TWM528476U - Control device and computer system using the same - Google Patents

Abstract

A control device for a storage device includes a detection circuit for detecting a pin of the storage device to generate a detection result, and a control circuit coupled to the detection circuit for determining a transmission interface according to the detection result from the detection circuit, wherein the storage device performs initialization according to the determined transmission interface so as to transmit and receive data via the determined transmission interface.

Description

Control device and related computer system

The present invention relates to a control device and related computer system, and more particularly to a control device for a transfer interface of a switchable storage device and related computer system.

With the advancement and development of information technology, computer devices have become an indispensable electronic product for people in their work and life. In order to increase the transmission rate of the storage device, various different transmission interfaces are also generated. For example, the Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) interface and the Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) interface provide excellent transmission performance.

In general, since the existing non-volatile memory (NVMe) solid state hard disk is usually turned on by the user according to the transmission interface selected by the system controller. In this case, when the user encounters a solid-state hard disk failure and wants to perform data rescue, the user cannot convert the transmission interface by itself and cause inconvenience to the user. Therefore, how to provide users with the choice of a suitable transmission interface to read data stored on a solid state drive has become one of the important topics in the field.

Therefore, the main purpose of the present invention is to provide a control device for switching the transmission interface of the storage device and its related computer system to improve user convenience.

The present invention discloses a control device for a storage device, comprising a detection circuit for detecting a pin of the storage device to generate a detection result, and a control circuit coupled to the detection circuit Determining a transmission interface according to the detection result detected by the detection circuit; wherein the storage device is initialized according to the transmission interface determined by the control circuit to determine the transmission through the transmission The interface receives and transmits data.

The present invention further discloses a computer system comprising: a storage device; a first transmission interface coupled to the storage device; a second transmission interface coupled to the storage device; and a control device coupled to the The first transmission interface and the second transmission interface include: a detection circuit for detecting one of the storage devices to generate a detection result; and a control circuit coupled to the detection The measurement circuit is configured to determine a transmission interface according to the detection result detected by the detection circuit, wherein the storage device is initialized according to the transmission interface determined by the control circuit, to determine The transmission interface receives and transmits data.

Please refer to FIG. 1. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a computer system 10 according to one embodiment of the present invention. The computer system 10 includes a storage device 102, a first transmission interface 104, a second transmission interface 106, and a control device 108. The first transmission interface 104 and the second transmission interface 106 are coupled to the storage device 102. The first transmission interface 104 and the second transmission interface 106 are respectively a PCIe transmission interface, a SATA transmission interface, a Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) transmission interface, and a Universal Serial Bus (Universal Serial Bus). USB) transfer interface or other data transfer interface. For example, the first transmission interface 104 can be a SATA transmission interface, and the second transmission interface 106 can be a PCIe transmission interface, but not limited thereto. The control device 108 is coupled to the first transmission interface 104 and the second transmission interface 106, and includes a detection circuit 110 and a control circuit 112. In detail, when the user wants to read data from the storage device 102, the control device 108 of the computer system 10 can control the data in the storage device 102 to be read by the first transmission interface 104 or the second transmission interface 106, and Decide on the transmission interface used to transmit and receive data. For example, the control device 108 can determine the transmission interface of the storage device 102 by detecting the status of the pin detected by the circuit 110. Then, the storage device 102 is initialized according to the determined transmission interface, and the data in the storage device 102 is read by the transmission interface.

Traditional NVMe SSDs store internal data in a solid state disk in a Logical Block Access (LBA) mechanism. Therefore, when the user can read the data stored in the NVMe solid state drive through the PCIe interface or the SATA interface. However, if the user wants to switch the transmission interface to read the data, it is necessary to use an expensive external transfer board or restart the system and switch from the system side. For example, the user must restart the operating system and enter the BIOS system before switching the data of the solid state drive read by different transmission interfaces. In view of this, the present embodiment provides a control device that can be used for an NVMe solid state hard disk, which can switch the transmission interface through the system end without using an expensive external transfer board or restart system, and can be controlled by the device side. Directly switch data from NVMe SSDs from different transport interfaces (such as PCIe transport interface or SATA transport interface).

