TWI763542B - Board-to-board connecting system - Google Patents

Abstract

A board-to-board connecting system is disclosed in the present invention. The board-to-board connecting system includes a first circuit board, a second circuit board, and a high-speed connector. The first circuit board is utilized to translate M first low-speed signals to N first similar high-speed signals and use K high-speed pins of the high-speed connector to transmit the first similar high-speed signals and P first high-speed signals. The second circuit board is utilized to translate M second low-speed signals to N second similar high-speed signals and use K high-speed pins of the high-speed connector to transmit the second similar high-speed signals and P second high-speed signals, wherein P plus M is bigger than K, and P plus N is not bigger than K.

Description

Board-to-board bridge signal transmission system

The present invention relates to a system, especially a board-to-board bridge signal transmission system.

With the development of science and technology, big data, Internet of Things, cloud services, 5G and other technologies have emerged, accompanied by a substantial increase in the amount of data. Therefore, the demand and technology of servers have also grown significantly.

Please refer to the first figure. The first figure is a block diagram of a prior art board-to-board butt transfer system. As shown in the figure, a board-to-board docking transmission system PA1 includes a first circuit board PA11, a second circuit board PA12 and a set of high-speed connectors PA13, wherein the high-speed connector PA13 is electrically connected to the first circuit board PA11 and the The second circuit board PA12.

The first circuit board PA11 includes a first high-speed signal transmission module PA111 and a first low-speed signal transmission module PA112. The second circuit board PA12 includes a second high-speed signal transmission module PA121 and a second low-speed signal transmission module PA122. The first high-speed signal transmission module PA111 and the second high-speed signal transmission module PA121 use the high-speed terminal PA131a to transmit the first high-speed signal and the second high-speed signal; the first low-speed signal transmission module PA112 and the second low-speed signal transmission The module PA122 uses the high-speed terminal PA132a to transmit the first low-speed signal and the second low-speed signal to each other. Although the first low-speed signal and the second low-speed signal belong to the low-speed signal, it is impossible to use the low-speed terminal of the low-speed connector because of the low-speed signal, because the first high-speed signal and the second high-speed signal cannot be transmitted by using the low-speed terminal. Therefore, in the high-speed connector PA13, there will be a set of high-speed terminals dedicated to transmitting high-speed signals, such as the high-speed terminal PA131a in the figure, and another set of high-speed terminals is dedicated to transmitting low-speed signals, such as the high-speed terminal PA132a in the figure.

The number of all high-speed terminals PA131a and PA132a needs to be greater than or equal to the sum of the number of high-speed signals and low-speed signals. For example, if the number of the first high-speed signal and the second high-speed signal is N pairs, that is, 2N, and the number of the first low-speed signal and the second low-speed signal is M, the number of the high-speed terminals PA131a and PA132a is Greater than or equal to 2N plus M.

With the development of server technology, the utilization rate of high-speed connectors is getting higher and higher, resulting in insufficient high-speed terminal resources for board-to-board signal transmission in some cases, that is, the number of PINs often said in the industry is not enough. In the prior art, when the high-speed terminal resources are insufficient, the high-speed connector PA13 with more high-speed terminals PA131a and PA132a is used. However, when the number of high-speed terminals PA131a and PA132a of the high-speed connector PA13 is larger, the price will be higher and the space occupied will be larger, which will even affect the design of the first circuit board PA11 and the second circuit board PA12 set with space. Therefore, there is room for improvement in the prior art.

In view of the fact that in the prior art, the higher the number of high-speed terminals applied to the high-speed connector of the server, the higher the price, the more space, and the various problems derived therefrom. One of the main objectives of the present invention is to provide a board-to-board bridge signal transmission system to solve at least one problem in the prior art.

