COMMUNICATION USING INTEGRATED CIRCUIT INTERCONNECT CIRCUITRY
First Claim
Patent Images
1. An integrated circuit comprising:
- a plurality of master units configured to generate communication transactions;
interconnect circuitry coupled to said plurality of master units and configured to carry said communication transactions; and
one or more slave units coupled to said interconnect circuitry and configured to respond to said communication transactions;
whereinsaid interconnect circuitry is configured to provide a plurality of virtual networks, each virtual network connecting at least one of said plurality of master units to at least one of said one or more slave units and including a plurality of network nodes, at least two of said plurality of virtual networks being overlapping virtual networks having an overlapped portion that shares a physical communication link between at least two of said plurality of network nodes; and
at least network nodes within said overlapped portion perform node-to-node token based communication flow management whereby;
(i) before asserting communication signals corresponding to a communication transaction with a target slave unit via one of said overlapping virtual networks, at least network nodes within said overlapped portion are configured to assert a token request upon said overlapping virtual network to request a token signal for said overlapping virtual network from a next network node downstream within said overlapping virtual network toward said target slave unit and not to assert said communication signals upon said physical communication link shared with another overlapping virtual network until said token signal is received; and
(ii) said next network node receiving said token request blocks return of said token signal until said next network node is ready to receive said communication signals.
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Abstract
An integrated circuit comprising multiple master units (4, 6) and multiple slave units (10, 12) connected via interconnect circuitry (8) utilises token based node-to-node communication flow management within the interconnect circuitry (8) with a network node requesting a token and receiving a token signal before it asserts its communication signals onto a physical communication link shared between multiple virtual networks.
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Citations
24 Claims
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1. An integrated circuit comprising:
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a plurality of master units configured to generate communication transactions; interconnect circuitry coupled to said plurality of master units and configured to carry said communication transactions; and one or more slave units coupled to said interconnect circuitry and configured to respond to said communication transactions;
whereinsaid interconnect circuitry is configured to provide a plurality of virtual networks, each virtual network connecting at least one of said plurality of master units to at least one of said one or more slave units and including a plurality of network nodes, at least two of said plurality of virtual networks being overlapping virtual networks having an overlapped portion that shares a physical communication link between at least two of said plurality of network nodes; and at least network nodes within said overlapped portion perform node-to-node token based communication flow management whereby; (i) before asserting communication signals corresponding to a communication transaction with a target slave unit via one of said overlapping virtual networks, at least network nodes within said overlapped portion are configured to assert a token request upon said overlapping virtual network to request a token signal for said overlapping virtual network from a next network node downstream within said overlapping virtual network toward said target slave unit and not to assert said communication signals upon said physical communication link shared with another overlapping virtual network until said token signal is received; and (ii) said next network node receiving said token request blocks return of said token signal until said next network node is ready to receive said communication signals. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. An integrated circuit comprising:
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a plurality of master means for generating communication transactions; interconnect means for carrying said communication transactions, said interconnect means being coupled to said plurality of master means; and one or more slave means for responding to said communication transactions, said one or more slave means being coupled to said interconnect circuitry;
whereinsaid interconnect means is configured to provide a plurality of virtual networks, each virtual network connecting at least one of said plurality of master means to at least one of said one or more slave means and including a plurality of network nodes, at least two of said plurality of virtual networks being overlapping virtual networks having an overlapped portion that shares a physical communication link between at least two of said plurality of network nodes; and at least network nodes within said overlapped portion perform node-to-node token based communication flow management whereby; (i) before asserting communication signals corresponding to a communication transaction with a target slave means via one of said overlapping virtual networks, at least network nodes within said overlapped portion are configured to assert a token request upon said overlapping virtual network to request a token signal for said overlapping virtual network from a next network node downstream within said overlapping virtual network toward said target slave means and not to assert said communication signals upon said physical communication link shared with another overlapping virtual network until said token signal is received; and (ii) said next network node receiving said token request blocks return of said token signal until said next network node is ready to receive said communication signals.
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24. A method of communication using an integrated circuit, said method comprising the steps of:
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generating communication transactions with a plurality of master units; carrying said communication transactions with interconnect circuitry coupled to said plurality of master units; and responding to said communication transactions with one or more slave units coupled to said interconnect circuitry;
said method further comprising the steps of;providing a plurality of virtual networks, each virtual network connecting at least one of said plurality of master units to at least one of said one or more slave units and including a plurality of network nodes, at least two of said plurality of virtual networks being overlapping virtual networks having an overlapped portion that shares a physical communication link between at least two of said plurality of network nodes; and performing node-to-node token based communication flow management whereby; (i) before asserting communication signals corresponding to a communication transaction with a target slave unit via one of said overlapping virtual networks, at least network nodes within said overlapped portion assert a token request upon said overlapping virtual network to request a token signal for said overlapping virtual network from a next network node downstream within said overlapping virtual network toward said target slave unit and do not assert said communication signals upon said physical communication link shared with another overlapping virtual network until said token signal is received; and (ii) said next network node receiving said token request blocks return of said token signal until said next network node is ready to receive said communication signals.
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Specification