CN102033581B - A Highly Expandable ATCA Board Based on Multi-core Network Processor - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention provides a high-expandability ATCA board based on a multi-core network processor, which is characterized in that double CPU modules are formed by connecting SPI 4.2 bus interfaces in series; the storage module consists of a nonvolatile memory and a dynamic memory; the PCI-X-to-PCI-E bridging expansion module comprises two PCI-X-to-PCI-E bridge chips, two PCI-E switches and an electronic switch; the AMC module supports one PCI-E interface and 4 gigabit Ethernet interfaces; the multi-MAC module is gated to a Fabric channel of a ZONE by an electronic switch through 2 XAUI interfaces or 2 1Gbps SerDes interfaces; the mass local storage module adopts a daughter card form; the IPMI module is used for managing the hardware of the whole ATCA board and providing perfect management support for the expansion capability of the PCI-E bus, the expansion capability of the AMC module and the expansion capability of the multi-MAC module; the invention follows the concept of openness, modularization and standardization of ATCA, improves the expansion capability of the ATCA service board and the RTM board, reduces the production and maintenance cost of the ATCA platform, and improves the application range of the service board.

Description

A Highly Expandable ATCA Board Based on Multi-core Network Processor

technical field

The invention belongs to the field of computer and network communication, and in particular relates to a highly scalable ATCA board based on a multi-core network processor.

Background technique

Advanced Telecommunications Computing Architecture (ATCA) is a new standard developed by PCI Industrial Computers Manufacturing Group (PICMG). ATCA is an industry-sponsored standard to create a new optimized board and chassis form factor for carrier-grade telecom solutions. ATCA is designed to meet the requirements of next-generation communication applications by providing support for multiple standard switching architectures, and to provide manufacturers with many functions to meet the requirements of demanding users. As a hardware platform standard, ATCA mainly includes chassis and its management controller, platform cooling system, switching boards, and service boards.

Among them, the service board is responsible for the business realization of the platform, and can be divided into X86 (such as Xeon processor) and multi-core network processor (such as Cavium Octeon CN58XX series processor) according to the main processor type. At present, among the ATCA service board solutions based on multi-core network processors, Cavium Octeon CN58XX processors occupy an important market share. The aspects that need to be improved on these boards are as follows:

(1) Backplane switching supports a single mode - 10 Gigabit Ethernet switching;

(2) It is oriented to a single data level processing, and does not provide massive data storage expansion capabilities;

(3) The AMC module can only be connected to a certain processor, the expansion capability is single, and the flexibility is poor;

(4) Dual CPUs use their own non-volatile memory independently;

(5) IPMI's ability to support expansion capabilities is not strong.

The present invention aims to solve the above-mentioned aspects to be improved, and for details, refer to the discussion of the summary of the invention and specific implementation modes.

Contents of the invention

The purpose of the present invention is, for overcoming present ATCA service board existence such as backplane exchange support single mode---10 Gigabit Ethernet exchange; Face single data level processing, do not provide massive data storage expansion ability; AMC module can only Connected to a certain processor, the expansion ability is single, and the flexibility is poor; the dual CPUs use their own non-volatile memory independently; Highly scalable ATCA board.

A kind of highly extensible ATCA board based on multi-core network processor provided by the present invention, this board comprises business board and RTM board, and described business board comprises double CPU module, storage module, PCI-X to PCI-E bridge expansion Module, AMC module, multi-MAC module, IPMI module, power supply module and clock module; Described RTM board comprises massive local memory module, it is characterized in that,

The dual-CPU module is composed of two OCTEON CN58XX or two OCTEON CN38XX series processors connected in series through the SPI 4.2 bus interface;

The storage module is composed of a non-volatile memory and a dynamic memory, and the non-volatile memory includes a boot memory and a CF memory card;

