US 9,792,243 B2Granted

Computer architecture to provide flexibility and/or scalability

AssigneeIntel Corporation

InventorsDirk F. Blevins, John M. Morgan, Marc A. Goldschmidt, Edward J. Pullin

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Abstract

Apparatus, systems, and/or methods may include a peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) link to directly couple a slot with a network fabric. The slot may be defined by a surface and/or may accommodate a hardware module. A rack unit implementation may be utilized, such as a one rack unit (1 U) implementation, a four rack unit (4 U) implementation, and so on. The network fabric may be utilized when hardware modules communicate across the PCIe link, may be bypassed when hardware modules communicate across an additional PCIe link, and so on. The PCIe link may include a direct connect point-to-point PCIe link, a dual star PCIe link, and so on. In addition, the PCIe link may be utilized in a rack-scale architecture.

Claims22

Dependent claims

A rack-scale architecture comprising:

a surface defining a slot to accommodate a hardware module;
and
a peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) fabric between the slot and
a network fabric, wherein the PCIe fabric is to include:
a PCIe link to directly couple the slot with the network fabric to provide a communication path including the network fabric;
and
a further PCIe link to couple the slot with a further slot to provide a communication path excluding the network fabric, wherein the further slot is to accommodate a further hardware module,
wherein the rack-scale architecture is to include one or more of:
a one rack unit implementation, wherein at least one slot accommodates a respective processor module, and wherein an additional PCIe link is to directly couple the at least one slot with a back panel input/output (I/O);
a two rack unit implementation, wherein at least one slot accommodates a respective processor module, and wherein an additional PCIe link is to directly couple the at least one slot with a back panel I/O;
or
a four rack unit implementation, wherein at least one slot accommodates a respective processor module, and wherein an additional PCIe link is to directly couple the at least one slot with a back panel I/O.

9 more elements

A method comprising:

providing a surface defining a slot to accommodate a hardware module, and
providing a peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) fabric between the slot and a network fabric, wherein the PCIe fabric includes:
a peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) link directly coupling the slot with the network fabric to provide a communication path including the network fabric, wherein the slot accommodates a hardware module;
and
a further PCIe link to couple the slot with a further slot to provide a communication path excluding the network fabric, wherein the further slot accommodates a further hardware module:
and
providing one or more of:
a one rack unit implementation, wherein at least one slot accommodates a respective processor module, and wherein an additional PCIe link directly couples the at least one slot with a back panel input/output (I/O);
a two rack unit implementation, wherein at least one slot accommodates a respective processor module, and wherein an additional PCIe link directly couples the at least one slot with a back panel I/O;
or
a four rack unit implementation, wherein at least one slot accommodates a respective processor module, and wherein an additional PCIe link directly couples the at least one slot with a back panel I/O.

8 more elements

At least one non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising one or more instructions that when executed on a computing device cause the computing device to:

provide a peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) fabric between a slot and a network fabric, wherein the PCIe fabric is to include:
a PCIe link to directly couple the slot defined by a surface with the network fabric to provide a communication path including the network fabric, wherein the slot is to accommodate a hardware module;
and
a further PCIe link to couple the slot with a further slot to provide a communication path excluding the network fabric, wherein the further slot is to accommodate a further hardware module:
and
provide one or more of:
a one rack unit implementation, wherein at least one slot accommodates a respective processor module, and wherein an additional PCIe link directly couples the at least one slot with a back panel input/output (I/O);
a two rack unit implementation, wherein at least one slot accommodates a respective processor module, and wherein an additional PCIe link directly couples the at least one slot with a back panel I/O;
or
a four rack unit implementation, wherein at least one slot accommodates a respective processor module, and wherein an additional PCIe link directly couples the at least one slot with a back panel I/O.

7 more elements

An apparatus comprising:

a surface defining a slot to accommodate a hardware module, and
logic to,
provide a peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) fabric between the slot and a network fabric, wherein the PCIe fabric is to include,
a PCIe link to directly couple the slot with the network fabric to provide a communication path including the network fabric, and
a further PCIe link to couple the slot with a further slot to provide a communication path excluding the network fabric, wherein the further slot is to accommodate a further hardware module and
provide one or more of,
a one rack unit implementation, wherein at least one slot accommodates a respective processor module, and wherein an additional PCIe link directly couples the at least one slot with a back panel input/output (I/O);
a two rack unit implementation, wherein at least one slot accommodates a respective processor module, and wherein an additional PCIe link directly couples the at least one slot with a back panel I/O:
or
a four rack unit implementation, wherein at least one slot accommodates a respective processor module, and wherein an additional PCIe link directly couples the at least one slot with a back panel I/O.

7 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.