Ultra high-speed low-latency network storage
AssigneeSony Interactive Entertainment Inc.
InventorsRoelof Colenbrander, Cliff Pajaro, Kim-Huei Low
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Non-volatile memory over fabric (NVMe-oF) is used to stream video, computer games, and the like to client devices from network storage embodied by solid state storage devices (SSDs). To provide for redundancy, multiple copies of a single piece of content, e.g., a computer game or video file, are stored on multiple SSDs. To provide information to address the block-level storage based on a client demand for the content, a data structure correlates each content with the SSDs and related block numbers at which the content is stored. Sourcing of the content as it is being streamed may be dynamically switched between SSDs to provide for load balancing or loss of a SSD.
Claims15
A computer-implemented server stack comprising:
- at least one storage server, the storage server comprising at least first and second non-volatile memory (NVMe)-enabled solid state drives (SSD);
- at least first and second compute servers, at least the first compute server comprising:
- at least a first computer motherboard comprising at least one processing unit;
- at least a second computer motherboard comprising at least one processing unit;
- and
- at least one NVMe over fabric (NVMe-oF) communication path connecting the motherboards to the first and second NVMe-enabled SSDs, the NVMe-oF communication path comprising a single common fabric adapter that implements a NVMe interface such that the first compute server has one and only one fabric adapter;
- wherein the server stack is programmed with instructions to:
- receive a request for a piece of content from a client computer;
- cause the piece of content to be streamed to the client device over the NVMe-oF path.
Device comprising:
- at least a first compute server comprising:
- at least a first computer motherboard comprising at least one processing unit;
- at least a second computer motherboard comprising at least one processing unit;
- at least one communication path comprising at least one fabric adapter, each processing unit being connected to a respective switch through which the respective processing unit is coupled to a respective southbridge via plural lanes, each respective switch also connecting the respective processing unit to the respective fabric adapter.
Device comprising:
- at least one storage server, the storage server comprising at least first and second solid state drives (SSD), the SSD for sourcing computer games to remote clients, at least one processor programmed with instructions to:
- send to a remote client a first portion of a computer game from the first SSD;
- send to the remote client a second portion of the computer game from the second SSD;
- responsive to identifying that the first SSD returned the first portion faster than the second SSD returned the second portion, send remaining portions of the computer game from the first SSD and sending remaining portions of the computer from the second SSD.
A system comprising:
- at least one server comprising plural motherboards comprising respective processors communicatively coupled to respective southbridges using peripheral component interconnect express (PCI(e)) protocol;
- the respective processors also communicatively coupled to respective fabrics adapters through respective connectors, at least one of the fabrics adapters implementing a non-volatile memory (NVMe) interface, each respective motherboard being connected through the respective fabrics adapter to the other motherboards of the server and also being connected, through the respective the fabrics adapter, to at least one storage server of the networked storage system.
A storage server for streaming video content to a remote client, comprising:
- plural processors in respective sockets of at least a first motherboard including plural network adapters to access data transfer fabric, each socket comprising at least one random access memory (RAM);
- and
- plural solid-state drives electrically connected to at least one of the processors.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.