The PCI-X to PCI-E bridge expansion module, the expansion module includes two PCI-X to PCI-E bridge chips, two PCI-E switches and a group of electronic switches to choose one of the two, for realizing the network interface Expansion to the PCI-E interface of the AMC module, the network interface to the PCI-E interface of the massive local storage module;

The AMC module, which supports a PCI-E interface and 4 Gigabit Ethernet interfaces, wherein the PCI-E interface can be connected to any CPU module;

The multi-MAC module, this module is gated by an electronic switch to the Fabric channel in the ZONE area through 2 XAUI interfaces or 2 1Gbps SerDes interfaces, so as to realize 10-megabit or 1-gigabit backplane switching;

The massive local storage module adopts the form of a sub-card, and the sub-card includes a controller, a power module, a reserved interface and a reserved space; the external interface of the sub-card includes a PCI-E interface, a GPIO interface, a power supply interface and a SerDes interface ; Among them, the SerDes interface of the daughter card is connected to the extended SFP interface, and the PCI-E interface and the SFP bus interface provide support for massive local storage expansion;

Described IPMI module is used for the hardware management of whole ATCA board, provides perfect management support to PCI-E bus extension ability, AMC module extension ability, multi-MAC module extension ability;

Wherein, a PCI-E expanded by the PCI-E switch on the service board is connected to the RTM board through the ZONE 3 district; Part of it is used to provide code and data storage; the PCI-E bus of the AMC module is connected to any CPU processor through an electronic switch configuration; CN58XX expands 2 XAUI interfaces and 16 XAUI interfaces through the VSC 7344 chip 1Gbps SerDes interface, of which 2 XAUI interfaces and 2 1Gbps SerDes interfaces are gated to the Fabric channel in the ZONE area through electronic switches, which can realize 10G or 1000M backplane switching, and the other 10 1Gbps SerDes are extended to the RTM board to realize 10 Gigabit Ethernet port; the remaining 4 1Gbps SerDes are extended to 4 Gigabit Ethernet interfaces of AMC to realize data exchange of 4 Gigabit Ethernet channels.

In the above technical solution, the power supply module of the service board converts the input -48V into more than 7 positive voltages; the two PCI-E switches respectively expand three PCI-E buses, and one of the PCI-E switches expands Two PCI-E buses, each PCI-E bus is connected to a Gigabit network controller, leading out from RTM; the remaining PCI-E bus and a PCI-E extended from another PCI-E switch pass through an electronic switch Connect to the connector of the AMC module; the remaining two PCI-E buses extended from another PCI-E switch, one of which is connected to the RTM through ZONE 3, and the other PCI-E bus is connected to two Gigabit network control connected to the Base channel of ZONE 2.

A highly scalable ATCA service board and RTM board based on a multi-core network processor, including dual CPU modules, storage modules, PCI-X to PCI-E bridge expansion modules, AMC modules, multi-MAC modules, massive local storage and RTM board, IPMI module, power module.

The dual-CPU module is composed of two OCTEON CN58XX or CN38XX series processors connected in series through the SPI 4.2 bus interface, and the processing capacity can be expanded by installing processors with different performances. It provides a high-speed interactive channel for high-speed signaling and data for two CPU chips. In each direction, data rates up to 12.8Gbps are supported.

The storage module is composed of a non-volatile memory and a dynamic memory. Through the FPGA logic, the two CPUs share the boot memory and the non-volatile memory of the CF card to provide code and data storage. Each CN58XX supports independent DDR2 memory and RLDRAM.

The PCI-X to PCI-E bridge expansion module provides the expansion capability of PCI-E equipment, and realizes the network interface through two PCI-X to PCI-E bridge chips, PCI-E switch chip and PCI-E multiplexer , to the PCI-E interface of the AMC module, and the expansion of the PCI-E interface of the massive local storage module. The PCI-X to PCI-E bridge chip converts the PCI-X main interface (Host interface) of the main chip into a PCI-E main interface (Host interface), which is convenient for the main chip to expand PCI-E devices; PCI-X to PCI-E Bridge chips and PCI-E switching chips expand the number of PCI-E channels of the main chip, and the main chip can use multiple PCI-E devices at the same time, such as Gigabit network cards, PCI-E interfaces to AMC modules, and massive local storage modules.

