WO2009038257A1

WO2009038257A1 - Main board including ssd disk controllers

Info

Publication number: WO2009038257A1
Application number: PCT/KR2008/001149
Authority: WO
Inventors: Hyung Gwan Jeon
Original assignee: Mtron Co., Ltd.
Priority date: 2007-09-19
Filing date: 2008-02-27
Publication date: 2009-03-26
Also published as: KR20090029934A

Abstract

Disclosed is a main board for receiving an SSD (solid state drive) used as a storage device, the main board comprising: an SSD disk controller capable of controlling the SSD in response to an input signal from an external host; and a flash bus unit having a plurality of flash bus slots connected to the SSD disk controller to receive a flash memory module.

Description

MAIN BOARD INCLUDING SSD DISK CONTROLLERS

Technical Field

[1] The present invention relates to a main board, and more particularly, to a main board additionally comprising a solid state drive (hereinafter, referred to as an SSD) disk controller and a flash bus unit having flash bus slots which are connected to the SSD disk controller for receiving a plurality of flash memory modules in order to address shortcomings of a conventional main board internally constructed up to a level of a host controller (e.g., a south bridge), so that various flash memory modules can be selected and installed depending on their capacities to internally mount the SSD on the main board. Background Art

[2] A main board is most fundamental and physical hardware containing basic circuits and components in a computer. Also, the main board is used to set up execution environments of a personal computer, keep information on execution environments to safely operate the personal computer (PC), and facilitate data input/output to/from all components of the PC.

[3] The computer components installed in the main board are a central processing unit

(CPU), microprocessors, sub-processors (optional), memory units, a BIOS chip, extension slots, and the like. Additional components can be also added using the extension slot.

[4] The main board is physically a sort of printed circuit board collectively produced, and its basic performances such as a type of CPU, a maximum memory capacity, the number of extension slots, and the like are defined depending on a design requirement. It also has an important relationship with system stability. A large-scale integration (LSI) circuit called a chipset has a main role. The chipset manages data exchange between the CPU, the memory, and the extension slots. The standard of the chipset determines a fundamental configuration of the PC.

[5] A hard disk is a subsidiary storage device for storing and reading data by rotating an aluminum disk having a magnetic coating. The hard disk has a plurality of disks overlapped like a stack of record disks, and concentric circles called tracks are engraved. Data are electronically recorded in these concentric circles.

[6] The hard disk typically stores data in a magnetic storage type. Such a magnetic disk may lose data when it is impacted, or may generate bad sectors for unknown reasons. Also, it is noisy and hot. Since the disk is read using a pin while rotated by a motor, a data reading speed is not constant across inner and outer tracks, and data input/output times are not constant either.

[7] The SSD has been recently developed to address such shortcomings. This concept is to use a solid memory element such as flash memory as hard disk storage.

[8] The following advantages can be obtained if a conventional hard disk is replaced with the SSD.

[9] First, a computing performance can be improved by removing a bottle neck situation in a computer. That is, considering that a data throughput i.e., a computer performance index depends on a storage operation speed, most recent operating systems require a multi-processing, and a bottleneck situation more frequently occurs in the input/output operations of the hard disk, it is an inevitable tendency to use the SSD.

[10] Secondly, it is possible to reduce power consumption. This merit is more important, for example, when we think of a notebook or mobile computer which is an in- dispensible item of modern people. If the hard disk is replaced by the SSD, the notebook computer can be operated for a longer time because a battery duration time can significantly increase.

[11] Thirdly, a data access speed can be considerably improved. That is, in comparison with a conventional hard disk which reads data by moving a pin back and forth, the SSD reads data directly from a memory. When a plurality of files should be processed in a single try within a short time, the SSD can process data at an unbelievable speed. For example, when a user opens a folder having several thousands of pictures and wants to see thumbnail previews, a computer using the conventional hard disk could not process it, or in some bad cases, it may be halted or malfunctioned. However, a computer adopting the SSD can process them by a smooth scrolling. Therefore, the SSD is considered to be very effective when a large capacity of games or programs requiring a lot of read or write operations are loaded.

[12] In addition, since the SSD can be manufactured to have a thin thickness in comparison with the conventional hard disk, a large capacity of memory device can be manufactured in a pocket size. The SSD can be utilized in a variety of fields such as aerospace, vehicles, military equipment, industrial appliances, as well as a desktop or laptop computer without any limitation. Disclosure of Invention Technical Problem

[13] Since the conventional main board includes only a connector and an interface required to connect to the hard disk, and is internally constructed up to a level of a host controller (e.g., South Bridge) for controlling the hard disk, the SSD having the aforementioned advantages should be separately mounted on the conventional main board to utilize it. [14] Since the SSD is separately mounted on a computer, cost for additional components increases, and a high concentration of hard disk structure becomes more complicated.