In order to solve the problems of the prior art, the necessary technical means adopted by the present invention is to provide a board-to-board bridge signal transmission system, which is applied to a server system and includes a set of high-speed connectors, a first circuit board and a first Two circuit boards. The high-speed connector has K high-speed terminals. The first circuit board is electrically connected to the high-speed connector, and includes a first complex programmable logic device and a first high-speed signal transmission module. The first complex programmable logic device uses a communication protocol to convert the M first low-speed signals into N first-type high-speed signals, and utilizes the K high-speed terminals to transmit the N first-type high-speed signals. The first high-speed signal transmission module is electrically connected to the set of high-speed connectors, and uses the K high-speed terminals to transmit P first high-speed signals. The second circuit board is electrically connected to the set of high-speed connectors, and includes a second complex programmable logic device and a second high-speed signal transmission module. The second complex programmable logic device uses the communication protocol to convert the M second low-speed signals into N second-type high-speed signals, and uses the K high-speed terminals to transmit the N second-type high-speed signals. The second high-speed signal transmission module is electrically connected to the set of high-speed connectors for transmitting P second high-speed signals through the K high-speed terminals; wherein, P plus M is greater than K, and P plus N is less than or equal to K.

On the basis of the above necessary technical means, an auxiliary technical means derived from the present invention is to make the first complex programmable logic device in the board-to-board bridge signal transmission system, which includes a first low-speed signal collection module and a The first conversion module. The first low-speed signal collecting module is used for collecting the M first low-speed signals. The first conversion module is electrically connected to the first low-speed signal collection module, and uses the communication protocol to correspondingly convert the M first low-speed signals into the N first-type high-speed signals.

On the basis of the above necessary technical means, an auxiliary technical means derived from the present invention is to make the second complex programmable logic device in the board-to-board bridge signal transmission system, which comprises a second low-speed signal collection module and a The second conversion module. The second low-speed signal collecting module is used for collecting the M second low-speed signals. The second conversion module is electrically connected to the second low-speed signal collection module, and uses the communication protocol to correspondingly convert the M second low-speed signals into the N second-type high-speed signals.

On the basis of the above necessary technical means, an auxiliary technical means derived from the present invention is to make the first type of high-speed signal in the board-to-board bridge signal transmission system, which is an I2C signal.

On the basis of the above necessary technical means, an auxiliary technical means derived from the present invention is to make the second type of high-speed signal in the board-to-board bridge signal transmission system, which is an I2C signal.

On the basis of the above-mentioned necessary technical means, an auxiliary technical means derived from the present invention is to make the first low-speed signal in the board-to-board bridge signal transmission system tied to a sideband signal.

On the basis of the above necessary technical means, an auxiliary technical means derived from the present invention is to make the second low-speed signal in the board-to-board bridge signal transmission system tied to a sideband signal.

To sum up, after the present invention converts a low-speed signal into a quasi-high-speed signal, compared with the prior art, a better effect can be achieved. Under the same number of high-speed terminals, the present invention can transmit more signals than the prior art, thereby improving transmission efficiency; under the condition of the same number of signals, the present invention can use high-speed connectors with fewer high-speed terminals, In order to achieve the effect of reducing costs and saving space.

The specific embodiments of the present invention will be described in more detail below with reference to the schematic diagrams. The advantages and features of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description and the scope of the claims. It should be noted that the drawings are all in a very simplified form and use inaccurate scales, and are only used to facilitate and clearly assist the purpose of explaining the embodiments of the present invention.

Please refer to the second figure, which is a block diagram of the board-to-board bridge signal transmission system provided by the preferred embodiment of the present invention. As shown in the figure, a board-to-board bridge signal transmission system 1 includes a first circuit board 11 , a second circuit board 12 and a set of high-speed connectors 13 , and is applied to a server system.

The first circuit board 11 is electrically connected to the high-speed connector 13 and includes a first high-speed signal transmission module 111 and a first Complex Programmable Logic Device (CPLD) 112 .

The second circuit board 12 is electrically connected to the high-speed connector 13 and includes a second high-speed signal transmission module 121 and a second complex programmable logic device (CPLD) 122 .

