General input/output architecture, protocol and related methods to support legacy interrupts

• US 20030115380A1
• Filed: 08/23/2002
• Published: 06/19/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 08/24/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Ajanovic, Jasmin, Sethi, Prashant, Harriman, David, Campbell, Randolph L., Hall, Clifford D., Vargas, Jose A., Pawlowski, Steve
• Granted Patent: US 7,231,486 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 710/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/124 where hardware is a sequential transfer control unit, e.g. microprocessor, peripheral processor or state-machine
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/385 for adaptation of a particular data processing system to different peripheral devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4059 where the synchronisation uses buffers, e.g. for speed matching between buses
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/42 Bus transfer protocol, e.g. handshake; Synchronisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4221 being an input/output bus, e.g. ISA bus, EISA bus, PCI bus, SCSI bus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4252 using a handshaking protocol
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4265 on a point to point bus G06F13/4247, G06F13/4282 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4269 using a handshaking protocol, e.g. Centronics connection
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4282 on a serial bus, e.g. I2C bus, SPI bus on daisy chain buses G06F13/4247
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 5/06 for changing the speed of data flow, i.e. speed regularising or timing, e.g. delay lines, FIFO buffers; over- or underrun control therefor G06F7/78 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/30 in combination with information about buffer occupancy at either end or at transit nodes

Abstract

An enhanced general input/output communication architecture, protocol and related methods are presented.

Claims

1. A method of integrating legacy devices within an enhanced general input/output (EGIO) architecture, the method comprising:

receiving an indication from a legacy device at a general input/output (GIO) interface;

analyzing at least a subset of the received indication to identify an indicator type; and

translating the received legacy indication to an appropriate one or more GIO message(s) based, at least in part, on the result of the analysis.

2. A method according to claim 1, further comprising:

processing the GIO message according to a set of rules associated with the GIO message.

3. A method according to claim 2, the element of processing comprising:

identifying whether a host of the GIO interface is a target of the GIO message; and

forwarding the GIO message(s) through a GIO link towards the identified target if not the host.

4. A method according to claim 3, the element of forwarding comprising writing the GIO message(s) to a message space of a remote GIO interface communicatively coupled with the GIO interface through a GIO link.

5. A method according to claim 1, wherein the indication is a legacy interrupt.

6. A method according to claim 5, wherein the indication is a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) interrupt.

7. A method according to claim 1, wherein the indication is a power management request.

8. A method according to claim 7, wherein the power management request is a hot-plug notification.

9. A method according to claim 1, wherein the received indication is a special cycles request.

10. A method according to claim 1, the element of analyzing at least a subset of the received indication comprising:

comparing the received indication with one or more known legacy indications maintained by the GIO interface to resolve a meaning of the received indication.

11. A method according to claim 1, the element of translating comprising:

identifying a code(s) associated with a GIO protocol employed by the GIO architecture that communicate the meaning of the received indication; and

compose a message(s) including the code(s) for transmission to an identified target of the received indication.

12. A method according to claim 11, wherein the identified target of the received indication is a host of the GIO interface.

13. A method according to claim 11, wherein the identified target of the received indication is a remote device coupled through one or more GIO links.

14. A method according to claim 11, wherein the received indication is identified as a PCI interrupt, the element of composing comprising:

generating a message denoting an assertion of the identified interrupt for transmission, as necessary, through the GIO architecture to the target of the interrupt.

15. A method according to claim 12, further comprising:

generating a message denoting the deassertion of the identified interrupt for transmission, as necessary, through the GIO architecture to the target of the interrupt upon receipt of an indication denoting a cessation of the interrupt.

16. A method according to claim 15, wherein the cessation of the interrupt is the indication denoting the cessation of the interrupt.

17. A general input/output (GIO) interface comprising:

a physical layer interface, to couple the GIO interface to remote interface(s) through a GIO link; and

a transaction layer interface, to receive at least a subset of content received from the remote interfaces including legacy content, wherein the transaction layer generates GIO message(s) based, at least in part, on the legacy content suitable for additional processing by a host device or a remote device.

18. A GIO interface according to claim 17, wherein the remote interface(s) include legacy interface(s) associated with legacy devices or enhanced general input/output (EGIO) devices.

19. A GIO interface according to claim 17, the transaction layer interface comprising:

a data structure including a message space, wherein the transaction layer of a GIO interface writes the generated GIO messages to a remote GIO interface.

20. A GIO interface according to claim 19, wherein the GIO message(s) causes the remote GIO interface to forward the GIO message(s) to a target device.

21. A GIO interface according to claim 20, wherein the remote GIO interface is an element of the target device.

22. A GIO interface according to claim 20, wherein the GIO message(s) cause the target device to perform according to the legacy content.

23. A GIO interface according to claim 19, the data structure comprising:

a configuration space, to maintain information to denote a host device type; and

a message space, to facilitate in-band messaging of GIO message(s) representing legacy content between GIO interfaces in a GIO architecture.

24. A GIO interface according to claim 17, wherein the legacy interface(s) are associated with a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) compliant device.

25. A GIO interface according to claim 17, wherein the legacy content includes one or more of an interrupt, a power management message, and a special cycles request.

26. An electronic device comprising a GIO interface according to claim 17.

27. An electronic appliance comprising:

a plurality of electronic devices according to claim 26 selectively coupled with GIO communication link; and

zero or more legacy device(s), each selectively coupled to an associated one of the plurality of electronic devices, wherein the associated electronic device(s) generate GIO message(s) based, at least in part, on legacy content received from an associated legacy device.

28. A storage medium comprising content which, when executed by an accessing electronic device, causes the electronic device to implement a general input/output (GIO) interface, the GIO interface including a physical layer interface, to couple the GIO interface to remote interface(s) through a GIO link, and a transaction layer interface, to receive at least a subset of content received from the remote interfaces including legacy content, wherein the transaction layer generates GIO message(s) based, at least in part, on the legacy content suitable for additional processing by a host device or a remote device.

29. A storage medium according to claim 28, the content to implement the transaction layer interface further comprising content to translate received legacy content into a GIO message understandable to upstream GIO interface(s).

30. A storage medium according to claim 29, wherein the legacy content includes one or more of an interrupt, a power management message, and a special cycles request.