WO2024066456A1

WO2024066456A1 - Server

Info

Publication number: WO2024066456A1
Application number: PCT/CN2023/098721
Authority: WO
Inventors: 冉懋良; 刘洪辉; 彭文庭; 康佳
Original assignee: 超聚变数字技术有限公司
Priority date: 2022-09-27
Filing date: 2023-06-06
Publication date: 2024-04-04
Also published as: CN115639880A

Abstract

Provided in the present disclosure is a server, relating to the field of computers. The server comprises an input/output adapter board. The input/output adapter board comprises a circuit board, and a first connector, a switch chip and a second connector which are located on the circuit board. Circuit traces are formed in the circuit board, the switch chip being separately coupled with the first connector and the second connector via the circuit traces. The first connector is further used for coupling with an input/output module of the server, and the second connector is further used for coupling with a backboard of the server. The server provided by the present disclosure can improve signal transmission integrity between switch chips and input/output modules.

Description

server

This application claims priority to the Chinese patent application filed with the State Intellectual Property Office on September 27, 2022, with application number 202211186745.2 and application name “Server”, the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference in this application.

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of computer technology, and in particular to a server.

Background technique

With the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and high performance computing (HPC), the computing power of graphics processor units (GPUs) has also developed rapidly, making server architectures more complex and diverse.

A switching chip is a switching device used to expand the functional interfaces in a server to support the expansion of more functional devices (such as SSD hard drives, network cards, etc.) and provide support for building a diversified server architecture.

However, the signal transmission integrity between the switch chip and the input/output (I/O) module of the existing server is low.

Therefore, how to improve the signal transmission integrity between the switch chip and the I/O module is an urgent problem to be solved.

Summary of the invention

An object of some embodiments of the present disclosure is to provide a server to improve the signal transmission integrity between a switch chip and an I/O module.

To achieve the above objectives, some embodiments of the present disclosure provide the following technical solutions:

The embodiment of the present application provides a server. The server includes an input-output adapter board. The input-output adapter board includes a circuit board, and a first connector, a switching chip, and a second connector located on the circuit board. A circuit trace is formed in the circuit board, and the switching chip is coupled to the first connector and the second connector respectively through the circuit trace. The first connector is also used to couple with an input-output module of the server, and the second connector is also used to couple with a backplane of the server.

The first connector is configured to establish a link between the input/output module and the switching chip. The second connector is configured to establish a link between the functional module coupled to the backplane and the switching chip.

In some servers, multiple switch chips inside the server are uniformly arranged on a board, and the multiple switch chips on the board communicate with multiple functional modules through cables, thereby completing the communication between different functional modules. However, this results in the switch chip and the I/O module in the server being far apart, resulting in the problem of low signal transmission integrity between the switch chip and the I/O module.

In the server provided by the embodiment of the present disclosure, the input-output adapter board can shorten the distance between the first connector and the switching chip by arranging the switching chip and the first connector on the same circuit board, thereby shortening the signal transmission distance between the I/O module coupled to the first connector and the switching chip, thereby improving the signal transmission integrity between the switching chip and the I/O module.

In addition, when the first connector and the switching chip are arranged on different circuit boards, the signal transmission integrity between the switching chip and the I/O module is low, and the server needs to add a signal conditioning (retimer) chip to improve the signal transmission integrity between the switching chip and the I/O module. Therefore, the server provided by the embodiment of the present disclosure improves the signal transmission integrity between the switching chip and the I/O module, and also indirectly avoids the increase of server cost due to the addition of a retimer chip. problem and reduce server costs.

In some embodiments, the first connector and the second connector can be devices supporting the high-speed serial computer expansion bus standard (peripheral component interconnect express, PCIe), and the switching chip can be a PCIe switch chip.

In some embodiments, the first connector includes a card electromechanical (CEM) connector. The CEM connector is used to couple with an expansion card.

A CEM connector is an expansion slot. An expansion card is inserted into the CEM connector so that the expansion card communicates with the CEM connector. The CEM connector is configured to establish a link between the expansion card and the switch chip. For example, a point-to-point communication channel is enabled between the expansion card and the CEM connector, and both the expansion card and the CEM connector are allowed to send and receive requests.

The CEM connector may include at least one of an x1 interface mode, an x2 interface mode, an x4 interface mode, an x8 interface mode, an x16 interface mode, and an x32 interface mode. Taking the CEM connector including the x2 interface mode as an example, the CEM connector includes 2 channels, each of which may be composed of two different data transmission pairs, one data transmission pair for sending signals, and the other data transmission pair for receiving signals. Therefore, each channel is composed of four wires.

