PCI Express to PCI Express based low latency interconnect scheme for clustering systems

Abstract

PCI Express is a Bus or I/O interconnect standard for use inside the computer or embedded system enabling faster data transfers to and from peripheral devices. The standard is still evolving but has achieved a degree of stability such that other applications can be implemented using PCIE as basis. A PCIE based interconnect scheme to enable switching and inter-connection between external systems, such that the scalability can be applied to enable data transport between connected systems to form a cluster of systems is proposed. These connected systems can be any computing or embedded system. The scalability of the interconnect will allow the cluster to grow the bandwidth between the systems as they become necessary without changing to a different connection architecture.

1 . An interconnected cluster, the cluster comprising;
 a PCIE Express enabled interconnect module comprise a plurality of ports, each said port having a PCI Express based peripheral module enabled for interconnection;   a switching mechanism in said interconnect module enabled to transfer data between a first of said plurality of ports on said interconnect module and any of a rest of said plurality of ports on said interconnect module;   a plurality of devices and systems that are PCI Express enabled; each said plurality of devices and systems comprise at least a system interconnect port comprise a PCIE express peripheral module enabled for interconnection;   said at least a system interconnect port of each said plurality of devices and systems connect to one of said plurality of ports of said interconnect module using at least a PCI Express link;   a data transfer mechanism to transfer data to and from each of said plurality of devices and systems to the one of said plurality of ports of said interconnect module connected to it, wherein said data transfer is done using a PCI-Express protocol;   wherein said data transfer mechanisms and said switching mechanisms together allow data received from a first of said plurality of devices and systems to be sent to any of a rest of said plurality of said plurality of devices and systems; and   wherein said data transfer mechanism and said switching mechanism together further allows data received from any of said rest of said plurality of devices and systems to be sent to said first of said plurality of devices and systems;   there by enabling the cluster with interconnection and communication capability between interconnected devices and systems using only PCI Express protocol over PCI Express links.   
     
     
         2 . The interconnected cluster in  claim 1 , where in, each said plurality of devices and systems is connected to said interconnect module by one or more PCI Express data links connected between said PCI Express peripheral module at said system interconnect port and said PCI Express peripheral module at said port of said interconnect module. 
     
     
         3 . The interconnected cluster in  claim 1 , where in, the connection between the PCI Express peripheral module at the interconnect port of each of the devices and systems and the connected PCI Express peripheral module at the port of the interconnect module can be by using multiple data links as the bandwidth requirements of the interconnect demand. 
     
     
         4 . The interconnected cluster in  claim 1 , where in, the interconnect module is a network switch. 
     
     
         5 . The interconnected cluster in  claim 1 , where in, the switching between the ports inside the interconnect module is controlled by the configuration software loaded into the interconnect module. 
     
     
         6 . An interconnected cluster system comprising of two or more smaller clusters to form a larger cluster, each of said smaller clusters having multiple devices and systems and an interconnect module; said interconnected cluster system having suitable low latency interconnection between said interconnect modules of the small clusters to allow the overall system growth to the interconnected cluster system. 
     
     
         7 . The interconnected cluster system of  claim 6 , comprising of two or more smaller clusters having multiple devices and systems and the interconnect module each where in, the interconnection between interconnect modules is scalable. 
     
     
         8 . The interconnected cluster system of  claim 6 , comprising of two or more clusters each having multiple devices and systems and an interconnect module each where in, the cluster growth can take place without changing the architecture of the individual small clusters.