CN110851389A

CN110851389A - Interface expansion method, expansion network card and server applied by expansion network card

Info

Publication number: CN110851389A
Application number: CN201911348813.9A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 于连海; 宋拥军; 袁科
Original assignee: Celestica Technology Consultancy Shanghai Co Ltd
Current assignee: Celestica Technology Consultancy Shanghai Co Ltd
Priority date: 2019-12-24
Filing date: 2019-12-24
Publication date: 2020-02-28

Abstract

The invention provides an interface expansion method, an expansion network card and a server applied by the expansion network card, wherein the expansion network card comprises: the circuit board is connected with an U.2 interface which outputs PCIE signals, and the PCIE signals are read from the U.2 interface; the network chip is arranged on the circuit board and used for converting the read PCIE signals into network signals in a preset format; and the at least one expansion interface is connected with the network chip and used for outputting the network signal in the preset format. In the invention, the existing U.2 interface is used for carrying out the expansion design of the network card, the original HDD/SSD disk position is used for designing the expansion network card, and PCIE connection is established between the network chip on the expansion network card and the mainboard through the U.2 interface, thus finally realizing the expansion of the network port.

Description

Interface expansion method, expansion network card and server applied by expansion network card

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of IT hardware equipment, in particular to the technical field of server and network card expansion.

Background

In the data center, the expansion network cards are connected to form a large local area network, and machine room management personnel can uniformly configure and manage the expansion network cards.

For the same server product, different customers have different customized requirements, some need to connect more hard disks, some need to connect more network interfaces, and the requirements for the network interfaces are different, such as optical network interfaces, electric network interfaces, and the like. At present, the expansion of the network port is basically an expansion design made by a traditional PCIE expansion slot, the flexibility of a system is not strong, and hot plugging can not be realized.

Disclosure of Invention

In view of the above-mentioned defects of the prior art, an object of the present invention is to provide an interface expansion method, an expansion network card and a server applied thereto, which are used to provide a new network card interface expansion mode.

To achieve the above and other related objects, the present invention provides an expansion network card, including: the circuit board is connected with an U.2 interface which outputs PCIE signals, and the PCIE signals are read from the U.2 interface; the network chip is arranged on the circuit board and used for converting the read PCIE signals into network signals in a preset format; and the at least one expansion interface is connected with the network chip and used for outputting the network signal in the preset format.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the circuit board is connected to a plug terminal matching the U.2 interface.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the network chip converts the PCIE signal into a plurality of network signals in a plurality of preset formats, and the plurality of network signals are output through a plurality of different expansion interfaces.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the extension interface includes an optical module interface, or includes at least two optical module interfaces with different rates.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the expansion interface includes one electrical module interface, or includes at least two electrical module interfaces with different rates.

The embodiment of the invention also provides a server, which is provided with at least one U.2 interface, and the U.2 interface is plugged with the expansion network card.

The embodiment of the invention also provides an interface extension method, which comprises the following steps: reading a PCIE signal from an U.2 interface; converting the read PCIE signals into network signals in a preset format; and outputting the network signal with the preset format through at least one expansion interface.

In an embodiment of the present invention, an implementation manner of converting the read PCIE signal into a network signal in a preset format includes: and converting the PCIE signal into a plurality of network signals in a plurality of preset formats, and outputting the plurality of network signals through a plurality of different expansion interfaces.

In an embodiment of the invention, the expansion interface is an optical module interface or an electrical module interface.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the optical module interface includes at least two optical module sub-interfaces with different rates; the electrical module interface includes at least two electrical module sub-interfaces of different rates.

As described above, the interface expansion method, the expansion network card and the server using the same according to the present invention have the following advantages:

in the invention, the existing U.2 interface is used for carrying out the expansion design of the network card, the original HDD/SSD disk position is used for designing the expansion network card, and PCIE connection is established between the network chip on the expansion network card and the mainboard through the U.2 interface, thus finally realizing the expansion of the network port.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of an expansion network card according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating signal transmission of the expansion card according to an embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of a server according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 4 and 5 are schematic diagrams illustrating an overall structure of the expansion network card according to an embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an interface expanding method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Description of the element reference numerals

1 Server

100 expansion network card

110 circuit board

120 network chip

130 expansion interface

140 tray

200 U.2 interface

S110 to S130

Detailed Description

The embodiments of the present invention are described below with reference to specific embodiments, and other advantages and effects of the present invention will be easily understood by those skilled in the art from the disclosure of the present specification. The invention is capable of other and different embodiments and of being practiced or of being carried out in various ways, and its several details are capable of modification in various respects, all without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.

Please refer to fig. 1 to 6. It should be understood that the structures, ratios, sizes, and the like shown in the drawings and described in the specification are only used for matching with the disclosure of the specification, so as to be understood and read by those skilled in the art, and are not used to limit the conditions under which the present invention can be implemented, so that the present invention has no technical significance, and any structural modification, ratio relationship change, or size adjustment should still fall within the scope of the present invention without affecting the efficacy and the achievable purpose of the present invention. In addition, the terms "upper", "lower", "left", "right", "middle" and "one" used in the present specification are for clarity of description, and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention, and the relative relationship between the terms and the terms is not to be construed as a scope of the present invention.