Also, additional wires may aggravate heat and noise problems in a computer structure.

So, there are strong needs for solving such problems in this situation. [15] Furthermore, the conventional main board failed to have a plurality of flash buses for ensuring the speed and capacity required in the up-to-date electronic technologies when the SSD is used.

Technical Solution [16] The present invention is contrived to address the aforementioned problems, and its object is to provide a main board initially including an SSD disk controller and a flash bus unit having a plurality of flash bus slots connected to the SSD disk controller to receive a flash memory module in order to use the SSD as a storage device. [17] Also, another object of the invention is to provide a main board that allows a disk- connectable interface of a south bridge existing in a conventional main board and the

SSD disk controller to be connected to each other in order to conveniently use the SSD as a storage device in a various way as desired. [18] Also, further another object of the invention is to provide a main board that allows us to use the SSD as a storage device in wide fields of industries as well as a computer.

Advantageous Effects

[19] According to the present invention, since the SSD disk controller and a plurality of flash bus units are combined with a conventional main board, it is possible to conveniently use the SSD as a storage device in a simple way as desired.

[20] Since the SSD disk controller and the flash bus unit are connected to the conventional main board through various connection channels, it is possible to maximize manufacturing convenience of the main board.

[21] Also, it is possible to conveniently use the SSD as a storage device in wide fields of industries as well as a desktop or laptop computer. Brief Description of the Drawings

[22] The above and other features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent by describing in detail exemplary embodiments thereof with reference to the attached drawings in which:

[23] FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a main board configuration according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[24] FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a main board configuration according to another embodiment of the present invention; and

[25] FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a main board configuration according to further another embodiment of the present invention. Best Mode for Carrying Out the Invention

[26] To achieve the aforementioned objects, the invention is implemented by the embodiments having the following construction. [27] According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a main board for receiving an SSD (solid state drive) used as a storage device, the main board comprising: an SSD disk controller capable of controlling the SSD in response to an input signal from an external host; and a flash bus unit having a plurality of flash bus slots connected to the SSD disk controller to receive a flash memory module. [28] According to a second aspect of the present invention, the SSD disk controller according to the first aspect of the invention may be connected to a disk-connectable interface of a south bridge. [29] According to a third aspect of the present invention, the disk-connectable interface according to the sencond aspect of the invention may be an ATA (advanced technology attachment) port. [30] According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the disk-connectable interface according to the sencond aspect of the invention may be a SATA (serial ATA) port. [31] According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, the disk-connectable interface according to the sencond aspect of the invention may be a PCI (peripheral component interconnect) bus, a PCI express bus, or a PCI-X bus. [32] According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, the disk-connectable interface according to the sencond aspect of the invention may be a USB (universal serial bus) port interface. [33] According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, the disk-connectable interface according to the sencond aspect of the invention may be an interface connected to various buses or interfaces through a bridge. [34] According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, the disk-connectable interface according to the sencond aspect of the invention may be a bus or interface based on a storage technology. [35] According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, the SSD disk controller according to the first aspect of the invention may be connected to a RAID (on-board redundant arrays of inexpensive disk) controller of the main board. [36] According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, the flash bus unit according to one of the first to ninth aspects of the invention may include four flash bus slots depending on a processing speed and a processing capacity required when the main board is utilized. [37] According to an eleventh aspect of the present invention, the flash bus unit according to one of the first to ninth aspects of the invention may include eight flash bus slots depending on a processing speed and a processing capacity required when the main board is utilized.

Mode for the Invention

[38] Hereinafter, the embodiments of the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[39] Referring to FIG. 1, the main board according to an embodiment of the present invention further includes a solid state drive (SSD) disk controller 700 and a flash bus unit 900 having a plurality of flash bus slots 910 connected to the SSD disk controller 700 for receiving a flash memory module in addition to the conventional main board 1000. As shown in FIG. 1, the SSD disk controller 700 and the flash bus unit 900 c onstitute a characteristic portion 2000 of the present invention.

[40] A central processing unit (CPU) 100, a universal serial bus (USB) 511, a peripheral component interconnect (PCI-express) bus 512, a main memory slot 310, an enhanced integrated drive electronics (E-IDE) bus 514, and a basic input/output system (BIOS) 515 shown in FIG. 1 are similar to those of the conventional main board, and thus, their detailed descriptions will be omitted. Now, a north bridge 300 and a south bridge 500 according to the present invention will be described.

