PROCESSOR COMMUNICATIONS

• US 20150113184A1
• Filed: 10/21/2013
• Published: 04/23/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/21/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: XMOS Ltd. Prudential Buildings
• Original Assignee: XMOS Ltd.
• Inventors: STANFORD-JASON, Andrew, MAY, Michael David, TOON, Nigel Jrgen, WILKINSON, Daniel John Pelham
• Granted Patent: US 9,594,720 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 710/106
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/24 using interrupt G06F13/32 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4286 using a handshaking protocol, e.g. RS232C link
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/17356 Indirect interconnection networks
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/30072 to perform conditional operations, e.g. using predicates or guards
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/30087 Synchronisation or serialisation instructions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/3009 Thread control instructions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/30123 according to context, e.g. thread buffers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/3851 from multiple instruction streams, e.g. multistreaming

Abstract

A processing apparatus comprising: a bus; a first processor connected to the bus and configured to communicate over the bus according to a bus protocol; a second, multithread processor; and an inter-thread interconnect based on a system of channels. The apparatus also comprises an interface between the bus and the inter-thread interconnect, comprising a bus side implementing the bus protocol and an interconnect side for interfacing with the system of channels. The first processor is thereby operable to communicate with a designated one of said threads via the bus and a respective channel of the inter-thread interconnect.

Claims

1. Processing apparatus comprising:

a bus;

a first processor connected to the bus and configured to perform read and write operations over the bus according to a bus protocol;

a second processor arranged to execute multiple threads;

an inter-thread interconnect comprising a system of channel terminals, each operable to be used by one of the threads to perform input and output operations over a channel comprising a logical connection with another channel terminal, including being operable to perform input and output operations over a channel with another of said channel terminals used by another of said threads; and

an interface between the bus and the inter-thread interconnect, comprising a bus side implementing the bus protocol and an interconnect side having an instance of at least one channel terminal, wherein the first processor is thereby operable to communicate with a designated one of said threads via;

(i) the bus and (ii) a respective one of said channels between the channel terminal of the interface and a respective one of the channel terminals of the inter-thread interconnect used by the designated thread, the interface providing an association between read and write operations over the bus and input and output operations performed by the channel terminal of the interface.

2. The processing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the bus side implements the bus protocol in dedicated hardware circuitry, and the channel terminal of the interface comprises a block in the interface imitating one of the channel terminals of the interconnect.

3. The processing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the bus side implements the bus protocol in software of a first of said threads, the channel terminal of said interface being one of the channel terminals of said interconnect used by the first thread to communicate with the designated thread via the channel with the channel terminal of the designated thread.

4. The processing apparatus of any preceding claim, wherein the first processor is arranged to run at least part of a device driver for a devices, and the designated thread is programmed to provide functionality of the device to the first processor.

5. The processing apparatus of claim 4, wherein the second processor comprises a port for connecting to a peripheral device, said device comprising the peripheral device and said functionality comprising providing a front-end part of the device driver for driving the peripheral device via the port.

6. The processing apparatus of any preceding claim, wherein the bus side comprises a set of one or more registers being addressable via said bus according to said bus protocol, comprising at least a data register configured to transfer data between the data register and the channel terminal of the interface in order to perform said communication between the first processor and the designated thread via the bus and respective channel.

7. The processing apparatus of claim 6, wherein the set of registers comprises one or more further registers for storing information relating to said transfer, for signalling the information to and/or from the first processor to facilitate the communication with the designated thread on the second processor.

8. The processing apparatus of claim 7, wherein the one or more further registers comprising one or both of:

a size register for signalling a size of the data, and/or a status register for signalling a status of the transfer.

9. The processing apparatus of any preceding claim, wherein the first processor acts as master to initiate the communication with the designated thread on the second processor, the second processor acting as slave to the first processor.

10. The processing apparatus of any preceding claims, wherein the second processor acts as master to initiate the communication with the first processor, the first processor acting as slave to the second processor.

11. The processing apparatus of any preceding claim, operable to dynamically switch between the first and second processor acting as master to initiate the communication between the first processor and the designated thread of the second processor, the other acting as slave to the master.

12. The processing apparatus of claim 11, wherein the interface comprises a master channel end used to perform the communication when the second processor is master, and a slave channel end used to perform the communication when the second processor is slave to the first processor.

13. The processing apparatus of claim 11 or 12, configured to provide a master token which can be claimed by only one of the first and second processors at any one time, the processor claiming the token being allowed to act as the master and the other acting as the slave.

