US 10,374,885 B2Granted

Reconfigurable server including a reconfigurable adapter device

AssigneeAmazon Technologies, Inc.

InventorsAnthony Nicholas Liguori, Nafea Bshara

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Abstract

Techniques for reconfiguring a server to perform various hardware functions are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, a server includes a reconfigurable adapter device, where the reconfigurable adapter device includes a reconfigurable resource that is reprogrammable to perform different hardware functions. The server can receive a provisioning request corresponding to a hardware function from a management service. The reconfigurable adapter device can configure the reconfigurable resource according to the hardware function and report the configured hardware function to the server. The reconfigurable resource can be reconfigured using firmware or emulation software.

Claims21

Dependent claims

A system comprising:

a plurality of servers, each server including:
a processor;
a memory device;
a management adapter device;
a reconfigurable adapter device, wherein the reconfigurable adapter device comprises a reconfigurable resource reprogrammable to perform different hardware functions;
and
a management service configured to select a server from the plurality of servers and send a provisioning request to the selected server,
wherein the management adapter device of the selected server is configured to:
receive the provisioning request from the management service;
and
configure the reconfigurable adapter device according to a particular hardware function of the different hardware functions based on the provisioning request;
and
wherein the reconfigurable adapter device of the selected server is configured to:
program the reconfigurable resource according to the particular hardware function in response to the configuring of the reconfigurable adapter device by the management adapter device;
and
report the reconfigurable adapter device to the processor, wherein the reporting identifies the reconfigurable adapter device as being a circuit belonging to the server and as having been configured according to the particular hardware function prior to the reporting, and wherein the reporting is performed at least one of:
during a reboot of the server, or
after programming the reconfigurable resource according to the particular hardware function during a reboot of the reconfigurable adapter device.

15 more elements

A server comprising:

a processor;
a memory coupled to the processor;
and
a reconfigurable adapter device, the reconfigurable adapter device including a reconfigurable resource reprogrammable to perform different hardware functions,
wherein the server is configured to receive a provisioning request corresponding to a particular hardware function of the different hardware functions;
and
wherein the reconfigurable adapter device is configured to:
program the reconfigurable resource according to the particular hardware function;
and
report the reconfigurable adapter device to the processor, wherein the reporting identifies the reconfigurable adapter device as being a circuit belonging to the server and as having been configured according to the particular hardware function prior to the reporting, and wherein the reporting is performed at least one of:
during a reboot of the server, or
after programming the reconfigurable resource according to the particular hardware function during a reboot of the reconfigurable adapter device.

9 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 15/377,973Filed 13 Dec 2016
Published: US 2018/0167268 A114 Jun 2018
Granted: 6 Aug 2019
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification11 codes

G06F 9/5072
Partitioning or combining of resources: grid computing
G06F 9/445
Arrangements for executing specific programs: program loading or initiating
G06F 9/45541
Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors: bare-metal, i.e. hypervisor runs directly on hardware
G06F 15/167
Interprocessor communication: using a common memory, e.g. mailbox

Family

US 2018/0167268 A1Pre-grant publication · published 14 Jun 2018
US 10,374,885 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.

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