In this embodiment, the input and output adapter board includes a CEM connector, which can facilitate the server to add an expansion card, thereby expanding the server's functions. At the same time, the CEM connector and the switching chip are located on the same circuit board, which can improve the signal transmission integrity between the expansion card and the switching chip.

In some embodiments, the input-output adapter board further includes a heat sink, and the heat sink is at least partially located on a side of the switch chip away from the circuit board.

The radiator may be an air-cooled radiator (eg, a fan), a water-cooled radiator, or a heat pipe radiator, which is not limited here. The radiator is arranged close to the switching chip to dissipate heat for the switching chip.

Since the temperature of the switch chip is high during operation, adding a heat sink to the server to dissipate heat from the switch chip can prevent the switch chip from burning due to excessive temperature, thereby improving the reliability of the server. In addition, the heat sink is at least partially located on the side of the switch chip away from the circuit board, which can utilize the unused space on the side of the switch chip away from the circuit board in the server and optimize the internal space layout of the server.

In some embodiments, each input-output adapter board includes a switch chip.

In some servers, multiple switch chips inside the server are installed on the same circuit board, which limits the coupling relationship and installation position of the switch chips, resulting in low flexibility of the internal architecture of the server. In this embodiment, each switch chip is located on a circuit board of an input and output adapter board, so that the position of the switch chip can be flexibly adjusted according to the coupling relationship of the switch chip, thereby improving the flexibility of the internal architecture of the server.

In some embodiments, the plurality of input-output adapter boards include at least two different input-output adapter boards, and the different input-output adapter boards have switch chips of the same or different models.

Different types of switching chips have different structural characteristics and/or performance characteristics. By including at least two different input and output adapter boards in one adapter board module, the richness of signal exchange in the server can be improved, and the adaptability of the server to various expansion cards can be improved.

In some embodiments, the patterns of circuit traces in the circuit boards of different input/output adapter boards are the same or different.

Each input-output adapter board includes a switching chip. It can be understood that the circuit routing of the circuit board in each input-output adapter board is dedicated to adapting to a type of switching chip.

When the two input/output adapter boards respectively include the same type of switching chips, the circuit routing patterns of the circuit boards in the two input/output adapter boards are the same; when the two input/output adapter boards respectively include different types of switching chips, the circuit routing patterns of the circuit boards in the two input/output adapter boards are different.

Due to different types of switching chips, the corresponding circuit routing in the circuit board is different. Once the switching chip fails, When replacing, you need to replace the switch chip with the same model as the faulty switch chip. If you need to replace the switch chip with a new model, you need to replace it together with the circuit board.

In some solutions, multiple switch chips inside the server are installed on the same circuit board. If the model of a switch chip on the circuit board needs to be replaced due to inventory, product updates, etc., the entire circuit board needs to be rebuilt, that is, the circuit routing corresponding to other switch chips of the same model will also be rebuilt. In this way, the workload of circuit board reconstruction is increased when the switch chip model of the input and output adapter board is replaced, which reduces the reconstruction efficiency, wastes resources, and increases the reconstruction cost.

In the present embodiment, each switching chip is separately located on a circuit board of an input-output adapter board. If the model of the switching chip needs to be replaced, it is only necessary to modify the circuit board of the switching chip, without changing the circuit boards corresponding to other switching chips of unchanged models. This improves the efficiency of circuit board modification when the adapter board module replaces the switching chip model, while reducing the modification cost required to replace the switching chip model.

In some embodiments, the server further comprises a frame, the frame defining a plurality of storage spaces, the plurality of input and output adapter boards being respectively located in the plurality of storage spaces, and the frame and the plurality of input and output adapter boards together forming an adapter board module.

The server provided by the embodiment of the present disclosure arranges multiple input and output adapter boards in a centralized and independent manner in the server through multiple storage spaces defined by a frame, which can prevent mutual interference between different input and output adapter boards and can centrally manage and maintain the multiple input and output adapter boards.

In some embodiments, the server further comprises a housing and a back plate. The back plate and the adapter plate module are located together in the housing, and the back plate and the adapter plate are coupled to each other.

The backplane is located in the housing, so that the space in the housing can be divided into two spaces located on both sides of the backplane. The backplane can be coupled with the functional modules in the two side spaces respectively, realizing signal transmission between the functional modules on both sides of the backplane, and shortening the high-speed signal transmission distance.