In detail, the control device 108 includes a detection circuit 110 and a control circuit 112. The detecting circuit 110 is configured to detect the signal of one of the pins of the storage device 102 and generate a detection result. In one embodiment, the pin of the storage device 102 can be an interface detection pin. For example, the storage device 102 is a solid state hard disk, and the pin can be a Pin 69 pin of the solid state hard disk. The control circuit 112 is coupled to the detection circuit 110, which determines the transmission interface according to the detection result of the detection circuit 110, and then reads the data via the determined transmission interface (for example, the first transmission interface 104 or the second transmission interface 106). For example, when the detecting circuit 110 detects that the state of the pin of the storage device 102 is a Not Connected (NC), the control circuit 112 selects the first transmission interface 104 (for example, a PCIe transmission interface); When the circuit 110 detects that the state of the pin of the storage device 102 is a ground state (Ground, GND), the control circuit 112 selects the second transmission interface 106 (for example, a SATA transmission interface). In this way, the storage device 102 can control the transmission of the storage device 102 by the first transmission interface 104 or the second transmission interface 106 by using the control device 108 of the device. Convenience and practicality.

In one embodiment, assume that storage device 102 is an M.2 solid state drive. The detecting circuit 110 can detect the Pin 69 pin of one of the storage devices 102 and generate a corresponding detection result. The control circuit 112 determines the transmission interface based on the detected detection result. For example, when the detecting circuit 110 detects that the Pin 69 pin of the storage device 102 is in a floating state, the control circuit 112 selects the first transmission interface 104 (for example, a PCIe transmission interface) as a transmission interface for data transmission. In this case, the storage device 102 and/or the first transmission interface 104 will be initialized. After the initialization is completed, the storage device 102 will receive and transmit the data through the first transmission interface 104. That is, as shown in FIG. 2, the processor 114 or other components of the computer system 10 (not shown) will be able to access the data stored in the storage device 102 through the first transmission interface 104 or The data is stored to the storage device 102. For example, when the detecting circuit 110 detects that the Pin 69 pin of the storage device 102 is in the grounded state, the control circuit 112 selects the second transmission interface 106 (for example, the SATA transmission interface) as the transmission interface for data transmission. In this case, the storage device 102 and/or the second transmission interface 106 will be initialized. After the initialization is completed, the storage device 102 will receive and transmit the data through the second transmission interface 106. That is, as shown in FIG. 3, the processor 114 or other components of the computer system 10 can access the data stored in the storage device 102 or store the data to the storage device 102 through the second transmission interface 106.

In one embodiment, assume that storage device 102 is an NVMe solid state drive. Since the NVMe solid state hard disk supports multiple sets of firmware slots, the control device 108 can perform firmware switching according to the state of the Pin 69 pin of the storage device 102. For example, when the detecting circuit 110 detects that the Pin 69 pin of the storage device 102 is in a floating state, the control device 108 initializes according to the physical layer of the PCIe, and adopts the NVMe protocol. As a firmware. When the detecting circuit 110 detects that the Pin 69 pin of the storage device 102 is changed from the floating state to the ground state, the control device 108 determines to read the NVMe solid state hard disk by the SATA transmission interface according to the detection result of the detecting circuit 110. Information. Then, the physical layer is initialized according to the SATA physical layer. At this time, the control device 108 switches the firmware from the NVMe protocol to the SATA protocol according to the state of the pin 69 pin.

In an embodiment, when the control device 108 is applied to an NVMe solid state drive that supports both the SATA and PCIe physical layer interfaces, when the detection circuit 110 detects that the Pin 69 pin is in a floating state (NC), the first selection is performed. The solid state hard disk is initialized by the PCIe physical layer interface, and then the NVMe solid state hard disk is read after the original NVMe protocol firmware is loaded; and the NVMe solid state hard disk is initialized by the PCIe physical layer interface, and the failure occurs. When data rescue is required, the control circuit 112 controls the NVMe solid state hard disk switch to read by the SATA transmission interface according to the result detected by the detection circuit 110 after changing the pin state of the Pin 69 to the ground state (GND). Internal information. In this way, the user can take out the internal data of the NVMe solid state hard disk without using an expensive adapter board, and only need to switch the PCIe transmission interface to the SATA transmission interface by the control device 108, and can read the NVMe solid state hard. The information on the disc enhances convenience and practicality.

