth network and storage card will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3180844