In some embodiments, the server further includes a plurality of functional modules, and different functional modules are respectively located at different positions in the housing. A signal line is arranged in the backplane, and a plurality of plugs of the signal line extend to the plurality of functional modules respectively to establish a link between the plurality of input and output adapter boards in the adapter board module and the plurality of functional modules.

The multiple input and output adapter boards in the adapter board module respectively form links with the multiple functional modules by using the signal routing on the backplane, which can facilitate the assembly between the functional modules and the input and output adapter boards and improve the assembly efficiency of the server.

In some embodiments, the plurality of functional modules at least include a heat dissipation module, a power module, a data processing module and a graphics processing module, and the heat dissipation module, the power module, the data processing module and the graphics processing module are disposed around the adapter board module.

By arranging the heat dissipation module, power module, data processing module and graphics processing module around the adapter board module, the signal transmission distance between the adapter board module and each functional module can be shortened, and the integrity of the signal transmission between the adapter board module and each functional module can be improved.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the present disclosure, the following briefly introduces the drawings required to be used in some embodiments of the present disclosure. Obviously, the drawings described below are only drawings of some embodiments of the present disclosure. For ordinary technicians in this field, other drawings can also be obtained based on these drawings. In addition, the drawings described below can be regarded as schematic diagrams, and are not limitations on the actual size of the products involved in the embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG1 is a schematic diagram of the structure of a data center provided according to some embodiments;

FIG2 is a schematic diagram of a location structure of a server provided according to some embodiments;

FIG3 is a schematic diagram of a three-dimensional structure of a backplane in a server according to some embodiments;

FIG4 is a schematic diagram of the positions of multiple functional modules on a backplane in a server according to some embodiments;

FIG5 is a schematic diagram of signal transmission between a PCIe switching chip and a plurality of functional modules according to some embodiments;

FIG6 is a schematic structural diagram of an adapter board module according to some embodiments;

FIG7 is a schematic diagram of a three-dimensional structure of an input-output adapter board according to some embodiments;

FIG8 is a schematic diagram of the structure of an input-output adapter board according to some embodiments;

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of signal transmission between an input/output adapter board and a plurality of functional modules according to some embodiments.

Detailed ways

The following will be combined with the accompanying drawings to clearly and completely describe the technical solutions in some embodiments of the present disclosure. Obviously, the described embodiments are only part of the embodiments of the present disclosure, rather than all the embodiments. Based on the embodiments provided by the present disclosure, all other embodiments obtained by ordinary technicians in this field belong to the scope of protection of the present disclosure.

Unless the context requires otherwise, throughout the specification and claims, the term "including" is to be interpreted as an open, inclusive meaning, that is, "including, but not limited to". In the description of the specification, the terms "one embodiment", "some embodiments", "exemplary embodiment", "example", "specific example" or "some examples" and the like are intended to indicate that specific features, structures, materials or characteristics associated with the embodiment or example are included in at least one embodiment or example of the present disclosure. The schematic representation of the above terms does not necessarily refer to the same embodiment or example. In addition, the specific features, structures, materials or characteristics may be included in any one or more embodiments or examples in any appropriate manner.

In the description of the embodiments of the present disclosure, unless otherwise specified, “plurality” means two or more.

“A and/or B” includes the following three combinations: A only, B only, and a combination of A and B.

The use of "adapted to" or "configured to" herein is meant to be open and inclusive language that does not exclude devices adapted or configured to perform additional tasks or steps.

As used herein, "approximately" includes the stated values and averages that are within an acceptable range of deviation from the particular value, where the acceptable range of deviation is determined by one of ordinary skill in the art taking into account the measurements in question and the errors associated with the measurement of the particular quantity (i.e., the limitations of the measurement system).

In the era of big data, a large number of Internet technology (IT) devices are concentrated in the cabinets of data centers, which contain various types of servers, switches and other infrastructure. In order to achieve high-speed and efficient communication, data communication within the server and between various infrastructures can generally be achieved through the PCIe bus.

FIG1 is a structural diagram of a data center in some embodiments. As shown in FIG1, a data center 1000 provided in an embodiment of the present disclosure may include at least one cabinet 100. When there are multiple cabinets 100, the multiple cabinets 100 may be arranged side by side or in multiple rows and columns. A cabinet 100 may include at least one server 200. When there are multiple servers 200 in a cabinet 100, the multiple servers 200 in a cabinet 100 may be stacked on top of each other.