[41] A conventional main board is responsible for collectively operating every component of a computer. In prior art, the main board is mainly used to provide a channel function for connecting the components to one another. Due to recent remarkable development in the computer components, the main board is required to have a control function in addition to the channel function. For this purpose, a chipset for processing the additional functions has been developed, and the chipset is considered to be a most important element in the main board.

[42] The components of a computer can be classified into two categories, a high-speed components and low-speed components. The conventional main board has a separate chipset for ensuring effective management between the high-speed and low-speed components. The north bridge 300 and the south bridge 500 are included in this type of chipsets.

[43] The north bridge 300 has been named because it is placed in a relatively upper portion in comparison with the south bridge 500, and it controls a CPU 110, a memory, and a graphic card (AGP), and the like. The components controlled by the north bridge 300 are commonly operated in a very high speed, and are most important parts in a computer. Therefore, the north bridge 300 is a most important chipset in the main board because whether or not a CPU type, a memory type and speed, a graphic card, and the like are supportable is determined by the north bridge 300.

[44] We cannot say that the south bridge 500 is less important in comparison with the north bridge 300. In terms of different functions between the north bridge 300 and the south bridge 500, their importance cannot be compared or determined.

[45] The south bridge 500 is responsible for controlling low-speed components such as hard disks, IDE devices, PCI slot devices, keyboards, or mouse devices. Therefore, in comparison with the north bridge 300, the south bridge 500 does not significantly affect properties of the main board. However, as described above, the south bridge 500 is also an indispensible item in the main board.

[46] As described above, the SSD according to the present invention is a storage medium developed to solve conventional hard disk problems, such as generation of heat and noise due to motors and mechanical components, weakness to external impact, and slow data transfer speed. For example, the SSD is a storage medium having a flash memory inserted into various data storage devices such as a secure digital (SD) card, a memory stick, a multi-media card (MMC), an extreme digital (xD) card, a compact flash (CF) card, a USB card, or the like.

[47] The SSD disk controller 700 receives signals input from an external host and controls the SSD.

[48] The SSD disk controller 700 is directly connected to a disk-connectable interface of the south bridge 500 and a flash bus slot 910 of the flash bus unit 900 for receiving the SSD through the bus. The SSD disk controller 700 converts a control signal, addresses, and data input through the disk-connectable interface into internal signals for controlling the SSD, and performs read/write operation from/to a selected flash memory in response to the internal signals.

[49] The signal input from the external host is transmitted to the SSD disk controller 700 through the disk-connectable interface of the south bridge 500, and then converted into an internal signal for controlling the SSD in the SSD disk controller 700.

[50] In response to the control command from the external host, the SSD disk controller

700 controls read/write operations of the SSD. In addition, although not shown in the drawings, the SSD disk controller 700 may control read/write operations of a buffer consisting of, for example, a SDRAM.

[51] FIG. 1 shows an SSD disk controller 700 directly connected to the south bridge 500.

In addition to the SSD disk controller 700 initially directly connected to the south bridge as shown in FIG. 1, the SSD disk controller 700 may be combined with the disk-connectable interface of the south bridge 500.

[52] For example, referring to FIGS. 2 and 3, the SSD disk controller 700 may be connected to an advanced technology attachment (ATA) port or a serial- ATA (SATA) port of the south bridge 500.

[53] Also, although not shown in the drawings, the SSD disk controller 700 may be connected to the PCI bus, the PCI-X bus, or the PCI express bus of the south bridge 500. The PCI bus is an input/output extension bus that has been developed from an accelerated graphic port (AGP), which is later progressed to a PCI-X bus used in servers or workstations, and then a PCI-express bus.

[54] In addition, although not shown in the drawings, the SSD disk controller 700 may be also connected to the USB port interface of the south bridge 500.

[55] A controller for controlling the USB and a connection port are already included in the main board. Therefore, since the SSD disk controller 700 according to the present invention is directly connected to the USB controller on the main board, it may be detected as an internal USB mass storage (UMS).

[56] In addition, although not shown in the drawings, the SSD disk controller 700 may be connected to an IDE bus mastering developed to facilitate multi-tasking, a ultra- ATA that has been developed by modifying a conventional E-IDE and improving a speed using a DMA, an IEEE- 1394 interface which has a faster speed than the USB, a fiber channel which is a high-speed serial interface highlighted as a next-generation standard for building a high-quality server or a redundant arrays of inexpensive disk (RAID) system, or a bus or interface adopting the storage technology of the south bridge 500.

