Patent Application
20060168391
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a flash memory with a peripheral component interconnect express (PCI Express), and more particularly to a storage device that uses the PCI Express as a transmission interface.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the science and technology of computers grows in a fast changing manner, a computer tends to be developed with powerful computational functions and a fast speed, and thus the clock of a central processing unit (CPU) is too fast, and the transmission rate of other peripheral equipments cannot catch up with the processing speed of the CPU at all. Even though the CPU continues enhancing its performance, the transmission rate of peripheral equipments cannot be improved much because the overall performance of a computer depends on the whole system. It is necessary to improve the whole computer architecture before the performance of a CPU can be maximized.
However, the data transmission rate depends on the transmission rate of a bus. To enhance the performance of a computer, related manufacturers usually improve the transmission rate of a bus. For example, the transmission rate of an integrated drive electronic (IDE) interface connected to a hard disk drive reaches 160 MG/s; the network line is upgraded from 10 MB/s to 1 GB/s; the transmission rate of the RS-232 is replaced by the 480 MB/s of the universal serial bus (USB), and the present PCI with a transmission rate of 133 MB/s upgrades the transmission rate of its lane to 250 MB/s which is known as a new-generation peripheral component interconnect express (PCI Express). The PCI Express further supports a hot-plug control function. Therefore, the PCI Express is extensively accepted by users.
Further, the flash memory since its announcement gradually replaces the EEPROM or battery power memory in many portable device due to its charming features including low power consumption, non-volatility, shock resistance, and high-capacity storage. With the advanced semiconductor technologies, the storage capacity and transmission rate of a flash memory grow rapidly. The flash memory replaces traditional storage medium such as a hard disk drive in many applications, but most of the present storage devices made of flash memories use the universal serial bus (USB) or integrated drive electronics (IDE) interface as the transmission interface. The transmission rate of the USB and IDE interface are just 480 MB/s and 160 MB/s respectively, and such transmission rate cannot catch up with the accessing speed of the flash memory. Therefore, the applications of a storage device made of this kind of flash memory is restricted by the USB or IDE interface of the host, and its performance cannot be maximized.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a flash memory storage device that eliminates the aforesaid drawbacks.
The present invention has been accomplished under the circumstances in view. Therefore, it is a primary objective of the present invention to use the PCI Express as a transmission interface between a host and a storage device, such that the transmission rate can be maximized when data is accessed in a flash memory of the storage device.
According to the foregoing objective, the storage device includes a microcontroller, and the microcontroller is coupled separately to a flash memory and a PCI Express connecting interface, and the microcontroller has a flash memory interface and a PCI Express interface, such that when the storage device is coupled to a PCI Express disposed at a host through the PCI Express connecting interface, the host saves or reads data in a flash memory of the storage device, and the flash memory interface and PCI Express interface of the microcontroller converts the data into a data format acceptable to the flash memory or the PCI Express, and then sends the converted data to the host or the flash memory so as to meet the standard of the transmission rate of the PCI Express when the host accesses data in the storage device, and maximize the transmission rate of the storage device.
Referring to
The PCI Express connecting interface 11 is connected to a PCI Express 21 installed in a host 2.
The microcontroller 12 includes a flash memory interface 121 and a PCI Express interface 122, and the microcontroller 12 is connected to the PCI Express connecting interface 11.
The flash memory 13 is connected to the microcontroller 12.
If the PCI Express connecting interface 11 of the storage device 1 is connected to the PCI Express bus 21, then the microcontroller 12 of the storage device 1 will declare the storage device 1 as an endpoint device to the host 2, and start transmitting data. When the host 2 transmits data to the storage device 1, the data in the host 2 is transmitted to the microcontroller 12 through the PCI Express 21 and the PCI Express connecting interface 11 to the flash memory interface 121 of the microcontroller 12 first and converted into a data format acceptable to the flash memory 13 and then saved into the flash memory 13.
Further, if the host 2 intends to read data in the storage device 1, the flash memory 13 will send the data to the microcontroller 12 first and the PCI Express interface 122 of the microcontroller 12 will convert the data into a data format acceptable to the PCI Express 21 and send the data to the host 2 through the PCI Express connecting interface 11 and the PCI Express 21.
Reference to
Therefore, the key technology for the flash memory storage device with PCI Express in accordance with the present invention to overcome the shortcoming of the prior arts resides on that the invention adopts the PCI Express as the interface between the host and the storage device, so that when the flash memory accesses data, the transmission rate can meet the standard of the PCI Express and thus the transmission rate of the storage device can be maximized.
A prototype of flash memory storage device with PCI Express has been constructed with the features of FIGS. 1˜2. The flash memory storage device with PCI Express functions smoothly to provide all of the features discussed earlier.
Although a particular embodiment of the invention has been described in detail for purposes of illustration, various modifications and enhancements may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the invention is not to be limited except as by the appended claims.