Multiple servers 200 in the same cabinet 100 can be coupled to each other through cables or wireless communication modules (such as Bluetooth modules or WIFI modules) to transmit data signals, thereby realizing data flow between different servers 200 in one cabinet 100. Multiple servers 200 in different cabinets 100 can also be coupled to each other through cables or wireless communication modules to transmit data signals, thereby realizing data flow between different cabinets 100. Thus, multiple servers 200 in multiple cabinets 100 cooperate with each other and work together to execute large computing projects.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing the location structure of a server in some embodiments; FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing the three-dimensional structure of a backplane in a server in some embodiments. As shown in FIG. 2 , some servers 200 may include a housing and a plurality of functional modules located inside the housing. For example, the server 200 may include a hard disk module 300, a data processing module 400, a graphics processing module 501, and a plurality of other functional modules. 500, power module 600, heat dissipation module 700, adapter module 800 and backplane 900. In addition, the server 200 may also include other functional modules, such as I/O module, network interface controller (NIC), etc., which are not limited here.

In some examples, the back plate 900 divides the space inside the housing into spaces on both sides of the back plate 900. As shown in Fig. 2, when the edge of the back plate 900 is not connected or partially connected to the housing, the spaces on both sides of the back plate 900 may be interconnected spaces.

As shown in Fig. 2, the hard disk module 300, the data processing module 400, the graphics processing module 500, the power module 600, the heat dissipation module 700 and the adapter plate module 800 can be respectively located at different positions in the housing. Exemplarily, the hard disk module 300, the data processing module 400 and the graphics processing module 500 are located on the first side of the back plate 900, and the power module 600, the heat dissipation module 700 and the adapter plate module 800 are located on the second side of the back plate 900.

As shown in FIG3 , the backplane 900 may include a signal routing and a plurality of plugs extending from the signal routing to the outside of the board. Different plugs are coupled to the signal routing at different positions, and the plurality of plugs extend to a plurality of functional modules respectively. Exemplarily, the hard disk module 300, the data processing module 400, and the graphics processing module 500 are respectively coupled to the plugs on the first side of the backplane 900 to achieve coupling with the backplane 900. The power module 600, the heat dissipation module 700, and the adapter board module 800 are respectively coupled to the plugs on the second side of the backplane 900 to achieve coupling with the backplane 900.

In this way, the backplane 900 can be coupled to multiple functional modules at the same time, and the signal transmission between different functional modules can be realized by using the signal routing inside the backplane 900. For example, the power obtained by coupling the backplane 900 with the power module 600 is transmitted to the data processing module 400 through the signal routing inside the backplane 900, so as to provide working power for the data processing module 400.

2, the adapter board module 800 can establish links with the hard disk module 300, the data processing module 400, the graphics processing module 500, the power module 600, and the heat dissipation module 700 through the backplane 900. For example, the adapter board module 800 can include a plurality of input and output adapter boards 820, and the plurality of input and output adapter boards 820 are coupled to the plurality of functional modules in a one-to-one correspondence.

In some embodiments, as shown in FIG4 , the heat dissipation module 700, the power module 600, the data processing module 400 and the graphics processing module 500 may be disposed together around the adapter board module 800. For example, the adapter board module 800 is located between the hard disk module 300, the heat dissipation module 700, the power module 600, the data processing module 400 and the graphics processing module 500, and the distance between the adapter board module 800 and each functional module is relatively close.

By arranging the heat dissipation module 700, the power module 600, the data processing module 400 and the graphics processing module 500 around the adapter board module 800, the signal transmission distance between the adapter board module 800 and each functional module can be shortened, and the integrity of the signal transmission between the adapter board module 800 and each functional module can be improved.

The power module 600 may include a plurality of power boards with different voltage values, which are used to supply power to functional modules with different working voltages. For example, the power module 600 may include at least one 12V power board, at least one 24V power board, at least one 36V power board, at least one 48V power board, etc., which are not limited here.

The heat dissipation module 700 can be understood as at least one heat dissipation fan, for example, the heat dissipation module 700 can include two rows of 48V fan boards, each fan board is provided with a plurality of heat dissipation fans. For example, a 48V power supply board supplies power to the two rows of 48V fan boards of the heat dissipation module 700.

In addition, each functional module may also include a heat sink. For example, an air-cooled heat sink may also be provided in the data processing module 400 to perform air cooling and heat dissipation on the data processing module 400. The driving voltage of the cooling fan of the air-cooled heat sink located inside the functional module may be lower than the driving voltage of the cooling fan in the heat dissipation module 700; illustratively, the driving voltage of the cooling fan inside the data processing module 400 may be 12V, and a 12V power board supplies power to the cooling fan inside the data processing module 400.

