Method and Apparatus for Scalable Low Latency Solid State Drive Interface

Abstract

A solid state drive (SSD) apparatus includes a plurality of solid state drives. The SSD apparatus also includes a channel-interleaved interface operably coupled to the plurality of solid state drives, the channel-interleaved interface configured to generate interleaved commands including a first command sent on a first channel-interleaved with a second command sent on a second channel in bursts. Additionally, the SSD includes a Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) bridge operably coupled to the channel-interleaved interface.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A solid state drive (SSD) apparatus, comprising:
 a plurality of solid state drives;   a channel-interleaved interface operably coupled to the plurality of solid state drives, the channel-interleaved interface configured to generate interleaved commands in bursts, comprising a first command sent on a first channel interleaved with a second command sent on a second channel; and   a Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) bridge operably coupled to the channel-interleaved interface.   
     
     
         2 . The SSD apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the channel-interleaved interface is further configured to utilize a data frame comprising a frame header, frame data, and a frame cyclic redundancy check (CRC). 
     
     
         3 . The SSD apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the channel-interleaved interface is further configured to generate the interleaved commands by interleaving a read command between portions of write commands. 
     
     
         4 . The SSD apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the second command is a write command, and wherein the channel-interleaved interface is further configured to issue write commands in multiple bursts. 
     
     
         5 . The SSD apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the PCIe bridge is operably coupled to a PCIe bridge controller. 
     
     
         6 . The SSD apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the PCIe bridges are operably coupled to a blade motherboard. 
     
     
         7 . The SSD apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the channel-interleaved interface comprises a fabric switch. 
     
     
         8 . The SSD apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the channel-interleaved interface is operably coupled to a fiber channel network connection. 
     
     
         9 . The SSD apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the channel-interleaved interface is operably coupled to a network connection. 
     
     
         10 . A solid state drive (SSD) apparatus, comprising:
 a plurality of solid state drives;   a channel-interleaved interface operably coupled to the plurality of solid state drives, the channel-interleaved interface configured to generate interleaved commands in bursts, comprising a first command sent on a first channel interleaved with a second command sent on a second channel; and   a plurality of Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) bridges operably coupled to the channel-interleaved interface, each of the PCIe bridges configured to exchange data with each of the solid state drives through the channel-interleaved interface.   
     
     
         11 . The SSD apparatus of  claim 10 , wherein the channel-interleaved interface is further configured to generate interleaved commands by inserting a read command after a first portion of a write command and before a second portion of the write command. 
     
     
         12 . The SSD apparatus of  claim 11 , wherein the second command is a write command, and the channel-interleaved interface is further configured to send write commands to the solid state drives in discrete segment bursts. 
     
     
         13 . The SSD apparatus of  claim 10 , wherein the channel-interleaved interface is configured to exchange, with the solid state drives, data frames having a frame header. 
     
     
         14 . The SSD apparatus of  claim 10 , wherein the channel-interleaved interface is configured to exchange, with the solid state drives, data frames having a frame cyclic redundancy check (CRC). 
     
     
         15 . The SSD apparatus of  claim 10 , wherein the channel-interleaved interface is operably coupled to a fiber channel network connection. 
     
     
         16 . A method comprising:
 generating, by a channel-interleaved interface, an interleaved command in bursts comprising a read command transmitted on a first channel that is sent from an expansion bus bridge, wherein the read command is interleaved with a write data command transmitted on a second channel that is sent from the expansion bus bridge;   sending, by the channel-interleaved interface to a solid state drive, the interleaved command; and   receiving, by the channel-interleaved interface from the solid state drive, data, in response to the read command in the interleaved command.   
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , further comprising:
 formatting a data frame to include a frame header;   formatting the data frame to include a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) header; and   formatting the data into data frames disposed between the frame header and the CRC header.   
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 16 , further comprising sending the data received from the solid state drive to a Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) bridge. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 16 , further comprising accessing a fiber channel network connection. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 16 , further comprising accessing a network connection.