The high-speed connector 13 has K high-speed terminals 131 . The high-speed terminal 131 in this embodiment can be regarded as the high-speed terminal PA131a specially used for transmitting high-speed signals in the prior art.

The first high-speed signal transmission module 111 receives and transmits the P first high-speed signals on the first circuit board 11 . The first high-speed signal is the same as the first high-speed signal in the prior art.

In this embodiment, the first complex programmable logic device 112 includes a first low-speed signal collection module 1121 and a first conversion module 1122 .

The first low-speed signal collecting module 1121 is used for collecting M first low-speed signals. In this embodiment, the first low-speed signal is a sideband signal.

The first conversion module 1122 is electrically connected to the first low-speed signal collection module 1121, and converts the M first low-speed signals collected by the first low-speed signal collection module 1121 into N first-type high-speed signals. In this embodiment, the first conversion module 1122 uses a communication protocol to convert the M first low-speed signals into N first-type high-speed signals, and the first-type high-speed signals are I2C (Inter-Integrated Circuit) signals.

In this embodiment, the second complex programmable logic device 122 includes a second low-speed signal collection module 1221 and a second conversion module 1222 .

The second high-speed signal transmission module 121 receives and transmits the P second high-speed signals on the second circuit board 12 . Wherein, the second high-speed signal is the same as the second high-speed signal in the prior art.

The second converting module 1222 is electrically connected to the second low-speed signal collecting module 1221, and converts the M second low-speed signals collected by the second low-speed signal collecting module 1221 into N second-type high-speed signals. In this embodiment, the second conversion module 1222 uses a communication protocol to convert the M second low-speed signals into N second-type high-speed signals, and the second-type high-speed signals are I2C (Inter-Integrated Circuit) signals.

In more detail, the number P of the first high-speed signals plus the number M of the first low-speed signals will be greater than the number K of the high-speed terminals 131 . In the prior art, because the number of high-speed terminals PA131a and PA132a is insufficient, it is necessary to replace the high-speed connector PA13 with a large number of high-speed terminals PA131a and PA132a. However, in the present invention, after using the first conversion module 1122 to convert the M first low-speed signals into N first-type high-speed signals, P plus N will be less than or equal to K, and the high-speed terminal 131 can be used to transmit the above The first high-speed signal and the first type of high-speed signal. Similarly, the parts of the second circuit board 12 are also the same, so the detailed description is omitted.

The following will compare the present invention and the prior art with an example of actual numbers: if the number of the first high-speed signal and the second high-speed signal is 22, and the number of the first low-speed signal and the second low-speed signal is 10, then the set of The total number of high-speed terminals PA131a and PA132a of the high-speed connector PA13 needs to be at least 32. Taking 8-pin high-speed connectors as an example, the set of high-speed connectors PA13 must contain at least four high-speed connectors. In the present invention, the first low-speed signal and the second low-speed signal can be converted into the first type of high-speed signal and the second type of high-speed signal, and the converted quantity is bound to be less than 10. Therefore, the set of high-speed connectors 13 of the present invention has The number of high-speed terminals 131 must not exceed 32. Preferably, the present invention can reduce the number of the first low-speed signal and the second low-speed signal to two. At this time, the number of high-speed terminals 131 only needs to be 24. If an 8-pin high-speed connector is used as an example, the set of high-speed connectors 13 of the present invention only needs to include three high-speed connectors, so the number of high-speed terminals can be reduced. Quantity, to achieve the effect of reducing costs and reducing space.

By using the differential signals of the first complex programmable logic device 112 and the second complex programmable logic device 122 to perform high-speed signal transmission, the delay operation can be reduced as much as possible.

In addition, the first complex programmable logic device 112 and the second complex programmable logic device 122 belong to integrated circuits (ICs), and can also be updated by the firmware for users to adapt to different user needs and functions .