In other examples, the radiator may be a water-cooled radiator, a heat pipe radiator, or other suitable radiators. Suitable radiator, not limited here.

The above-mentioned I/O module may include a variety of interfaces, such as hard disk interface, network card interface, Universal Serial Bus (USB) interface, power interface, High Definition Multimedia (HDMI) interface, GPU interface, Video Graphics Array (VGA) interface, etc., which are not limited here.

In some embodiments, as shown in FIG5 , the data processing module 400 may include a central processing unit (CPU). The graphics processing module 500 may include a graphics processing unit (GPU) and an interconnection switch chip (NVSW, represented by NV SW in FIG5 ) coupled to each other, wherein one interconnection switch chip may be coupled to multiple GPUs to communicate with multiple GPUs simultaneously.

The CPU can be coupled to the GPU via an input/output adapter board in the adapter board module. For example, one CPU can be coupled to multiple input/output adapter boards, and multiple input/output adapter boards are coupled to multiple GPUs in a one-to-one correspondence, so that one CPU can be coupled to multiple GPUs via multiple input/output adapter boards.

In some examples, the adapter board module can also be coupled to an expansion card to expand the functions of the server. The expansion card can be a non-volatile memory express (NVMe) card, a NIC card, or other function expansion card, which is not limited here.

As shown in Figure 5, taking the coupling of the adapter board module with the NVMe card and the NIC card as an example, the CPU can also be coupled with the NVMe card and the NIC card through the input and output adapter board in the adapter board module. Thus, the CPU can obtain the data information stored in the NVMe card and communicate with other servers or terminals using the NIC card.

It should be noted that the data processing module 400 may include one or more CPUs. For example, the data processing module 400 may include 2 CPUs, each CPU is coupled to 4 input and output adapter boards, so that each CPU is coupled to 4 GPUs, 4 NIC cards and 4 NVMe cards at the same time.

In some examples, some functional modules and the housing can cooperate with each other to form a pull-out structure. For example, a slide is provided on the inner wall of the housing, and a support plate bracket is provided on the functional module. The slide and the support plate bracket cooperate with each other to drive the functional module to be pushed into the housing or pulled out from the housing.

For example, the power plug in the back plate 900 for connecting the power module 600 extends toward the power module 600, and the power module 600 is fixed to the support bracket by screws. When the support bracket is pushed into the housing along the slideway, the power module 600 enters the housing and the power plug in the back plate 900 is inserted into the power socket of the power module 600, completing the installation of the power module 600. When the support bracket is pulled out of the housing along the slideway, the power module 600 leaves the housing and the power plug in the back plate 900 is separated from the power socket of the power module 600.

The functional modules and the housing can form a pull-out structure, which can also facilitate the server 200 to adopt a modular architecture, that is, some functional modules in the server 200 can be replaced and maintained separately. In this way, the assembly process of the functional modules in the server can be simplified, the product maintenance and replacement are easy, and the downtime of the server due to the replacement of the functional modules is greatly reduced.

Figure 6 shows a structural diagram of an adapter board module in some embodiments; Figure 7 shows a stereoscopic diagram of an input-output adapter board in some embodiments; Figure 8 shows a structural diagram of an input-output adapter board in some embodiments; Figure 9 shows a signal transmission diagram between an input-output adapter board and multiple functional modules in some embodiments.

As shown in FIG6 , in some embodiments, the adapter board module 800 may include a frame 810 and a plurality of input-output adapter boards 820 located in the frame 810. The frame 810 may define a plurality of storage spaces 810A, and the plurality of storage spaces 810A may be arranged side by side or in a stacked arrangement, which is not limited here. The plurality of input-output adapter boards 820 are respectively located in the plurality of storage spaces 810A. For example, the plurality of input-output adapter boards 820 are placed in the plurality of storage spaces 810A in a one-to-one correspondence. For another example, each storage space 810A may store a plurality of input-output adapter boards 820.

As shown in FIG. 7 and FIG. 8 , in some embodiments, each input-output adapter board 820 may include a circuit board 821 , and a first connector 822 , a switching chip 823 , and a second connector 824 located on the circuit board 821 .

In some embodiments, the first connector 822 and the second connector 824 may be devices supporting PCIe, and the switch chip 823 may be a PCIe switch chip. The following description assumes that the switch chip 823 is a PCIe switch chip (represented by PCIe SW in the drawings), but the switch chip 823 is not limited to a PCIe switch chip.

