Method and system for facilitating an improved storage system by decoupling the controller from the storage medium

1. A storage system, comprising:

a backplane coupled to a host via a first interface, wherein the backplane comprises:

global management circuitry coupled to a plurality of groups of components; and

a plurality of storage medium cards coupled to the backplane, wherein a respective storage medium card is allowed to operate without a controller residing on the storage medium card,

wherein a respective group of components includes first circuitry configured to perform first computing operations, second circuitry configured to perform second computing operations, and a slot for an associated storage medium card; and

wherein the global management circuitry is configured to:

receive, from the host coupled to the backplane, an input/output (I/O) request with associated data;

manage a flash translation layer mapping table which maps logical addresses to physical addresses across the groups of components and storage medium cards coupled to respective slots of respective groups; and

select, based on the FTL mapping table, a storage medium card for executing the I/O request;

wherein data associated with the I/O request is processed by the global management circuitry and by first circuitry and second circuitry associated with the selected storage medium card selected, which comprises:

performing, by the global management circuitry, management-level operations to obtain first processed data;

performing, by the first circuitry based on the first processed data, general purpose computing operations to obtain second processed data; and

performing, by the second circuitry based on the second processed data, near-storage computing operations to obtain third processed data.

2. The storage system of claim 1 , wherein a determined group of components comprises the first circuitry, the second circuitry, and a slot for the selected storage medium card for executing the I/O request, and wherein the selected storage medium card is coupled to the slot of the determined group via a second interface.

3. The storage system of claim 2 , wherein the second circuitry of the determined group can operate on the data associated with the I/O request prior to accessing the selected storage medium card to execute the I/O request.

4. The storage system of claim 1 , wherein the first interface is based on one or more of:

a peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) protocol;

a Gen-Z technology; and

a cache coherent interconnect for accelerators (CCIX) protocol.

5. The storage system of claim 1 , wherein for a respective group of components, the first circuitry and the second circuitry of the respective group work together to manage a slot of the respective group, wherein the slot allows a storage medium card to couple to the backplane.

6. The storage system of claim 1 , wherein the backplane further comprises:

a volatile memory coupled to the global management circuitry; and

a non-volatile memory coupled to the global management circuitry and configured to store a logic design for the global management circuitry and respective first circuitry of respective groups.

7. The storage system of claim 6 , wherein the non-volatile memory comprises a Not-Or flash memory.

8. The storage system of claim 1 , wherein the first computing operations and the general purpose computing operations include one or more of:

an encoding or a decoding based on an error correction code;

an operation based on an exclusive OR;

a cyclic redundancy check;

an encryption or a decryption based on an algorithm;

an operation based on a modulation; and

providing an interface to a physical medium, a storage medium card, or a storage medium card coupled to a respective slot of a respective group of components residing on the backplane.

9. The storage system of claim 1 , wherein the second computing operations and the near-storage computing operations include one or more of:

a compression or a decompression of data associated with the I/O request;

a compaction or a decompaction of data associated with the I/O request;

a video transcoding operation;

a projecting operation;

an encoding or a decoding based on an erasure code;

a filtering operation; and

a de-duplicating operation.

10. A computer-implemented method for facilitating a storage system, the method comprising:

receiving, from a host coupled to a backplane via a first interface, an input/output (I/O) request with associated data,

wherein the backplane comprises: global management circuitry coupled to a plurality of groups of components; and a plurality of storage medium cards coupled to the backplane, wherein a respective storage medium card is allowed to operate without a controller residing on the storage medium card,

wherein a respective group of components includes first circuitry, second circuitry, and a slot for an associated storage medium card;

processing, by the global management circuitry, the I/O request;

managing, by the global management circuitry, a mapping table based on the data associated with the I/O request, wherein the mapping table maps logical addresses to physical addresses across the groups of components and storage medium cards coupled to respective slots of respective groups;

determining a group of components and a storage medium card to access for executing the I/O request;

performing, by the global management circuitry, management-level operations on the associated data to obtain first processed data;

performing, by first circuitry of the determined group based on the first processed data, general purpose computing operations to obtain second processed;

performing, by second circuitry of the determined group based on the second processed data, near-storage computing operations to obtain third processed data; and

executing, based on the third processed data, the I/O request by accessing the determined storage medium card.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the determined group of components comprises the first circuitry, the second circuitry, and a slot for the determined storage medium card for executing the I/O request, and wherein the determined storage medium card is coupled to the slot of the determined group via a second interface.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein the second circuitry of the determined group can operate on the data associated with the I/O request prior to accessing the determined storage medium card to execute the I/O request.

13. The method of claim 10 , wherein the first interface is based on one or more of:

a peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) protocol;

a Gen-Z technology; and

a cache coherent interconnect for accelerators (CCIX) protocol.

14. The method of claim 10 , wherein for a respective group of components, the first circuitry and the second circuitry of the respective group work together to manage a slot of the respective group, wherein the slot allows a storage medium card to couple to the backplane.

15. The method of claim 10 , wherein the backplane further comprises:

a volatile memory coupled to the global management circuitry; and

a non-volatile memory coupled to the global management circuitry and configured to store a logic design for the global management circuitry and respective first circuitry of respective groups.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the non-volatile memory comprises a Not-Or flash memory.

17. The method of claim 10 , wherein the first computing operations and the general purpose computing operations include one or more of:

an encoding or a decoding based on an error correction code;

an operation based on an exclusive OR;

a cyclic redundancy check;

an encryption or a decryption based on an algorithm;

an operation based on a modulation; and

providing an interface to a physical medium, a storage medium card, or a storage medium card coupled to a respective slot of a respective group of components residing on the backplane.

18. The method of claim 10 , wherein the second computing operations and the near-storage computing operations include one or more of:

a compression or a decompression of data associated with the I/O request;

a compaction or a decompaction of data associated with the I/O request;

a video transcoding operation;

a projecting operation;

an encoding or a decoding based on an erasure code;

a filtering operation; and

a de-duplicating operation.