To sum up, after the present invention converts a low-speed signal into a quasi-high-speed signal, compared with the prior art, a better effect can be achieved. Under the same number of high-speed terminals, the present invention can transmit more signals than the prior art, thereby improving transmission efficiency; under the condition of the same number of signals, the present invention can use high-speed connectors with fewer high-speed terminals, In order to achieve the effect of reducing costs and saving space.

Through the detailed description of the preferred embodiments above, it is hoped that the features and spirit of the present invention can be described more clearly, and the scope of the present invention is not limited by the preferred embodiments disclosed above. On the contrary, the intention is to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangements within the scope of the claimed scope of the present invention.

PA1: Board-to-board docking transfer system PA11: The first circuit board PA111: The first high-speed signal transmission module PA112: The first low-speed signal transmission module PA12: Second circuit board PA121: The second high-speed signal transmission module PA122: The second low-speed signal transmission module PA13: High Speed Connector PA131a, PA132a: High-speed terminals 1: Board-to-board bridge signal transmission system 11: The first circuit board 111: The first high-speed signal transmission module 112: The first complex programmable logic device 1121: The first low-speed signal collection module 1122: The first conversion module 12: Second circuit board 121: The second high-speed signal transmission module 122: Second Complex Programmable Logic Device 1221: The second low-speed signal collection module 1222: Second conversion module 13: High-speed connector 131: High-speed terminal

The first figure is a block diagram showing a prior art board-to-board docking transfer system; and The second figure is a block diagram of the board-to-board bridge signal transmission system provided by the preferred embodiment of the present invention.

1: Board-to-board bridge signal transmission system

11: The first circuit board

111: The first high-speed signal transmission module

112: The first complex programmable logic device

1121: The first low-speed signal collection module

1122: The first conversion module

12: Second circuit board

121: The second high-speed signal transmission module

122: Second Complex Programmable Logic Device

1221: The second low-speed signal collection module

1222: Second conversion module

13: High-speed connector

131: High-speed terminal

Claims (7)

A board-to-board bridge signal transmission system is applied to a server system, comprising: A set of high-speed connectors with K high-speed terminals; A first circuit board is electrically connected to the set of high-speed connectors, including: a first complex programmable logic device for converting M first low-speed signals into N first-type high-speed signals using a communication protocol, and using the K high-speed terminals to transmit the N first-type high-speed signals; and a first high-speed signal transmission module electrically connected to the set of high-speed connectors, and using the K high-speed terminals to transmit P first high-speed signals; and A second circuit board is electrically connected to the set of high-speed connectors, including: a second complex programmable logic device, using the communication protocol to convert the M second low-speed signals into N second-type high-speed signals, and using the K high-speed terminals to transmit the N second-type high-speed signals; and a second high-speed signal transmission module electrically connected to the set of high-speed connectors for transmitting P second high-speed signals through the K high-speed terminals; Among them, P plus M is greater than K, and P plus N is less than or equal to K. The board-to-board bridge signal transmission system of claim 1, wherein the first complex programmable logic device comprises: a first low-speed signal collection module for collecting the M first low-speed signals; and A first conversion module is electrically connected to the first low-speed signal collection module, and uses the communication protocol to correspondingly convert the M first low-speed signals into the N first-type high-speed signals. The board-to-board bridge signal transmission system of claim 1, wherein the second complex programmable logic device comprises: a second low-speed signal collecting module for collecting the M second low-speed signals; and A second conversion module is electrically connected to the second low-speed signal collection module, and uses the communication protocol to correspondingly convert the M second low-speed signals into the N second-type high-speed signals. The board-to-board bridge signal transmission system according to claim 1, wherein the N first type high-speed signals are I2C signals. The board-to-board bridge signal transmission system according to claim 1, wherein the N second type high-speed signals are I2C signals. The board-to-board bridge signal transmission system of claim 1, wherein the M first low-speed signals are sideband signals. The board-to-board bridge signal transmission system of claim 1, wherein the M second low-speed signals are sideband signals.

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