[57] Furthermore, although not shown in the drawings, the SSD disk controller 700 may be connected to various buses or interfaces of the south bridge 500 through a bridge. That is, the SSD disk controller 700 according to the present invention may be c onnected to the buses or interfaces of the south bridge 500 in a roundabout way through the bridge as well as in a direct way. For example, the SSD disk controller 700 may be connected in various ways using the bridge such as connection from the PCI express to the SATA or connection from the PCI to the SATA.

[58] In addition, although not shown in the drawings, the SSD disk controller 700 may be connected to an on-board RAID controller.

[59] The RAID system has been developed to allow a set of drives to be treated as a single storage device, prevent data loss when a failure occurs, and allows each drive to be individually operated. For example, one of two hard disks may be used as a backup and the other may be normally used (i.e., mirroring: RAID 1). A set of drives may be used to build a large capacity disk, and data may be separately read or written in operations to improve a speed (i.e., striping: RAID 0). Also, the mirroring and the striping may be combined together (RAID 10). Typically, a RAID controller for controlling the RAID system is an on-board device internally mounted on the main board. However, the SSD disk controller 700 according to the present invention may be also connected to the RAID controller.

[60] It should be noted that the disk controller 700 should be initially included in the main board in any one of the aforementioned examples.

[61] The flash bus unit 900 is directly connected to the SSD disk controller 700 through the bus, and includes a flash bus slot 910 for receiving the SSD.

[62] The flash bus unit 900 is a component for receiving the SSD, and, as shown in FIG.

1, includes four flash bus slots 910 each connected to four buses diverged from the SSD disk controller 700. The number of flash bus slots 910 may be varied to eight, twelve, or sixteen according to capacity and speed requirements.

[63] The flash bus slot 910 directly receives the SSD, and may be constructed by using various sockets such as DDR2/3, or 168 pin DIMM sockets.

[64] The flash bus slot 910 may have the same shape as that of a main memory slot widely used in the art. Needless to say, other various types of the flash bus slots 910 may be implemented in consideration of capacity and speed requirements of the SSD.

[65] Various types of flash memory cards having the flash chip can be inserted into the flash bus slot 910 to function as a storage device, i.e., the SSD, and directly connected to the SSD disk controller 700 through the bus to facilitate data read/write operations.

[66] Referring to FIG. 2, it is recognized that the SSD disk controller 700 is connected to a SATA port.

[67] Referring to FIG. 3, it is recognized that SSD disk controller 7 is connected to an

ATA port. A parallel ATA (PATA) is a type of ATA ports connected in parallel. It does not matter whether the SSD disk controller 700 is connected to the ATA port or the PATA port except for the number of connection buses. Therefore, its detailed description will be omitted.

[68] That is, the SSD disk controller 700 connected to the flash bus unit 900 according to the present invention may be constructed in various ways depending on a design object or requirement of the main board.

[69] While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims.

[70]

Claims

[I] A main board for receiving an SSD (solid state drive) used as a storage device, the main board comprising: an SSD disk controller capable of controlling the SSD in response to an input signal from an external host; and a flash bus unit having a plurality of flash bus slots connected to the SSD disk controller to receive a flash memory module. [2] The main board according to claim 1, wherein the SSD disk controller is connected to a disk-connectable interface of a south bridge. [3] The main board according to claim 2, wherein the disk-connectable interface is an ATA (advanced technology attachment) port. [4] The main board according to claim 2, wherein the disk-connectable interface is a

SATA (serial ATA) port. [5] The main board according to claim 2, wherein the disk-connectable interface is a

PCI (peripheral component interconnect) bus, a PCI express bus, or a PCI-X bus. [6] The main board according to claim 2, wherein the disk-connectable interface is a

USB (universal serial bus) port interface. [7] The main board according to claim 2, wherein the disk-connectable interface is an interface connected to various buses or interfaces through a bridge. [8] The main board according to claim 2, wherein the disk-connectable interface is a bus or interface based on a storage technology. [9] The main board according to claim 1, wherein the SSD disk controller is connected to a RAID (on-board redundant arrays of inexpensive disk) controller of the main board. [10] The main board according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein the flash bus unit includes four flash bus slots depending on a processing speed and a processing capacity required when the main board is utilized.

[I I] The main board according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein the flash bus unit includes eight flash bus slots depending on a processing speed and a processing capacity required when the main board is utilized.