On-chip inter-network performance optimization using configurable performance parameters

• US 7,254,603 B2
• Filed: 05/03/2002
• Issued: 08/07/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/03/2002
• 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, Synek, Kamil, Tomlinson, Jay Scott, Meyer, Michael Jude, Masri, Nabil N., Wingard, Drew Eric, O'Connell, Thomas Wayne
• Primary Examiner(s): Wiley; David
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen; Phuoc H
• Application Number:
  US10/138,772
• Publication Number:
  US 20030208611A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,922 Days
• Field of Search: 709/220, 709/201, 709/202, 709/203, 709/217, 709/223, 709/218, 709/249, 710/100, 710/104, 710/305, 370/254, 370/401, 370/402
• US Class Current: 709/202
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4009 with data restructuring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/46 Interconnection of networks

Abstract

A method and apparatus for on-chip inter-network performance optimization using configurable performance parameters have been described.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a first configurable bridge agent of a first on-chip interconnect within a device, wherein the first configurable bridge agent has one or more ports including an interface port, and the first configurable bridge is coupled to a second configurable bridge agent of a second on-chip interconnect within the device via the interface port to allow a first inter-network communication between the first and second on-chip interconnects, wherein a first set of one or more target blocks and one or more initiator blocks within the device is communicatively coupled to the first on-chip interconnect, and a second set of one or more target blocks is communicatively coupled to the second on-chip interconnect, wherein the first configurable bridge agent is configured for inter-network performance enhancement by a parameter selected from the group consisting of performance enhance on/off, phase to phase delay, maximum request to data delay, minimum request to response delay, and maximum outstanding requests, wherein the first configurable bridge agent is configured at a point in time selected from the group consisting of at time of fabrication of the first configurable bridge agent, at a power up, at a reset, at an initialization prior to normal operation for the first configurable bridge agent, and dynamically during normal operation for the first configurable bridge agent.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the first inter-network communication and a second communication are at a different data rate.

3. A machine-readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon, which, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to generate a representation of the apparatus of claim 1.

4. An apparatus comprising:

means for inter-network connecting a plurality of configurable agents between a first interconnect and a second interconnect within a device; and

means for configuring one or more of the configurable agents, wherein a first set of one or more target blocks and one or more initiator blocks within the device is communicatively coupled to a first on-chip interconnect, and a second set of one or more target blocks is communicatively coupled to a second on-chip interconnect, wherein the one or more configurable agents are configured according to a parameter selected from the group consisting of address width, data width, command width, communication timing, receive only, transmit only, bidirectional, bridge, bridge agent, bridge proxy, internetworking proxy, reset, timer, administrator, bridge agent, bridge forward, fully connected, clock rate, reset into bridge X, performance enhance on/off, phase to phase delay, maximum request to data delay, minimum request to response delay, and maximum outstanding requests, wherein the one or more configurable agents are configured at a point in time selected from the group consisting of at time of fabrication, at a power up, at a reset, at an initialization prior to normal operation, and dynamically during normal operation.

5. A machine-readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon, which, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to generate a representation of the apparatus of claim 4.

6. A method comprising:

designing an inter-networking link between a first configurable bridge agent and a second configurable bridge agent within a device;

determining communication capabilities of the first configurable bridge agent;

configuring the second configurable bridge agent according to the communication capabilities of the first configurable bridge agent, wherein configuring comprises setting parameters selected from the group consisting of address width, data width, command width, communication timing receive only, transmit only, bidirectional, bridge, bridge agent, bridge proxy, internetworking proxy, reset, timer, administrator, bridge agent, bridge forward, fully connected, clock rate, reset into bridge X, performance enhance on/off, phase to phase delay, maximum request to data delay, minimum request to response delay, and maximum outstanding requests, and configuring at a point in time selected from the group consisting of at time of fabrication of the first or second configurable bridge agent, at a power up of the first or second configurable bridge agent, at a reset of the first or second configurable bridge agent, at an initialization prior to normal operation of the first or second configurable bridge agent, and dynamically during normal operation of the first or second configurable bridge agent;

configuring a first set of one or more target blocks and one or more initiator blocks within the device to communicatively couple to a first on-chip interconnect; and

configuring a second set of one or more target blocks to communicatively couple to the second on-chip interconnect.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

determining communication capabilities of the second configurable bridge agent; and

configuring the first configurable bridge agent according to the communication capabilities of the second configurable bridge agent.

8. A processing system comprising a processor, which when executing a set of instructions performs the method of claim 6.

9. A machine-readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions, which when executed by a machine cause the machine to perform the method of claim 6.

