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

Abstract

PCI-Express (PCIE) is a Bus or I/O interconnect standard typically used for communication between a computer or computing system root complex and a plurality of peripheral devices, where the PCIE system typically include a PCIE switch which has only a single inbound PCIE port. An outbound PCIE port on the computing system connects to the single inbound PCIE port of the PCIE switch. The invention discloses a PCIE based interconnect scheme enabling switching and inter-connection between a plurality of PCIE enabled systems, each having a PCIE root complex forming a cluster. The technical advances and scalability of PCIE architecture can be applied to enable data transport between the systems forming the cluster. The PCIE network switch comprise a plurality of inbound ports such that each of the plurality of computing systems connects to an inbound port of the network switch for enabling data transmission and communication within the cluster.

1 . A PCI-Express switch device for transferring information between at least first and second PCI-Express enabled computing systems, wherein each of the PCI-Express enabled computing systems comprise a PCI-Express bus system that is under control of a PCI-Express root complex, the PCI-Express switch device comprising:
 a plurality of inbound PCI-Express ports, wherein at least first and second inbound PCI-Express ports of the plurality of inbound PCI-Express ports are configured for sending and receiving data and network packets in communication with an outbound PCI-Express port on each of the first and second PCI-Express enabled computing systems respectively.   
     
     
         2 . The PCI-Express switch device of  claim 1 , further comprising a first PCI-Express expansion port, wherein the first PCI-Express expansion port utilizes PCI-Express protocol and is enabled to connect to a second PCI-Express expansion port on a second PCI-Express switch device. 
     
     
         3 . The PCI-Express switch device of  claim 1 , wherein the switch device further comprises one or more outbound PCI-Express ports for communicating with PCI-Express peripheral devices. 
     
     
         4 . The PCI-Express switch device of  claim 1 , wherein the PCI-Express switch device is configured to transfer data between the PCI-Express enabled computing systems using PCI-Express protocol. 
     
     
         5 . The PCI-Express switch device of  claim 1 , wherein the PCI-Express switch device comprises any of a silicon device or a circuit module. 
     
     
         6 . A PCI-Express switch device for transferring information between at least first and second PCI-Express enabled computing systems, wherein each of the PCI-Express enabled computing systems comprises a PCI-Express bus system that is under control of a PCI-Express root complex, the PCI-Express switch device comprising:
 at least first and second inbound PCI-Express ports wherein the inbound PCI-Express ports are connectable to at least the first and the second PCI-Express enabled computing systems respectively, wherein the PCI-Express switch comprises a plurality of inbound PCI-Express ports;   wherein the PCI-Express switch receives via at least the first inbound PCI-Express port of the PCI-Express switch, a first data packet transmitted from an outbound PCI-Express port on the first PCI-Express enabled computing system; and   wherein the PCI-Express switch transmits the first data packet from the second inbound PCI-Express port of the PCI-Express switch, the first data packet subsequently being receivable by an outbound PCI-Express port on the second PCI-Express enabled computing system.   
     
     
         7 . The PCI-Express switch device of  claim 6 , further comprising a first PCI-Express expansion port, wherein the first PCI-Express expansion port utilizes PCI-Express protocol and is enabled to connect to a second PCI-Express expansion port on a second PCI-Express switch device. 
     
     
         8 . The PCI-Express switch device of  claim 7 , wherein the PCI-Express switch device is configured to transfer data between the PCI-Express enabled computing systems using PCI-Express protocol. 
     
     
         9 . The PCI-Express switch device of  claim 6 , wherein the PCI-Express switch device comprises a plurality of inbound PCI-Express ports. 
     
     
         10 . The PCI-Express switch device of  claim 6 , wherein the PCI-Express switch device comprises any of a silicon device or a circuit module. 
     
     
         11 . A PCI-Express switch device for transferring data between at least first and second PCI-Express enabled computing systems, the PCI-Express switch device comprising:
 a plurality of inbound PCI-Express ports that enable transferring data from at least the first PCI-Express enabled computing system to at least the second PCI-Express enabled computing system using PCI-Express protocol, wherein each of the PCI-Express enabled computing systems comprise a PCI-Express bus under control of a root complex, wherein:   a) a first inbound PCI-Express port on the PCI-Express switch device is configurable to receive a first data packet from an outbound PCI-Express port on the first PCI-Express enabled computing system ,;   b) the PCI-Express switch device transfers the first data packet from the first inbound PCI-Express port on the PCI-Express switch to a second inbound PCI-Express port on the PCI-Express switch; and   c) the second inbound PCI-Express port on the PCI-Express switch device is configurable to transfer the first data packet from the second inbound PCI-Express port on the PCI-Express switch device to an outbound PCI-Express port on the second PCI-Express enabled computing system.   
     
     
         12 . The PCI-Express switch device of  claim 11 , further enabling transfer of a second data packet from at least the second PCI-Express enabled computing system to at least the first PCI-Express enabled computing system using PCI-Express protocol, wherein:
 d) the PCI-Express switch device is enabled to receive the second data packet from the outbound PCI-Express port on the second PCI-Express enabled computing system;   e) the PCI-Express switch device transfers the second data packet from the second inbound PCI-Express port on the PCI-Express switch device to the first inbound PCI-Express port on the PCI-Express switch; and   f) PCI-Express switch device is enabled to transfer the second data packet from the first inbound PCI-Express inbound port on the PCI-Express switch to the outbound PCI-Express port on the first computing system.   
     
     
         13 . The PCI-Express switch device of  claim 12 , further comprising a first PCI-Express expansion port, wherein the first PCI-Express expansion port utilizes PCI-Express protocol and is enabled to connect to a second PCI-Express expansion port on a second PCI-Express switch device. 
     
     
         14 . The PCI-Express switch device of  claim 13  wherein a data packet received by the PCI-Express switch from either the first or second PCI-Express enabled computing systems, is transmitted via the first PCI-Express expansion port to the second PCI-Express expansion port on the second PCI-Express switch device, whereby the second PCI-Express switch device transmits the data packet via an inbound PCI-Express port on the second PCI-Express switch device to an outbound PCI-Express port on a third PCI-Express enabled computing system. 
     
     
         15 . The PCI-Express switch device of  claim 11 , wherein the PCI-Express switch device comprises one or more outbound PCI-Express ports for communicating with PCI-Express peripheral devices. 
     
     
         16 . The PCI-Express switch device of  claim 12 , wherein data transfer within the PCI-Express enabled computing systems over the PCI Express bus that is connectable to the PCI-Express switch device, is under control of the root complex. 
     
     
         17 . The PCI-Express switch device of  claim 12 , wherein the PCI-Express switch device is configured to transfer data between the PCI-Express enabled computing systems using PCI-Express protocol. 
     
     
         18 . The PCI-Express switch device of  claim 11 , wherein the PCI-Express switch device comprises any of a silicon device or a circuit module.