PERIPHERAL INTERFACE ALERT MESSAGE FOR DOWNSTREAM DEVICE

• US 20110225469A1
• Filed: 05/19/2011
• Published: 09/15/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/20/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ajai K. Singh, David Puffer
• Original Assignee: Ajai K. Singh, David Puffer
• Inventors: Puffer, David, Singh, Ajai K.
• Granted Patent: US 8,346,992 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0766 Error or fault reporting or storing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/085 using codes with inherent redundancy, e.g. n-out-of-m codes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/06 Management of faults, events, alarms or notifications

Abstract

According to some embodiments, a message generated by a downstream device is received at upstream device. The message may, for example, be received via a peripheral interface and may not require a response. It may then be determined that an error is associated with the message, and an alert message may be sent from the upstream device to the downstream device via the peripheral interface.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving an upstream message generated by a downstream device, wherein the upstream message is received via a peripheral interface of an upstream device and does not require a response; and

sending an alert message from the upstream device to the downstream device via the peripheral interface indicating that the received upstream message is corrupted by an error, such that the downstream device can generate;

debug information in response to the alert message, and

directly output the debug information associated with the error for debugging the error.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the alert message comprises:

a sequence number of the last packet to have been successfully processed by the upstream device prior to the error; and

information associated with an uncorrectable error status register.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the peripheral interface is associated with a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) Express bus, and wherein the alert message comprises a PCI Express vendor-defined message type-1 packet associated with a peripheral device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the error comprises at least one of:

a correctable Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) Express error;

a non-correctable fatal PCI Express error;

or a non-correctable non-fatal PCI Express error.

5. A system comprising:

an endpoint device to transmit a request via a peripheral interface;

a switch operable to;

receive the request from the endpoint device,

detect whether the request is corrupted by an error, and

transmit an alert message to the endpoint via the peripheral interface,

wherein the endpoint device is operable to;

generate debug information in response to receiving the alert message by the downstream device; and

directly output the debug information associated with the error for debugging the error.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the switch is operable to send a completion message to indicate that the request was not successful in addition to sending the alter message.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the alert message comprises:

a sequence number of the last packet to have been successfully processed by the switch prior to the error,

information associated with an uncorrectable error status register, and

a vendor-defined message packet.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein the switch is coupled to a processor via a second interface separate from the peripheral interface.

9. The system of claim 5, wherein the alert message comprises requester identifier information including at least one of a bus number, a requester device number or a function number indicative of the downstream device associated with the upstream message determined to be corrupted.

10. An apparatus comprising:

an output port to transmit a request to an upstream device, wherein the request does not require a response, and wherein the apparatus is to be coupled to the upstream device via an interface;

an input port to receive an alert message from the upstream device via the interface in response to the upstream device detecting whether the request transmitted to the upstream device is corrupted;

a first logic operable to generate debug information in response to receiving the alert message by the downstream device; and

a second logic operable to directly output the debug information associated with the error for debugging the error.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the input port to receive a completion message from the upstream device to indicate that the request was not successful in addition to sending the alert message.

12. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the alert message comprises:

a sequence number of the last packet to have been successfully processed by the upstream device prior to the error; and

information associated with an uncorrectable error status register.

13. A method comprising:

transmitting an upstream message generated by a downstream device to a peripheral interface of an upstream device, wherein the upstream message does not require a response;

receiving an alert message transmitted by the upstream device via the peripheral interface, wherein the alert message indicates that the transmitted upstream message is corrupted by an error;

generating debug information in response to receiving the alert message by the downstream device; and

directly outputting, by the downstream device, the debug information associated with the error for debugging the error.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the alert message comprises:

a sequence number of the last packet to have been successfully processed by the upstream device prior to the error,

information associated with an uncorrectable error status register, and

a vendor-defined message packet associated with the peripheral interface.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the peripheral interface is associated with a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) Express bus, and wherein the vendor-defined message packet is a PCI Express vendor-defined message type-1 packet.

16. The method of claim 13 further comprises:

receiving a completion message transmitted from the upstream device to indicate that the upstream message was not successful.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the alert message comprises requester identifier information including at least one of a bus number, a requester device number or a function number indicative of the downstream device associated with the upstream message.