The AMC module provides flexible I/O expansion functions. The AMC module supports PCI-E and 4 Gigabit Ethernet interfaces. The PCI-E bus configuration of the AMC module can be connected to any on a processor.

The multi-MAC module provides flexible backplane switching and expansion capabilities. Under the management and control of the ATCA system management board, the backplane switching can be automatically adapted to dual Gigabit or 10 Gigabit switching capabilities. Provide multiple gigabit network channels at the same time.

The massive local storage and the RTM board mainly provide support for the expansion of the massive local storage, wherein the massive local storage module is implemented in the form of a sub-card, and has a PCI-E interface and an SFP bus interface. The optical fiber storage channel can be extended through this daughter card, or a local hard disk can be extended, and even a gigabit network interface can be extended.

The IPMI module realizes the hardware management of the entire ATCA service board and the RTM board, and especially provides perfect management support for the expansion capability described in claims 1 to 7.

The technical advantage of the present invention is:

(1) The present invention follows the concept of openness, modularization and standardization of ATCA, improves the expansion capability of the ATCA service board and the RTM board, and reduces the research and development, production and maintenance costs of the ATCA platform.

(2) Improve the expansion capability of the ATCA business board and RTM board, so that the business board is suitable for both data processing applications (such as network switching, network security applications), and network application services (such as streaming servers, Web servers, video sharing server).

(3) The production and maintenance costs of the ATCA platform are reduced, and the application range of the service board and the reusability of hardware are improved.

Description of drawings

ATCA service board of the present invention and RTM system structural diagram of Fig. 1;

Fig. 2 double CPU interconnection structural diagram of the present invention;

Fig. 3 dual-CPU shared memory structural diagram of the present invention;

Fig. 4 PCI-E equipment expansion structural diagram of the present invention;

Fig. 5 is a structural diagram of the mass storage expansion daughter card of the present invention;

Fig. 6 realizes the structure diagram of the optional backplane exchange of the present invention;

Fig. 7 is a structural diagram of IPMI implementation of the present invention.

Detailed ways

The content of the present invention will be further described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

A set of ATCA service board and its RTM board are realized according to the content of the above invention, as shown in FIG. 1 . The ATCA service board and its RTM board are composed of dual CPU modules, memory modules, PCI-X to PCI-E bridge modules, multi-MAC modules, AMC modules, IPMI modules, clock and power modules, mass storage and RTM modules. It provides 1 10 Gigabit Ethernet interface, 14 Gigabit interfaces, 2 extended SFP interfaces, 4 serial control ports, and 1 AMC slot. In ZONE 1, it supports power supply and IPMB bus; in ZONE 2, it supports 10GE or dual GE switching channel, and supports GE Base channel; in ZONE 3, it supports 14 SFP SerDes and 1 PCI-E bus.

The dual CPU module is the control and calculation core of this board. In order to improve the processing performance of the board, two high-performance network processors CN58XX from CAVIUM NETWORKS are used. Use the SPI 4.2 interface for direct connection, as shown in Figure 2. The highest performance of each CN58XX of this service board can support a maximum number of cores of 16 and a maximum frequency of 800MHz.

Memory module: In order to ensure sufficient packet processing capability of the board, in addition to the processing capability and packet throughput of the CPU itself, sufficient memory space is required for guarantee. As a balance between memory capacity and board area, this board uses DIMM strips as the carrier of memory. Each processor has two DIMMs, making the memory capacity of each processor reach 16GB. Support onboard dual BANKNORFLASH (32MB+512KB), support CF memory card. In order to reduce the cost of the service board, the present invention simultaneously mounts the boot memory (NOR Flash) and the CF memory card on the BOOT BUS of two CPUs through the FPGA, and realizes that the CPU can share the boot memory (NOR Flash) and the CF memory card. As shown in Figure 3.