The embodiment of the invention aims to provide an interface expansion method, an expansion network card and an application server thereof, which are used for providing a new network card interface expansion mode.

In the currently known network card design, the extension of the interface is basically an extension design made through a traditional PCIE extension slot, and the application of the interface extension scheme of this embodiment can increase the flexibility of the server system, develop different network solutions according to different customer requirements without changing the architecture of the server system, and save the cost of system revision at the same time.

The principle and implementation of the interface expansion method, the expansion network card and the server applied by the expansion network card of the present embodiment will be described in detail below, so that those skilled in the art can understand the interface expansion method, the expansion network card and the server applied by the expansion network card of the present embodiment without creative work.

As shown in fig. 1, the present embodiment provides an expansion network card 100, where the expansion network card 100 includes: circuit board 110, network chip 120, and at least one expansion interface 130.

In this embodiment, the circuit board 110 is connected to the U.2 interface 200 outputting PCIE signals, and reads the PCIE signals from the U.2 interface 200.

U.2 is an interface standard made for 2.5 inch HDD or SSD, and conforms to SFF-8639 specification, and HDD or SSD is connected by default in the server 1 to expand the capacity of the hard disk. U.2 interface 200 includes 2 SATA 6Gbps interfaces and a miniSATA interface with 4pin pins, one of which interfaces connects to a PCI-E line. This allows U.2 interface 200 to support a PCI-e3.0x4 channel, so U.2 interface 200 itself can output PCIE signals. In this embodiment, the U.2 interface 200 is utilized to output PCIE signals, and the circuit board 110 of the expansion card 100 is connected to the U.2 interface 200, so as to read PCIE signals from the U.2 interface 200.

In this embodiment, the circuit board 110 is connected to a plug terminal matching the U.2 interface 200.

Specifically, the expansion network card 100 of this embodiment has a male plug end that matches the U.2 interface 200, and when the expansion network card 100 is inserted into a motherboard, the male plug end may be inserted into the U.2 interface 200 on the motherboard to be connected to the U.2 interface 200, so as to obtain a required PCIE signal from the U.2 interface 200.

The hot plug of the expansion network card 100 of the embodiment can be realized outside the motherboard through the plugging terminal, so that the connection and the use of the expansion network card 100 are more flexible.

In this embodiment, the network chip 120 is mounted on the circuit board 110 and configured to convert the read PCIE signal into a network signal in a preset format.

The network chip 120 on the expansion card 100 can establish a PCIE signal communication connection with the motherboard through the U.2 interface 200. Through the network chip 120 in this embodiment, PCIE signals read from the U.2 interface 200 may be converted into network signals in different formats, and then output through different interfaces, which may be electrical interfaces with different rate specifications or optical interfaces.

The format conversion of the PCIE signal may adopt a signal conversion method in the prior art, and convert the PCIE signal into a required signal format according to the function and the signal requirement of the expansion interface 130.

In this embodiment, the network chip 120 converts the PCIE signal into a plurality of network signals in a plurality of preset formats, and the plurality of network signals are output through a plurality of different expansion interfaces 130.

In this embodiment, the expansion interface 130 is connected to the network chip 120, and is configured to output the network signal in the preset format.

In the present embodiment, the expansion interface 130 is, but not limited to, an optical module interface or an electrical module interface.

Specifically, in this embodiment, the extension interface 130 includes one optical module interface, or includes at least two optical module interfaces with different rates. Either the expansion interface 130 comprises one electrical module interface or comprises at least two electrical module interfaces of different rates.

As shown in fig. 2, the signal flow of this embodiment is as follows:

the expansion network card 100 is connected to the U.2 interface 200 through a plug, reads a PCIE signal from the U.2 interface 200, converts the PCIE signal into network signals of different formats through the network chip 120, and outputs the network signals through different expansion interfaces 130, which may be electrical module interfaces of different speed specifications or optical module interfaces, etc., so as to meet the customized interface requirements of more customers.

In addition, as shown in fig. 4 and 5, the expansion network card 100 further includes a heat dissipation module configured on the circuit board 110 to dissipate heat of the network chip 120, a fool-proof structure when the expansion network card 100 is installed in the chassis of the server 1, and some peripheral structures. And will not be described in detail herein.

The embodiment also provides a server 1, as shown in fig. 3 to fig. 5, the server 1 has at least one U.2 interface 200, and the U.2 interfaces 200 are plugged into the expansion card 100. The U.2 interface 200 and the expansion network card 100 may form an expansion module, and the server 1 may include a plurality of expansion modules, such as the expansion module 1 to the expansion module N shown in fig. 3, where N is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2.

Therefore, the server 1 in this embodiment uses the existing U.2 interface to make an expansion design of the network card, uses the position of the original HDD/SSD disk to design the expansion network card 100, and establishes PCIE connection between the network chip 120 on the expansion network card 100 and the motherboard through the U.2 interface 200, thereby finally realizing expansion of the network port.

