Method and apparatus for configurable address mapping and protection architecture and hardware for on-chip systems

• US 20040088566A1
• Filed: 11/05/2002
• Published: 05/06/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 11/05/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: META Platforms Technologies LLC (Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.))
• Original Assignee: Sonics Incorporated (Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.))
• Inventors: Weber, Wolf-Dietrich, Chou, Chien-Chun, Tomlinson, Jay Scott, Kasetti, Sricharan, Wingard, Drew Eric
• Granted Patent: US 7,266,786 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/200
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/10 Address translation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/78 to assure secure storage of data address-based protection against unauthorised use of memory G06F12/14; record carriers for use with machines and with at least a part designed to carry digital markings G06K19/00
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A method and apparatus of a configurable address mapping and protection architecture and hardware for on-chip systems have been described.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a request with parameters;

checking said parameters against criteria; and

generating a second request with second parameters if meeting said criteria.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said second request with second parameters is selected from the group consisting of said request with parameters, parts of said request with parameters, and parts of said request with parameters and new parameters.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein said criteria are selected from the group consisting of predefined, and dynamically generated when a system is operating.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein said predefined criteria are defined at design time for an integrated circuit.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein said criteria are selected from the group consisting of protection ID, destination address, request type, data, data type, and user provided request information.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein said parameters are selected from the group consisting of protection ID, destination address, request type, data, data type, and user provided request information.

7. The method of claim 5 further comprising comparing said destination address with a predefined system address map.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein said request further comprises an address.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein said address has a field selected from the group consisting of a segment address, a region address, and an offset inside a region.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein said checking said parameters against criteria further comprises checking selected from the group consisting of checking said segment address against segment registers, and checking said region address against region registers.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein said checking said parameters against criteria further comprises checking selected from the group consisting of checking a segment address against segment registers, checking a region address against region registers, checking a protection key against protection registers, checking a segment address against one or more segment register fields, checking a region address against one or more region register fields, and checking a protection key against one or more protection register fields.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein said registers and said one or more register fields are selected from the group consisting of not-accessible registers, read-only registers, read-write registers, not-accessible register fields, read-only register fields, and read-write register fields.

13. A processing system comprising a processor, which when executing a set of requests performs the method of claim 1.

14. A machine-readable medium having stored thereon requests, which when executed performs the method of claim 1.

15. An apparatus comprising:

a plurality of source units, each source unit having a communication link;

a checking module having an input communication link and an output communication link, said input communication link coupled to said plurality of source communication links;

a delivery module having an input communication link and an output communication link, said delivery module input communication link coupled to said checking module output communication link; and

a plurality of receiver units, each receiver unit having a communication link, said plurality of receiver communication links coupled to said delivering module output communication link.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein said checking module further comprises checking requests received from said plurality of source units against an address map and a protection key map.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein said delivering module further comprises delivering requests to said receiver units based upon said address map and protection key map if checking was successful.

18. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein said address map and said protection key map are determined at design time and/or dynamically during operation for an integrated circuit.

19. A method comprising:

receiving a map definition;

receiving a set of configuration parameters;

receiving a product specification; and

generating a netlist.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein said map further comprises an address map and a protection key map.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein said netlist represents an optimized address mapping and hardware protection.

22. The method of claim 20 wherein said product specification has parameters selected from the group consisting of a specified number of service modules, address width of a service module, data width of a service module, a specified number of different address regions.

23. The method of claim 22 wherein said different address regions have characteristics selected from the group consisting of fixed, invisible to software routines, and changeable by software routines.

24. An apparatus comprising:

means for receiving requests from one or more processing units;

means for checking said requests against an address map and a protection key map;

means for generating one or more second requests;

means for delivering said one or more second requests to one or more service modules.

25. The apparatus of claim 24 wherein said received requests further comprise a field selected from the group consisting of a destination address, and a protection identification.

26. A machine-readable medium having stored thereon information representing the apparatus of claim 24.

27. A method comprising:

generating an address match signal indicative of a successful or unsuccessful address match;

generating a service module signal indicative of a present or absent service module;

generating a security check signal indicative of passing or failing security; and

forwarding information based on a successful address match, a present service module, and passing security.

28. The method of claim 27 wherein generating said security check further comprises:

receiving a protection key;

checking said protection key against one or more protection registers; and

generating a match or no match signal.

29. The method of claim 28 wherein generating said security check signal further comprises combining said match or no match signal and said present or absent service module signal.

30. A method comprising:

inputting an address map;

inputting protection parameters;

inputting configuration parameters; and

generating a database for configuring circuitry.

31. The method of claim 30 wherein said configuration parameters are selected from the group consisting of address width, number of segments, segment size, segment base, and number of regions.

32. The method of claim 31 further comprising for each region of said number of regions a field selected from the group consisting of region address size, region base address, region protection key register number, region enable, region address space, width of a service module connected to said region, and physical linkage information of a service module connected to said region.

33. The method of claim 32 wherein said physical linkage information of a service module connected to said region further comprises information selected from the group consisting of routing information, and a position.

34. The method of claim 33 wherein said routing information comprises hardware routing information passed to a request-delivery module in order to deliver a request to said service module.

35. The method of claim 33 wherein said position comprises a hardware signal bit position.

36. The method of claim 35 wherein if a request-delivery module asserts a signal at said hardware signal bit position a request is sent to said service module.

37. The method of claim 30 wherein said circuitry further comprises a register.

38. The method of claim 37 wherein said configuring results in an operative mode selected from the group consisting of non-accessible register, read only register, and read-write register.

39. The method of claim 37 wherein said configuring said register further comprises specifying said register as an export constant so that in said database a netlist portion of said register is exported to a top level of a netlist.

40. The method of claim 39 wherein said configuring further comprises configuring said netlist in time after said configuring of said register.