Seamicro Corp.

Anil R Rao

Gary R Lauterbach

A data center has several dis-aggregated data clusters that connect to the Internet through a firewall and load-balancer. Each dis-aggregated data cluster has several dis-aggregated compute/switch/disk chassis that are connected together by a mesh of Ethernet links. Each dis-aggregated compute/switch/disk chassis has many processing nodes, disk nodes, and I/O nodes on node cards that are inserted into the chassis. These node cards are connected together by a direct interconnect fabric. Using the direct interconnect fabric, remote I/O and disk nodes appear to the operating system to be located on the local processor's own peripheral bus. A virtual Ethernet controller and a virtual generic peripheral act as virtual endpoints for the local processor's peripheral bus. I/O and disk node peripherals are virtualized by hardware without software drivers. Rack and aggregation Ethernet switches are eliminated using the direct interconnect fabric, which provides a flatter, dis-aggregated hierarchy.

Dis-aggregated and distributed data-center architecture using a direct interconnect fabric

A multi-computer system has many processors that share peripherals. The peripherals are virtualized by hardware without software drivers. Remote peripherals appear to the operating system to be located on the local processor's own peripheral bus. A processor, DRAM, and north bridge connect to a south bridge interconnect fabric chip that has a virtual Ethernet controller and a virtual generic peripheral that act as virtual endpoints for the local processor's peripheral bus. Requests received by the virtual endpoints are encapsulated in interconnect packets and sent over an interconnect fabric to a device manager that accesses remote peripherals on a shared remote peripheral bus so that data can be returned. Ethernet Network Interface Cards (NIC), hard disks, consoles, and BIOS are remote peripherals that can be virtualized. Processors can boot entirely from the remote BIOS without additional drivers or a local BIOS. Peripheral costs are reduced by sharing remote peripherals.

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Cupertino, CA, United States of America

Anil R Rao