PCI-X to PCI-E bridge module: each processor has only one PCI-X bus, but each processor needs to have more than 2 PCI-E interface devices, so it is necessary to transfer PCI-X to PCI-E interface. The design of this part should not only ensure the normal function of the interface, but more importantly, ensure a sufficiently high communication bandwidth. As shown in Figure 4, the two PCI-E buses are respectively extended to three PCI-E buses through the PCI-X to PCI-E bridge and the PCI-E switch, and the two PCI-E buses extended by the PCI-E switch B are connected to two thousand Mega network controller, realize 4 Gigabit Ethernet channels, lead out from RTM. The electronic switch strobes the PCI-E switch-A PCI-E bus and the PCI-E switch-B PCI-E bus to the connector of the AMC module, so that the PCI-E device expanded through the AMC module can be connected to any CPU superior. A PCI-E extended from PCI-E switch-A is connected to RTM through ZONE3, the purpose is to support mass storage devices. One PCI-E bus extended by PCI-E switch A is connected to two Gigabit network controllers to realize two Gigabit Ethernet channels, which are connected to the Base channel of ZONE 2.

RTM module: As a supplement to the front panel of the ATCA board, the RTM allows users to route some interfaces through ZONE3. RTM is convenient for users to lead out a large number of supplementary interfaces through the rear panel. Among them, the mass storage module is implemented in the form of a sub-card, as shown in Figure 5. The sub-card includes several parts such as a controller, a power module, a reserved interface, and a reserved space. Different controllers are selected according to the requirements of the storage function, such as To support optical fiber storage, you need to choose a PCI-E optical fiber storage channel controller. To support SAS/SATA hard drives, you need to choose a PCI-E SAS/SATA controller. To support NAS storage, you need an Ethernet controller. The reserved interface and space are sufficient to support the above functions . The external interfaces of the subcard mainly include PCI-E interface, GPIO interface, power interface, and SerDes interface. The SerDes interface of the subcard is connected to the extended SFP interface.

Multi-MAC module: CN58XX expands 2 XAUI interfaces and 16 1Gbps SerDes (referred to as GE) interfaces through the VSC 7344 chip, of which 2 XAUI interfaces and 2 GE interfaces are gated to the Fabric channel in the ZONE area through the electronic switch, and the electronic switch The gating control is controlled by the IPMC, which can realize 10-megabit or 1-gigabit backplane switching, as shown in Figure 6. Another 10 GEs are extended to RTM to realize 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports; the remaining 4 GEs are extended to AMC to realize 4 Gigabit Ethernet channels.

IPMI module

As a standard ATCA board, it must implement the management function required by the specification. This function is realized through the IPMI module, and its realization structure diagram is shown in Figure 7.

Power supply module: The power supply of ATCA adopts dual -48V power supply. In order to be suitable for the use of each functional module of this board, the input -48V must be converted into more than 6 positive voltages through the power module.

AMC module: In order to support the function expansion of the ATCA board, this board supports an AMC slot, and the AMC slot needs to support a PCI-X channel at the same time. Therefore, the AMC slot needs to support both AMC.0 and AMC.1 specifications.

Clock module: This ATCA not only has a high-performance network processor, but also has high-speed interfaces such as SPI, 10GE, GE, and PCI-X. Each interface requires a unique clock source, so this board requires a complex clock module.

Finally, it should be noted that the above embodiments are only used to illustrate the technical solutions of the present invention rather than limit them. Although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the embodiments, those skilled in the art should understand that modifications or equivalent replacements to the technical solutions of the present invention do not depart from the spirit and scope of the technical solutions of the present invention, and all of them should be included in the scope of the present invention. within the scope of the claims.