The circuit board 821 can be a printed circuit board with circuit routing formed inside. The first connector 822, PCIe switching chip 823 and the second connector 824 can be respectively welded to different positions of the circuit routing, so that the first connector 822, PCIe switching chip 823 and the second connector 824 are all fixed on the circuit board 821.

Exemplarily, the PCIe switch chip 823 is coupled to the first connector 822 through a circuit trace, and the PCIe switch chip 823 is coupled to the second connector 824 through a circuit trace. Since the first connector 822, the PCIe switch chip 823, and the second connector 824 are coupled through a circuit trace inside the circuit board 821, it is possible to avoid connecting through cables, thereby simplifying the spatial layout of the input-output adapter board 820 and making it easier to maintain the input-output adapter board 820.

The first connector 822 is also used to couple with the above-mentioned I/O module. The first connector 822 is configured to establish a link between the I/O module and the PCIe switch chip 823, so that the I/O module and the PCIe switch chip 823 can communicate with each other.

In some examples, the CPU is also coupled to the I/O module. As shown in FIG9 , the first connector 822 can obtain the first signal (the first signal can be data or an instruction) provided by the CPU through the I/O module, and provide the first signal of the CPU to the PCIe switching chip 823. The communication between the first connector 822 and the CPU is based on the PCIe standard.

Wherein, taking the first signal as an instruction as an example, the first signal may be an instruction for a functional module; the first signal may also include instructions for multiple functional modules, that is, the first signal is an instruction group that may include multiple instructions. Exemplarily, the first signal may include a first sub-instruction for the hard disk module 300, a second sub-instruction for the GPU, and a third sub-instruction for the NIC.

The PCIe switching chip 823 is configured to output a second signal in response to the first signal. Exemplarily, after acquiring the first signal, the PCIe switching chip 823 determines the target functional module for subsequent transmission based on the first signal, and can perform signal processing (such as signal processing methods such as communication protocol conversion) on the first signal to obtain the second signal, and then forward the second signal to the corresponding target functional module through the second connector 824.

Exemplarily, the first signal may be an instruction for the GPU. The PCIe switch chip 823 may process the first signal to obtain a second signal, and forward the second signal to the GPU through the second connector 824 .

Exemplarily, the first signal may include a first sub-instruction for the hard disk module 300 , a second sub-instruction for the GPU, and a third sub-instruction for the NIC.

As shown in FIG5 , the PCIe switching chip 823 can obtain a second signal after performing signal processing on the second sub-instruction, and forward the second signal to the GPU through the second connector 824. The PCIe switching chip 823 can also obtain a third signal after performing signal processing on the first sub-instruction, and forward the third signal to the hard disk module 300 (e.g., NVMe) through the second connector 824. The PCIe switching chip 823 can also obtain a fourth signal after performing signal processing on the third sub-instruction, and forward the fourth signal to the NIC through the second connector 824.

The second connector 824 may be a high-speed backplane connector, such as ExaMAX, SHLM, etc.

In some examples, as shown in Fig. 7, the input-output adapter board 820 may further include a heat sink 826. The heat sink 826 is at least partially located on a side of the PCIe switch chip away from the circuit board.

The radiator 826 may be an air-cooled radiator (eg, a fan), a water-cooled radiator, or a heat pipe radiator, which is not limited herein. The radiator 826 is disposed close to the PCIe switching chip 823 to dissipate heat for the PCIe switching chip 823 .

Since the temperature of the PCIe switching chip is relatively high during operation, by adding a heat sink to the input-output adapter board to dissipate the heat of the PCIe switching chip, it is possible to prevent the PCIe switching chip from being burned due to excessive temperature, thereby improving the reliability of the input-output adapter board. In addition, the heat sink is located at least partially on the side of the PCIe switching chip away from the circuit board, which can utilize the unused space on the side of the PCIe switching chip away from the circuit board in the input-output adapter board to optimize the spatial layout of the input-output adapter board.

The input-output adapter board 820 provided in the embodiment of the present disclosure can shorten the distance between the first connector 822 and the PCIe switch chip 823 by arranging the PCIe switch chip 823 and the first connector 822 on the same circuit board 821, thereby shortening the signal transmission distance between the I/O module coupled to the first connector 822 and the PCIe switch chip 823, thereby improving the signal transmission integrity between the PCIe switch chip 823 and the I/O module.

