Reconfigurable peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) data path transport to remote computing assets

A computing system comprising:

• a fabric interface device coupled to receive multi-lane serial peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) data from first functional elements of a first computing asset through a multi-lane PCIe bus, wherein the fabric interface device is configured to transparently extend the multi-lane PCIe bus by converting the multi-lane PCIe data into a retimed parallel version of the PCIe multi-lane data to be sent on a first bidirectional data communication path, wherein the multi-lane PCIe bus has a first number of lanes and the first bidirectional data communication path has a second number of lanes;
• wherein the first number does not equal the second number, wherein the retimed parallels version of the PCIe multi-lane data has a higher clock domain or frequency than the multi-lane PCIe data;
• and wherein the first number of lanes is less than the second number of lanes;
• wherein the first bidirectional data communication path is configured to be connected through a data path transport to at least three other computing assets;
• and
• wherein each of the at least three computing assets is located in a different computing device from each other of the at least three computing assets, wherein each functional element performs a function of a central processing unit (CPU), and wherein each functional element includes one of a processor chip, a chip set, a PCIe root controller, or a memory.

A computing system comprising:

• a fabric interface device coupled to receive multi-lane serial peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) data from first functional elements of a first computing asset through a multi-lane PCIe bus, wherein the fabric interface device is configured to transparently extend the multi-lane PCIe bus by converting the multi-lane PCIe data into a retimed parallel version of the PCIe multi-lane data to be sent on a first bidirectional data communication path, wherein the multi-lane PCIe bus has a first number of lanes and the first bidirectional data communication path has a second number of lanes;
• wherein the first number does not equal the second number, wherein the retimed parallels version of the PCIe multi-lane data has a higher clock domain or frequency than the multi-lane PCIe data;
• and wherein the first number of lanes is less than the second number of lanes;
• wherein the first bidirectional data communication path is configured to be connected through a data path transport to at least three other computing assets;
• and
• wherein transparently extending the multi-lane PCIe bus comprises transparently extending the multi-lane PCIe bus between the at least three computing assets via the data communications paths and the data path transport without the first, second or third functional elements being aware of the fabric interface device or of the data communication paths and without changing the PCIe data or PCIe control signals in the PCIe bus.

A computing system comprising:

• a fabric interface device coupled to receive multi-lane serial peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) data from first functional elements of a first computing asset through a multi-lane PCIe bus, wherein the fabric interface device is configured to transparently extend the multi-lane PCIe bus by converting the multi-lane PCIe data into a retimed parallel version of the PCIe multi-lane data to be sent on a first bidirectional data communication path, wherein the multi-lane PCIe bus has a first number of lanes and the first bidirectional data communication path has a second number of lanes;
• wherein the first number does not equal the second number, wherein the retimed parallels version of the PCIe multi-lane data has a higher clock domain or frequency than the multi-lane PCIe data;
• and wherein the first number of lanes is less than the second number of lanes;
• and
• a configurable computing cluster comprising the first bidirectional data communication path connected through a data path transport to at least three other computing assets;
• wherein the configurable computing cluster further comprises:
• a fabric manager computing device coupled to the data path transport and the at least three computing assets, wherein the fabric manager computing device is configured to:
• receive a request for a compute node;
• select, from the at least three computing assets, at least two computing assets to implement the compute node;
• define communications paths between the at least two computing assets in the compute node;
• configure the at least two computing assets;
• and
• configure the data path transport to communicate the retimed parallel version of the PCIe multi-lane data.

A computing system comprising:

• a fabric interface device coupled to receive multi-lane serial peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) data from first functional elements of a first computing asset through a multi-lane PCIe bus, wherein the fabric interface device is configured to transparently extend the multi-lane PCIe bus by converting the multi-lane PCIe data into a retimed parallel version of the PCIe multi-lane data to be sent on a first bidirectional data communication path, wherein the multi-lane PCIe bus has a first number of lanes and the first bidirectional data communication path has a second number of lanes;
• wherein the first number does not equal the second number, wherein the retimed parallels version of the PCIe multi-lane data has a higher clock domain or frequency than the multi-lane PCIe data;
• and wherein the first number of lanes is less than the second number of lanes;
• wherein the first bidirectional data communication path is configured to be connected through a data path transport to at least three computing assets;
• and
• a fabric manager computing device coupled to the data path transport and the at least three computing assets, wherein the fabric manager computing device is configured to:
• receive a request to execute an application;
• define a compute node required to execute the application;
• select, from the at least three computing assets, a at least two computing assets to implement the compute node;
• define communications paths between the at least two computing assets in the compute node;
• configure the second plurality of computing assets;
• and
• configure the data path transport to communicate the retimed parallel version of the PCIe multi-lane data.

A reconfigurable computing cluster with remote computing assets, comprising:

• at least three computing assets, wherein each of the computing assets is configured to be connected to each of the other computing assets through a computer network interface card, wherein each of the at least three computing assets comprises:
• a functional element that performs a function of a central processing unit (CPU);
• and
• a fabric interface device coupled to the functional element via a multi-lane peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) bus, wherein the fabric interface device is configured to transparently extend the multi-lane PCIe bus between the computing assets via fiber optic communications paths by converting PCIe data received from the PCIe bus into a retimed parallel optical version of the PCIe data, and further wherein each of the at least three computing assets is configured to be connected by the three or more bidirectional fiber optic communication paths to form a bidirectional network having a fiber optic communication path between each pair of the at least three computing assets;
• and
• a fabric manager computing device coupled to the optical circuit switch and the at least three computing assets, wherein the fabric manager computing device is configured to:
• receive a request for a compute node;
• select, from the at least three computing assets, at least two computing assets to implement the compute node;
• define communications paths between the at least two computing assets in the compute node;
• configure the at least two computing assets;
• and
• configure the optical circuit switch to provide the defined communications paths.

A method for managing a reconfigurable computing cluster comprising:

• providing at least four computing assets, wherein each of the at least four computing assets comprises a functional element, and a fabric interface device coupled to the functional element via a multi-lane peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) bus, wherein the fabric interface devices within the at least four computing assets are configured to transparently extend the multi-lane PCIe bus by converting the multi-lane PCIe data into a retimed parallel version of the PCIe multi-lane data to be sent on data communications paths, and further wherein each of the at least four computing assets is connected to a data path transport to form a bidirectional network having a data communication path between each pair of the at least four computing assets;
• receiving a request for a compute node;
• selecting, from the at least four computing assets, three computing assets to implement the compute node;
• defining a defined data communications path between each pair of the three computing assets to implement the compute node;
• the data communication paths connecting each of the three computing assets to each of the other of the three computing assets;
• and
• configuring the data path transport to provide the defined data communications paths between each pair of the three computing assets.