High-speed memory system

1. A Flash-based memory module having high-speed serial communication, comprising:

a plurality of input/output (I/O) modules, each I/O module configured to communicate with an external device over one or more external communication links;

a plurality of Flash-based memory cards, each Flash-based memory card comprising a plurality of Flash memory devices, each Flash memory device having a physical memory space that is divided into blocks, each block being further divided into pages, each page representing an individually addressable memory location on which memory operations are performed, multiple such memory locations being erasable at the same time in one-block groupings; and

a plurality of crossbar switching elements, each crossbar switching element being connected to a respective one of the Flash-based memory cards and configured to allow each one of the I/O modules to communicate with the respective one of the Flash-based memory cards;

wherein each I/O module is connected to each crossbar switching element by a high-speed serial communication link, each high-speed serial communication link allowing each I/O module to transmit and receive bits representing commands, instructions and/or data to and from each crossbar switching element; and

wherein each crossbar switching element is connected to the respective one of the Flash-based memory cards by a plurality of parallel communication links, each parallel communication link connecting one crossbar switching element to one of the Flash memory devices of the respective one of the Flash-based memory cards.

2. The Flash-based memory module of claim 1 , wherein the bits representing commands, instructions and/or data transmitted by the I/O modules are part of a direct memory access (DMA) request, such a DMA request including a read-modify-write DMA request.

3. The Flash-based memory module of claim 1 , wherein the I/O modules are configured to communicate with the external device over the one or more external communication links using a high-speed communication protocol, including one of the following protocols: Fibre Channel, InfiniBand, Ethernet, and Front Panel Data Port.

4. The Flash-based memory module of claim 3 , wherein each I/O module comprises a high-speed interface configured to allow the I/O module to communicate with the external device over the one or more external communication links using the high-speed communication protocol.

5. The Flash-based memory module of claim 4 , wherein each I/O module further comprises a high-speed controller having multiple multi-gigabit transceivers, one multi-gigabit transceiver for each high-speed serial communication link connected to the I/O module, each I/O module being configured to transmit and receive the bits representing commands, instructions and/or data to and from each crossbar switching element using the multi-gigabit transceivers.

6. The Flash-based memory module of claim 5 , wherein each I/O module further comprises a CPU and a shared switching element, the shared switching element configured to regulate communication among the CPU, the external device via the one or more external communication links, and the multi-gigabit transceivers.

7. The Flash-based memory module of claim 1 , wherein each crossbar switching element comprises a high-speed controller having multiple multi-gigabit transceivers, one multi-gigabit transceiver for each high-speed serial communication link connected to the crossbar switching element, each crossbar switching element being configured to transmit and receive the bits representing commands, instructions and/or data to and from each I/O module using the multi-gigabit transceivers.