14. The processing apparatus of claim 11, 12 or 13, wherein to handle a scenario where both the first and second processors attempt conflicting claims to act as the master, the second processor is arranged to be responsible for arbitrating the conflicting claims.

15. The processing apparatus of any of claims 11 to 14, wherein to handle a scenario where both the first and second processors attempt conflicting claims to act as the master, the processing apparatus is configured to store the claim of one of the processors while completing the communication initiated by the other of the processors, and to then retrieve the stored claim and complete the communication initiated by said one of the processors.

16. The processing apparatus of any preceding claim, wherein each of the channel terminals of the interconnect and interface is operable to be dynamically connected to another of the channel terminals to create a channel between them, and to be subsequently disconnected for use to create a different channel by connecting to a further one of the channel terminals.

17. The processing apparatus of claim 16, wherein each channel terminal of the interconnect and interface comprises a register arranged to record which other channel terminal it is currently connected to.

18. The processing apparatus of any preceding claim, wherein each of the channel terminals of the interconnect is operable to be dynamically claimed for use by one of the threads, and to be subsequently released for use by a further one of the threads.

19. The processing apparatus of any preceding claim, wherein:

each of the channel terminals comprises an input buffer and an output buffer;

the second processor comprises at least one thread scheduler operable to schedule the threads;

when an inputting one of said threads performs one of said input operations attempting input data from any of the channel terminals of the interface or interconnect that does not currently have data available in its input buffer, the thread scheduler pauses the inputting thread until the data is available; and

when an outputting one of said threads performs one of said output operations attempting to output data to any of the channel terminals of the interface or interconnect whose output buffer is not currently available for output, the thread scheduler pauses the outputting thread until the output buffer becomes available.

20. The processing apparatus of any preceding claim, wherein:

the second processor comprises at least one thread scheduler operable to schedule the threads, including to suspend said designated thread pending an event; and

at least one of the channel terminal of the interface or the channel terminal used by the designated thread comprises event logic configured to generate said event in dependence on activity occurring over the respective channel, the event causing the designated thread to be resumed from said suspension.

21. The processor of any preceding claim, comprising an interrupt mechanism whereby the channel terminal of the interface is operable to receive an interrupt from the first processor, and/or the first processor is operable to receive an interrupt from the interface, the communication between the first processor and the designated thread on the second processor being instigated based on one of said interrupts.

22. The processing apparatus of any preceding claim, wherein the interconnect is a switch-based interconnect comprising one or more switches configured to work by routing messages selectively to specific destinations.

23. The processing apparatus of any preceding claim, wherein interface and bus comprise and interrupt mechanism allowing second processor to raise an interrupt to the first processor, in order to facilitate said communication with the first processor.

24. The processing apparatus of any preceding claims, wherein the second processor comprises one or more cores, at least some of said threads being implemented on a same one of said cores and the channel terminals of said interconnect being operable to establish channels between the threads on the same core.

25. The processing apparatus of claim 23, wherein the second processor comprises multiple cores, some of said threads being implemented on different ones of said cores and the channel terminals of said interconnect being operable to establish channels between the threads on the different cores.

26. A computer program product comprising code embodied on a computer-readable storage medium, the code comprising at least a first thread to be executed on a multi-thread processor, wherein the first thread is configured so as when executed on the multi-thread processor to provide an interface between a bus and an inter-thread interconnect of the multi-thread processor, by:

implementing a bus protocol of the bus in the code of the first thread, and performing one or more bus transactions to communicate with a first processor over said bus using the bus protocol; and

communicating with a second thread of the multi-thread processor over a channel of said inter-thread interconnect;

wherein the communication with the second thread over said channel is based on the one or more transaction performed to communicate with the first processor using said bus protocol, or vice versa.

27. A method comprising:

using a first processor to run at least part of a respective device driver for each of one or more devices, the first processor being arranged to communicate with each device over a bus according to a bus protocol based on memory mapped addresses;

using at least one respective thread of a second, multi-thread processor to provide functionality of each device to the part of the respective device driver on the first processor; and

providing an interface between the bus and an interconnect of the second processor, the interconnect being operable to communicate between the threads using a system of channels;

wherein the interface is provided by associating one or more memory mapped addresses of the bus with a channel of the interconnect, thus presenting the functionality of the device to the first processor as being accessible via one or more addresses on said bus, and presenting the first processor to the respective thread as being accessible over a channel of said interconnect.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the second processor comprises one or more ports for connecting to peripheral devices, at least one of said one or more devices comprising a peripheral device and said functionality comprising driving the peripheral device via one of the ports.