10. A system comprising:

a plurality of configurable inter-networking agents on a plurality of interconnects within a device;

a first set of one or more target blocks and one or more initiator blocks within the device, the first set of target and initiator blocks communicatively coupled to a first on-chip interconnect of the plurality of interconnects;

a second set of one or more target blocks within the device, the second set of target and initiator blocks communicatively coupled to a second on-chip interconnect of the plurality of interconnects;

a plurality of configurable interfaces; and

a processor for configuring the configurable inter-networking agents and the configurable interfaces, wherein configuring the configurable inter-networking agents and the configurable interfaces comprises;

configuring the configurable inter-networking agents and the configurable interfaces to communicate;

configuring parameters selected from the group consisting of address width, data width, command width, communication timing receive only transmit only, bidirectional, bridge, bridge agent, bridge proxy, internetworking proxy, reset, timer, administrator, bridge agent, bridge forward, fully connected, clock rate, reset into bridge X, performance enhance on/off, phase to phase delay, maximum request to data delay, minimum request to response delay, and maximum outstanding requests; and

configuring at a point in time selected from the group consisting of at time of fabrication, at a power up, at a reset, at an initialization prior to normal operation, and dynamically during normal operation.

11. An apparatus comprising:

a first configurable bridge agent within a device, the first configurable bridge agent having one or more ports including a first interconnect port and a first interface port, wherein the first interconnect port couples to communicate with a first on-chip interconnect; and

a second configurable bridge agent within the device having one or more ports including a second interconnect port and a second interface port, wherein the second interconnect port of the second configurable bridge agent couples to communicate with a second on-chip interconnect, and the second interface port of the second configurable bridge agent coupled to communicate with the first interface port of the first configurable bridge agent;

wherein at least one of the first and second configurable bridge agents is configured for inter-network performance enhancement by a parameter selected from the group consisting of performance enhance on/off, phase to phase delay, maximum request to data delay, minimum request to response delay, and maximum outstanding requests;

wherein the first configurable agent is provided information about a performance capability of the second configurable bridge agent, and the second configurable bridge agent is provided information about a performance capability of the first configurable bridge agent;

wherein the provided information is at a point in time selected from the group consisting of at time of fabrication of the first or second configurable bridge agent, at a power up of the first or second configurable bridge agent, at a reset of the first or second configurable bridge agent, at an initialization prior to normal operation of the first or second configurable bridge agent, and dynamically during normal operation of the first or second configurable bridge agent.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the first configurable bridge agent arbitrates for communicating with the first on-chip interconnect, and the second configurable bridge agent arbitrates for communicating with the second on-chip interconnect.

13. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein during a data transfer from the first configurable bridge agent to the second configurable bridge agent, the second configurable bridge arbitrates for communicating with the second on-chip interconnect before all data in the data transfer is transferred from the first configurable bridge agent to the second configurable bridge agent.

14. A machine-readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon, which, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to generate a representation of the apparatus of claim 11.

15. An apparatus comprising:

means for connecting a first bridge agent having one or more ports including a first interface port to a first interconnect, wherein one or more target blocks within a device communicatively couple to the first interconnect within the device;

means for connecting a second bridge agent having one or more ports including a second interface port to a second interconnect, wherein one or more initiator blocks within the device communicatively couple to the second interconnect within the device; and

means for configuring the first bridge agent and the second bridge agent within the device, comprising;

means for configuring for inter-network performance enhancement by a parameter selected from the group consisting of performance enhance on/off, phase to phase delay, maximum request to data delay, minimum request to response delay, and maximum outstanding requests; and

means for configuring at a point in time selected from the group consisting of at time of fabrication of the first or second bridge agent, at a power up of the first or second bridge agent, at a reset of the first or second bridge agent, at an initialization prior to normal operation of the first or second bridge agent, and dynamically during normal operation of the first or second bridge agent.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein means for configuring the first bridge agent and the second bridge agent further comprises means for configuring the second bridge agent to arbitrate for the second interconnect before a data transfer from the first bridge agent is complete.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein means for configuring the first bridge agent and the second bridge agent further comprises means for configuring the first bridge agent to arbitrate for the first interconnect before a data transfer from the second bridge agent is complete.

18. A machine-readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon, which, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to generate a representation of the apparatus of claim 15.

19. A method comprising:

receiving a first configuration information;

configuring a first bridge agent within a device with the first configuration information;

receiving a second configuration information;

wherein the configuration information is selected from the group consisting of performance enhancement on or off at an agent, delay cycle time between two consecutive phases of a transaction, maximum cycle time between receiving a command and write data of a write request, minimum cycle time between a request acceptance to receiving a response to the request, and a maximum number of outstanding requests;

configuring a second bridge agent within a device with the second configuration information;

wherein configuring is at a point in time selected from the group consisting of at time of fabrication of the bridge, at a power up of the bridge, at a reset of the bridge, at an initialization prior to normal operation of the bridge, and dynamically during normal operation of the bridge;

coupling the first bridge agent for communication to a first interconnect and an interface;

coupling the second bridge agent for communication to a second interconnect and the interface, wherein the interface comprises a bridge between the first bridge agent and the second bridge agent within the device;

transferring data from the first interconnect to the first bridge agent;

sending the data from the first bridge agent to the interface;

receiving the data from the interface into the second bridge agent; and

arbitrating for the second interconnect in advance of the data being received by the second bridge agent.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein a timing for the arbitration for the second interconnect is based on configuration information transferred to the second bridge agent.

21. A processing system comprising a processor, which when executing a set of instructions performs the method of claim 19.

22. A machine-readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions, which when executed performs the method of claim 19.