Claims (4)

1. enhanced scalability ATCA plate based on multi-core network processor; This plate comprises business board and RTM plate, and described business board comprises that two CPU modules, memory module, PCI-X are to PCI-E bridge joint expansion module, AMC module, many MAC module, IPMI module, power module and clock module; Described RTM plate comprises the local memory module of magnanimity, it is characterized in that,

Described pair of CPU module, this pair CPU module is composed in series through EBI;

Described memory module is made up of nonvolatile memory and dynamic storage, and this nonvolatile memory comprises startup storer and Compact Flash again;

Said PCI-X is to PCI-E bridge joint expansion module; This expansion module comprises the electronic switch of two PCI-X to PCI-E bridge chip, two PCI-E switches and one group of alternative, is used to realize that network interface is to the PCI-E interface of AMC module, the expansion of network interface PCI-E interface of memory module to magnanimity this locality;

Said AMC module, this module is supported a PCI-E interface and 4 gigabit ethernet interfaces, wherein said PCI-E interface can be connected to CPU module arbitrarily;

Said many MAC module, this module is strobed on the ZONE2 district Fabric channel by an electronic switch through 2 XAUI interfaces and 2 1Gbps SerDes interfaces, realizes 10,000,000,000 or the exchange of the backboard of gigabit;

The local memory module of said magnanimity adopts the subcard form, and this subcard comprises controller, power module, spare interface and headspace; The external interface of this subcard comprises PCI-E interface, GPIO interface, power interface and SerDes interface; Wherein the SerDes interface of subcard is connected on the expansion SFP interface, and PCI-E interface and SFP EBI provide the support to the local storage expansion of magnanimity;

Said IPMI module is used for the hardware management to whole ATCA plate, to PCI-E bus extended capability, AMC module extended capability, many MAC module extended capability perfect management support is provided;

Wherein, a PCI-E of the expansion of the PCI-E switch on the described business board is connected to the RTM plate through ZONE 3 districts; Described nonvolatile memory makes two public startup storeies of CPU and CF card two parts be used to provide the storage of code and data through fpga logic; The PCI-E bus of described AMC module is connected to arbitrarily on the CPU processor through the configuration of electronic switch; CN58XX expands 2 XAUI interfaces and 16 1Gbps SerDes interfaces through VSC 7344 chips; Wherein 2 XAUI interfaces and 2 1Gbps SerDes interfaces are strobed on the ZONE2 district Fabric channel through electronic switch; Can realize 10,000,000,000 or the exchange of the backboard of gigabit, other 10 1Gbps SerDes expand to the firm and hard existing 10 gigabit network interfaces of RTM; 4 gigabit ethernet interfaces that remaining 4 1Gbps SerDes expand to AMC realize the exchanges data of 4 gigabit Ethernet passages.

2. the enhanced scalability ATCA plate based on multi-core network processor according to claim 1; It is characterized in that described pair of CPU module adopts two OCTEON CN58XX or two OCTEON CN38XX series processors to be composed in series through SPI 4.2 EBIs.

3. the enhanced scalability ATCA plate based on multi-core network processor according to claim 1 is characterized in that, and the power module of said business board will import-and 48V converts positive voltage more than 7 tunnel into.

4. the enhanced scalability ATCA plate based on multi-core network processor according to claim 1; It is characterized in that; Described two PCI-E switches expand 3 PCI-E buses respectively; Two PCI-E buses of one of them PCI-E switch expansion, every PCI-E bus connects a gigabit networking controller, draws from RTM; The PCI-E that a remaining PCI-E bus and another one PCI-E switch are expanded out is connected on the connector of AMC module through electronic switch; Two PCI-E buses of the residue that another one PCI-E switch is expanded out, wherein one is connected on the RTM through ZONE 3 districts, and another PCI-E bus connects two gigabit networking controllers, connects on the Base passage of ZONE 2.

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