In addition, the first connector 822 and the PCIe switch chip 823 of the related technology are arranged on different circuit boards, and the signal transmission integrity between the PCIe switch chip 823 and the I/O module is low. For example, the signal transmission delay on different transmission paths is inconsistent, and a certain bit is advanced or delayed in time during high-frequency long-distance parallel transmission, resulting in the misalignment of the bit timing of each signal. It should be noted that the low signal transmission integrity can also be due to other reasons, such as the long transmission path resulting in a large degree of interference from other electrical signals, etc., which are not limited here. For this reason, the server also needs to add a signal conditioning (retimer) chip to improve the signal transmission integrity between the PCIe switch chip 823 and the I/O module.

Therefore, the input-output adapter board 820 provided in the embodiment of the present disclosure not only improves the signal transmission integrity between the PCIe switch chip 823 and the I/O module, but also indirectly avoids the problem of increased server costs due to the addition of a retimer chip, thereby reducing server costs.

In some embodiments, the PCIe switch chip 823 may be a PCIe 3.0 switch chip, a PCIe 4.0 switch chip, a PCIe 5.0 switch chip, or a switch chip of other versions of PCIe.

In some examples, the PCIe switch chip 823 is a PCIe5.0 switch chip. All high-speed links in the input and output adapter board 820 support the PCIe5.0 standard and a transmission rate of 32GT/s, which can improve the signal transmission performance of the input and output adapter board 820 and the server 200.

As shown in FIGS. 7 and 8 , in some embodiments, the first connector 822 may include a PCIe CEM connector 825. The PCIe CEM connector 825 is installed with a PCIe expansion card (not shown). The PCIe CEM connector 825 is configured to establish a link between the PCIe expansion card and the PCIe switch chip 823.

The PCIe CEM connector 825 refers to a PCIe slot. A PCIe expansion card is inserted into the PCIe CEM connector 825, so that the PCIe expansion card communicates with the PCIe CEM connector 825. For example, a point-to-point communication channel is enabled between the PCIe expansion card and the PCIe CEM connector 825, and both the PCIe expansion card and the PCIe CEM connector 825 are allowed to send and receive PCI requests.

A PCIe expansion card can be an extended NIC, an extended accelerator card, an extended graphics card (GPU), a trans-flash eprom (TF) card, an extended Secure Digital Memory (SD) card, etc. These are only examples of PCIe expansion cards and do not limit the types of PCIe expansion cards.

The PCIe CEM connector 825 may include at least one of an x1 interface mode, an x2 interface mode, an x4 interface mode, an x8 interface mode, an x16 interface mode, and an x32 interface mode. Taking the PCIe CEM connector 825 including the x2 interface mode as an example, the PCIe CEM connector 825 may include 2 channels, each of which may be composed of two different data transmission pairs, one data transmission pair for sending data, and the other data transmission pair for receiving data. Therefore, each channel is composed of four wires.

In this embodiment, the input-output adapter board 820 may include a PCIe CEM connector 825, which can facilitate the server 200 to add a PCIe expansion card, thereby expanding the function of the server 200. At the same time, the PCIe CEM connector 825 and the PCIe switch chip 823 are located on the same circuit board 821, which can improve the signal transmission integrity between the PCIe expansion card and the PCIe switch chip 823.

In some examples, each input/output adapter board 820 may include a circuit board 821. Each circuit board 821 may be coupled to at least one of an expansion card (Riser card), a balanced input/output expansion card (balanced I/O Riser card), a high-performance input/output expansion card (high-performance I/O Riser card), and a non-volatile memory host controller adapter card (NVME adapter card). Different circuit boards 821 may be coupled to the same expansion card or to different expansion cards.

In this embodiment, the multiple circuit boards 821 in the adapter board module 800 can be coupled with various types of expansion cards or adapter cards, so as to have a variety of functions, which can improve the richness of the functions of the adapter board module 800 and the server 200.

In some embodiments, the PCIe switch chip 823 is located between the first connector 822 and the second connector 824. In this way, the length of the circuit traces on the circuit board 821 can be shortened, the interference to the circuit traces on the circuit board 821 can be reduced, and the integrity of the signal transmission on the circuit board 821 can be improved.

In some embodiments, each input/output adapter board 820 may include a PCIe switch chip 823. The adapter board module 800 may include at least two different input/output adapter boards 820. Different input/output adapter boards 820 may have the same or different models of PCIe switch chips 823. For example, different input/output adapter boards 820 may be PCIe switch chips 823 produced by different manufacturers.