The above is only one embodiment of the present invention, and those skilled in the art may make various modifications according to the present invention, and are not limited thereto. For example, the control device 108 can select different transmission interfaces to switch between initializing the interface of the storage device, detecting signals of different pins, or applying to different storage devices. In addition, the storage device 102, the first transmission interface 104, the second transmission interface 106, and/or the control device 108 may be integrated on the same wafer system, or may be separately disposed.

In summary, the present invention can provide a control device for switching a storage device interface and related computer system, and conveniently switch the transmission interface for data rescue when the storage device fails, without using expensive as in the conventional manner. The external transfer or restart system relies on the system to switch the transmission interface, so this creation will effectively improve the user's convenience and practicality.

The above descriptions are only preferred embodiments of the present invention, and all changes and modifications made by the scope of the patent application of the present invention should be covered by the present invention.

10‧‧‧ computer system
102‧‧‧Storage device
104‧‧‧First transmission interface
106‧‧‧Second transmission interface
108‧‧‧Control device
110‧‧‧Detection circuit
112‧‧‧Control circuit
114‧‧‧Processor

Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of a computer system of one embodiment of the present invention. 2 and 3 are schematic views of the data transmission of the present embodiment.

10‧‧‧ computer system

102‧‧‧Storage device

104‧‧‧First transmission interface

106‧‧‧Second transmission interface

108‧‧‧Control device

110‧‧‧Detection circuit

112‧‧‧Control circuit

Claims (12)

A control device for a storage device includes: a detection circuit for detecting a pin of the storage device to generate a detection result; and a control circuit coupled to the detection circuit Determining a transmission interface according to the detection result detected by the detection circuit; wherein the storage device is initialized according to the transmission interface determined by the control circuit, to determine the transmission interface Receive and transmit data. The control device of claim 1, wherein the detection result is that the pin of the storage device is in a floating state (Not Connected, NC) or a grounded state (Ground, GND). The control device of claim 2, wherein when the detection result indicates that the pin of the storage device is in the floating state, the control circuit selects a first transmission interface as the transmission interface, and when the When the detection result indicates that the pin of the storage device is in the ground state, the control circuit selects a second transmission interface as the transmission interface. The control device of claim 3, wherein the first transmission interface is a Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe), and the second transmission interface sequence (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment, SATA). The control device of claim 1, wherein the pin of the storage device is an interface detecting pin. The control device of claim 1, wherein the storage device is a Solid State Disk (SSD). A computer system, comprising: a storage device; a first transmission interface coupled to the storage device; a second transmission interface coupled to the storage device; and a control device coupled to the first transmission The interface and the second transmission interface include: a detection circuit for detecting a pin of the storage device to generate a detection result; and a control circuit coupled to the detection circuit for using Determining a transmission interface according to the detection result detected by the detection circuit; wherein the storage device is initialized according to the transmission interface determined by the control circuit to receive through the determined transmission interface And transfer information. The computer system of claim 7, wherein the detection result is that the pin of the storage device is in a floating state (Not Connected, NC) or a grounded state (Ground, GND). The computer system of claim 8, wherein when the detection result indicates that the pin of the storage device is in the floating state, the control circuit selects a first transmission interface as the transmission interface, and when the When the detection result indicates that the pin of the storage device is in the ground state, the control circuit selects a second transmission interface as the transmission interface. The computer system of claim 9, wherein the first transmission interface is a Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe), and the second transmission interface sequence (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment, SATA). The computer system of claim 7, wherein the pin of the storage device is an interface detecting pin. The computer system of claim 7, wherein the storage device is a Solid State Disk (SSD).