Furthermore, in order to highlight the innovative part of the present invention, the technical features that are not so closely related to solve the technical problems proposed by the present invention are not introduced in the present embodiment, but this does not indicate that there are no other structural and functional features present in the present embodiment.

It should be noted that the drawings provided in the present embodiment are only for illustrating the basic idea of the present invention, and the drawings only show the components related to the present invention rather than the number, shape and size of the components in actual implementation, and the type, quantity and proportion of the components in actual implementation may be changed arbitrarily, and the layout of the components may be more complicated.

Example 2

As shown in fig. 6, this embodiment further provides an interface extension method, where the interface extension method includes:

in step S110, a PCIE signal is read from the U.2 interface.

Since the U.2 interface itself supports PCI-E3.0x4 lanes, the U.2 interface itself can output PCIE signals. In this embodiment, the U.2 interface is utilized to output PCIE signals, and the PCIE signals are read from the U.2 interface.

As shown in fig. 1, in this embodiment, an expansion card 100 is connected to an U.2 interface 200, and a PCIE signal is read from the U.2 interface 200 through the expansion card 100.

In this embodiment, the expansion card 100 has a plug end matching with the U.2 interface 200.

Step S120, converting the read PCIE signal into a network signal in a preset format.

In this embodiment, the network chip 120 is installed in the expansion card 100, and the PCIE signal communication connection can be established with the motherboard through the network chip 120 on the expansion card 100 through the U.2 interface 200. Through the network chip 120 in this embodiment, PCIE signals read from the U.2 interface 200 may be converted into network signals in different formats, and then output through different interfaces, which may be electrical interfaces with different rate specifications or optical interfaces.

Specifically, in this embodiment, one implementation manner of converting the read PCIE signal into a network signal in a preset format includes: the PCIE signals are converted into a plurality of network signals in a plurality of preset formats, and the plurality of network signals are output through a plurality of different expansion interfaces 130.

Step S130, outputting the network signal in the preset format through at least one expansion interface 130.

In this embodiment, the expansion interface 130 is an optical module interface or an electrical module interface.

Specifically, the extension interface 130 includes one optical module interface, or the extension interface 130 includes at least two optical module interfaces with different rates. Either the expansion interface 130 includes one electrical module interface or the expansion interface 130 includes at least two electrical module interfaces of different rates.

For example, in the present embodiment, the expansion interface 130 includes at least two optical module interfaces with different rates.

As shown in fig. 2, the signal flow of this embodiment is as follows:

In summary, in the present invention, the existing U.2 interface is used for the expansion design of the network card, the original HDD/SSD disk position is used for the expansion network card, and the PCIE connection is established between the network chip on the expansion network card and the motherboard through the U.2 interface, so as to finally realize the expansion of the network port. Therefore, the invention effectively overcomes various defects in the prior art and has high industrial utilization value.

The foregoing embodiments are merely illustrative of the principles and utilities of the present invention and are not intended to limit the invention. Any person skilled in the art can modify or change the above-mentioned embodiments without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Accordingly, it is intended that all equivalent modifications or changes which can be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and technical spirit of the present invention be covered by the claims of the present invention.

Claims

1. An expansion network card, comprising:

the circuit board is connected with an U.2 interface which outputs PCIE signals, and the PCIE signals are read from the U.2 interface;

the network chip is arranged on the circuit board and used for converting the read PCIE signals into network signals in a preset format;

and the at least one expansion interface is connected with the network chip and used for outputting the network signal in the preset format.

2. The expansion network card of claim 1, wherein: the circuit board is connected with a plug-in end matched with the U.2 interface.

3. The expansion network card of claim 1, wherein: the network chip converts the PCIE signal into a plurality of network signals in a plurality of preset formats, and the network signals are output through a plurality of different expansion interfaces.

4. The expansion network card of claim 1, wherein: the extension interface comprises one optical module interface or at least two optical module interfaces with different rates.

5. The expansion network card of claim 1 or 4, wherein: the expansion interface may comprise one electrical module interface or may comprise at least two electrical module interfaces of different rates.

6. A server, characterized by: the server is provided with at least one U.2 interface, and each U.2 interface is plugged with an expansion network card as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 5.

7. An interface extension method, characterized in that: the interface extension method comprises the following steps:

reading a PCIE signal from an U.2 interface;

converting the read PCIE signals into network signals in a preset format;

and outputting the network signal with the preset format through at least one expansion interface.

8. The interface expansion method of claim 7, wherein: one implementation manner of converting the read PCIE signal into a network signal in a preset format includes:

and converting the PCIE signal into a plurality of network signals in a plurality of preset formats, and outputting the plurality of network signals through a plurality of different expansion interfaces.

9. The interface expansion method of claim 7, wherein: the extension interface comprises one optical module interface or at least two optical module interfaces with different rates.

10. Interface expansion method according to claim 7 or 9, characterized in that: the expansion interface may comprise one electrical module interface or may comprise at least two electrical module interfaces of different rates.