Different models of PCIe switching chips have different structural characteristics and/or performance characteristics. By including at least two different input and output adapter boards in one adapter board module, the richness of the server's signal exchange can be improved, and the server's adaptability to PCIe expansion cards can be improved.

In some embodiments, the patterns of the circuit traces in the circuit board 821 are the same or different in different input/output adapter boards 820. Each input/output adapter board 820 includes a switching chip 823. It can be understood that the circuit traces of the circuit board 821 in each input/output adapter board 820 are specifically adapted to a type of switching chip 823.

When the two input/output adapter boards 820 include the same type of switching chips 823, the circuit routing patterns of the circuit boards 821 in the two input/output adapter boards 820 are the same. Due to the differences between different switching chips 823, when the two input/output adapter boards 820 include different types of switching chips 823, the circuit routing patterns of the circuit boards 821 in the two input/output adapter boards 820 are different.

It should be noted that in the server provided by the embodiment of the present disclosure, an input-output adapter board 820 may include only one PCIe switch chip 823. In some solutions, multiple PCIe switch chips inside the server are installed on the same circuit board. If the model of a PCIe switch chip on the circuit board needs to be replaced due to inventory, product updates, etc., the entire circuit board needs to be remodeled, that is, the circuit routing corresponding to other PCIe switch chips of unchanged models will also be modified. In this way, the workload of circuit board modification required for replacing the PCIe switch chip model of the adapter board module is increased, the modification efficiency is reduced, and resources are wasted and the modification cost is increased.

In the present embodiment, each PCIe switch chip 823 is separately located on a circuit board 821 of an input-output adapter board 820. If the model of the PCIe switch chip 823 needs to be replaced, it is only necessary to modify the circuit board of the PCIe switch chip 823. There is no need to modify the circuit boards corresponding to other PCIe switch chips 823 of unchanged models. This improves the modification efficiency of the circuit board 821 when the adapter board module 800 replaces the PCIe switch chip model, while reducing the modification cost required to replace the PCIe switch chip model.

To sum up, the server of the embodiment of the present disclosure, by arranging the switching chip and the first connector on the same circuit board, can shorten the distance between the first connector and the switching chip, thereby shortening the signal transmission distance between the I/O module coupled to the first connector and the switching chip, and improving the signal transmission integrity between the switching chip and the I/O module.

The above is only a specific implementation of the present application, but the protection scope of the embodiments of the present application is not limited thereto, and any changes or substitutions within the technical scope disclosed in the present application should be included in the protection scope of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the present application should be based on the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

A server, characterized in that it comprises an input and output adapter board;

The input-output adapter board comprises:

A circuit board, and a first connector, a switching chip, and a second connector located on the circuit board; a circuit trace is formed in the circuit board, and the switching chip is coupled to the first connector and the second connector respectively through the circuit trace;

The first connector is also used to couple with the input and output module of the server, and the second connector is also used to couple with the backplane of the server.
The server according to claim 1 is characterized in that the first connector comprises a card machine electrical connector, and the card machine electrical connector is used to couple with an expansion card.
The server according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising a radiator;

The heat sink is at least partially located at a side of the switching chip away from the circuit board.
The server according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that each of the input and output adapter boards includes one of the switching chips.
The server according to claim 4 is characterized in that the multiple input and output adapter boards include at least two different input and output adapter boards, and the different input and output adapter boards have the same or different types of switching chips.
The server according to claim 5 is characterized in that the patterns of the circuit routing in the circuit boards of different input and output adapter boards are the same or different.
The server according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that the server further comprises:

A frame defines a plurality of storage spaces;

The plurality of input and output adapter plates are respectively located in the plurality of storage spaces;

The frame and the plurality of input and output adapter boards together constitute an adapter board module.
The server according to claim 7, further comprising:

case;

A back plate, located in the housing;

The adapter plate module is located in the shell and coupled to the back plate.
The server according to claim 8, further comprising:

A plurality of functional modules, wherein different functional modules are respectively located at different positions in the housing;

The backplane is provided with signal routing, and a plurality of plugs of the signal routing extend to the plurality of functional modules respectively, so as to establish links between the plurality of input and output adapter boards in the adapter board module and the plurality of functional modules.
The server according to claim 9, characterized in that the plurality of functional modules at least include a heat dissipation module, a power module, a data processing module and a graphics processing module;

The heat dissipation module, the power supply module, the data processing module and the graphics processing module are arranged together around the adapter board module.