Universal memory socket and card and system for using the same
OwnerJon C. R. Bennett, Kevin D. Drucker +3inventors
InventorsJon C. R. Bennett, Kevin D. Drucker, Stephen Fischer, William Githens, Michael Kolodchak
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A memory circuit card is described, where the electrical and physical interface between the circuit card and a motherboard bus is independent of the memory type installed on the circuit card. The power supply voltage provided by the mother board is independent of the memory type, and persistent and non-persistent memory types may be used on a plurality of circuit cards installed on the motherboard. The power status of at least portions of the interfaces of the circuit card may be controlled at a future time based on signals received at an input of circuit card.
Claims27
A memory system, comprising:
- a first circuit card and a second circuit card each card, each circuit card further comprising:
- a memory circuit;
- a bus interface circuit having a interface compatible with a bus electrical interface and digital protocol;
- a memory protocol converter compatible with a memory circuit electrical interface and digital protocol;
- a first voltage converter;
- wherein an output voltage of the first voltage converter on the first circuit card is different than an output voltage of the first voltage converter on the second circuit card.
A circuit card, comprising:
- a memory circuit;
- a bus interface circuit having a interface compatible with a bus electrical interface and command interface protocol;
- a memory protocol converter compatible with a memory circuit electrical interface and interface command protocol;
- and
- a first voltage converter,
- wherein an output voltage of the voltage converter is less than one half of the input voltage of the voltage converter.
A memory system, comprising:
- a motherboard, further comprising:
- a socket adapted to communicate with a pluggable memory module;
- a plurality of traces connecting the socket to a memory controller, including at least a power trace;
- a memory controller configured to communicate with a memory module pluggable into the socket;
- and,
- a power supply connectable to the power trace;
- wherein the memory controller discovers a memory type on the memory module and the bus electrical interface and power supply voltage are independent of the memory type.
A memory system, comprising:
- a first circuit card and a second circuit card each card, each circuit card further comprising:
- a memory circuit;
- a configurable switching element (CSE) adapted to provide an interface to the memory circuit and to a bus interface circuit;
- the CSE further comprising:
- a first port and a second port, each port having a plurality of signal lanes and configured to at least one of receive or transmit signals on a bus;
- wherein the CSE is configurable to interpret a first signal of the received signals so as to change the state of a signal lane of the plurality of signal lanes at a future time, and route a second signal of the received signals to one of the memory circuit or the second port;
- and
- a first voltage converter;
- wherein an output voltage of the first voltage converter on the first circuit card is different than an output voltage of the first voltage converter on the second circuit card
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.