IP Library Granted Patent US 10,929,325
Granted Patent B2
US 10,929,325 · App. 16/738,984 · Granted Feb 23, 2021

PCIE lane aggregation over a high speed link

Inventors: Sreenivas Krishnan (Campbell, CA); Nirmal Raj Saxena (Los Altos, CA)
Assignee: INPHI CORPORATION
G06F13/4022G06F13/4027G06F13/4282H04B10/27H04L12/64H04L12/66H04Q11/0005H04J14/0267H04L49/15H04Q2011/009Y02D10/00
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 10,929,325
App. No.
16/738,984
Granted
Feb 23, 2021
Kind
B2
Abstract

A method of operating a computer network system configured with disaggregated inputs/outputs. This system can be configured in a leaf-spine architecture and include a router coupled to a network source, a plurality of core switches coupled to the router, a plurality of aggregator switches coupled to each of the plurality of core switches, and a plurality of rack modules coupled to each of the plurality of aggregator switches. Each of rack modules can include an I/O appliance with a downstream aggregator module, a plurality of server devices each with PCIe interfaces, and an upstream aggregator module that aggregates each of the PCIe interfaces. A high-speed link can be configured between the downstream and upstream aggregator modules via aggregation of many serial lanes to provide reliable high speed bit stream transport over long distances, which allows for better utilization of resources and scalability of memory capacity independent of the server count.

Claims (27)

1. A computer network system comprising:

an I/O appliance having a downstream silicon photonics device provided on each of a plurality of optical ports numbered from 1 to N; and

a plurality of server devices coupled to the I/O appliance, each of the server devices comprising a PCIe (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express) interface, and an upstream silicon photonics device coupled to each of the plurality of server devices and aggregating each of the PCIe interfaces.

2. The system of claim 1 further comprising a twisted pair configured between the PCIe interfaces and the upstream silicon photonics device.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the downstream silicon photonics device and the upstream silicon photonics device are configured in a 1-to-1 mapping.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein a high-speed link is configured between the downstream silicon photonics device and the upstream silicon photonics device.

5. The system of claim 4 further comprising a pair of optical convertors coupled by an optical fiber configured between the upstream silicon photonics device and the downstream silicon photonics device.

6. A computer network system comprising:

a router coupled to a network source;

a plurality of core switches coupled to the router;

a plurality of aggregator switches coupled to each of the plurality of core switches; and

a plurality of rack modules coupled to each of the plurality of aggregator switches, wherein each of the plurality of rack modules comprises:

an I/O appliance having a downstream aggregator module provided on each of a plurality of optical ports numbered from 1 to N; and

a plurality of server devices coupled to the I/O appliance, each of the server devices having a PCIe (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express) interface, and an upstream aggregator module coupled to the plurality of server devices and aggregating each of the PCIe interfaces.

7. The system of claim 6 wherein the downstream aggregator module is coupled to one or more PCIe EP (End Point) modules; and wherein the downstream aggregator module and the one or more PCIe EP modules are integrated on a silicon material.

8. The system of claim 6 wherein the downstream aggregator module and the upstream aggregator module are configured in a 1-to-1 mapping.

9. The system of claim 6 wherein a high-speed link is configured between the downstream aggregator module and the upstream aggregator module.

10. The system of claim 9 further comprising a pair of optical convertors coupled by an optical fiber configured between the upstream aggregator module and the downstream aggregator module; and wherein the computer network system is configured in a leaf-spine architecture.

11. A method of operating a computer network system having an I/O appliance, a plurality of server devices coupled to the I/O appliance, and an upstream silicon photonics device coupled to each of the plurality of server devices; the method comprising:

receiving, by a plurality of optical ports of the I/O appliance numbered from 1 to N, a data stream;

aggregating, by a downstream silicon photonics device of the I/O appliance provided on each of the plurality of optical ports, the data stream;

processing, by a Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) interface of each server device, the data stream; and

aggregating, each of the PCIe interfaces to aggregate the data stream.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein aggregating each of the PCIe interfaces includes aggregating via a twisted pair configuration between the PCIe interfaces and the upstream silicon photonics device.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein the downstream silicon photonics device and the upstream silicon photonics device are configured in a 1-to-1 mapping.

14. The method of claim 11 further comprising communicating, by a high-speed link configured between the downstream silicon photonics device and the upstream silicon photonics device, the data stream.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising converting, by a pair of optical converters coupled by an optical fiber configured between the upstream silicon photonics device and the downstream silicon photonics device, the data stream.

Assignments (4)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Aug 27, 2021
From: CAVIUM INTERNATIONAL
To: MARVELL ASIA PTE LTD.
Reel/Frame 057336/0873 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Jun 25, 2021
From: MARVELL TECHNOLOGY CAYMAN I
To: CAVIUM INTERNATIONAL
Reel/Frame 057279/0519 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Jun 23, 2021
From: INPHI CORPORATION
To: MARVELL TECHNOLOGY CAYMAN I
Reel/Frame 056649/0823 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Jan 10, 2020
From: KRISHNAN, SREENIVAS; SAXENA, NIRMAL RAJ
To: INPHI CORPORATION
Reel/Frame 051477/0208 →