Employing three parameter buffer access in connection with SMBus notifications

• US 7,418,714 B2
• Filed: 02/26/2002
• Issued: 08/26/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 02/26/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Oshins, Jacob, Tsang, Michael H., Pierce, Tony, Hills, Michael P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen; Van H.
• Application Number:
  US10/083,098
• Publication Number:
  US 20030163599A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,373 Days
• Field of Search: 719/321, 719/322, 719/318, 719/327, 713/300, 713/340, 710/100
• US Class Current: 719/318
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3203 Power management, i.e. event-based initiation of a power-saving mode
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/329 by task scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/102 where the programme performs an interfacing function, e.g. device driver G06F13/105 takes precedence; scheduling within device drivers G06F9/52; contention policies within device drivers G06F9/4881
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/542 Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A system that facilitates access to an SMBus is provided. The system includes a notification component that identifies an SMBus event and a driver that dispatches the SMBus event to an AML event handler. A method for SMBus event handling is also provided. The method includes receiving an SMBus event notification, identifying the SMBus event notification, dispatching the SMBus event notification to an AML event handler, and handling the SMBus event notification in AML code. Two new ACPI opcodes, which are a three parameter operation region read and a three parameter operation region write can be utilized in accordance with the present invention.

Claims

1. A system executing one or more processors that facilitates AML (ACPI Machine Language) access to an SMBus (System Management Bus), comprising the following components:

an AML event handler component embodied on a computer readable storage medium; and

,

a driver component embodied on the computer readable storage medium that identifies an SMBus event and dispatches the SMBus event to the AML event handler, where the AML event handler employs at least one of a three parameter buffer access read method to read data from an operation region associated with the SMBus or a three parameter buffer access write method to write data to an operation region associated with the SMBus, where a first parameter of the three parameter buffer access read method provides an initial data to a computer component providing access to the operation region associated with the SMBus and where a second parameter of the three parameter buffer access read method is a reference to the operation region associated with the SMBus from which the data will be read.

2. The system of claim 1, where the driver receives a status and a data associated with the SMBus event from the SMBus.

3. The system of claim 1, where the driver employs a_Qxx control method to dispatch the SMBus event to the AML event handler.

4. The system of claim 3, where at least one AML event handler entry point is accessed by the_Qxx control method.

5. The system of claim 1, where a third parameter of the three parameter buffer access read method holds the data read from the operation region identified by the second parameter.

6. The system of claim 1, where a third parameter of the three parameter buffer access read method is a reference to a location to store the data read from the operation region identified by the second parameter.

7. The system of claim 1, where a first parameter of the three parameter buffer access write method is the data to be written to the operation region associated with the SMBus.

8. The system of claim 1, where a first parameter of the three parameter buffer access write method is a reference to the data to be written to the operation region associated with the SMBus.

9. The system of claim 1, where a second parameter of the three parameter buffer access write method is a reference to the operation region associated with the SMBus to which the data will be written.

10. The system of claim 1, where a third parameter of the three parameter buffer access write method is a status code returned by a computer component providing access to the operation region associated with the SMBus.

11. A system executing components on one or more processors that facilitate access to an SMBus (System Management Bus), comprising:

a computer executable identifier embodied on a computer readable storage medium that identifies an SMBus event notification at a driver; and

a computer executable dispatcher in the driver embodied on the computer readable storage medium that directly dispatches the SMBus event notification to a computer executable AML (ACPI Machine Language) event handler, where the AML event handler employs at least one of a three parameter buffer access read method to read data from an operation region associated with the SMBus or a three parameter buffer access write method to write data to an operation region associated with the SMBus, where a first parameter of the three parameter buffer access read method provides an initial data to a computer component providing access to the operation region associated with the SMBus and where a second parameter of the three parameter buffer access read method is a reference to the operation region associated with the SMBus from which the data will be read.

12. A computer implemented method for SMBus (System Management Bus) event handling, the method comprising the following computer executable acts:

receiving an SMBus event notification at a driver;

identifying the SMBus event notification;

dispatching the SMBus event notification to an AML (ACPI Machine Language) event handler, where the AML event handler employs at least one of a three parameter buffer access read method to read data from an operation region associated with an SMBus or a three parameter buffer access write method to write data to an operation region associated with the SMBus, where a first parameter of the three parameter buffer access read method provides an initial data to a computer component providing access to the operation region associated with the SMBus and where a second parameter of the three parameter buffer access read method is a reference to the operation region associated with the SMBus from which the data will be read; and

handling the SMBus event notification in AML code.

13. The method of claim 12, where the SMBus event notification is identified by examining at least one of a data and a status associated with the SMBus event notification.

14. The method of claim 12, where dispatching the SMBus event notification comprises indexing to a_Qxx control method via a registered AML event handler.

15. The method of claim 12, where handling the SMBus event notification in AML code comprises reading an operation region associated with the SMBus that generated the SMBus notification.

16. The method of claim 15, where the operation region is accessed by a three parameter read, where a first parameter holds an initial data, a second parameter holds a reference to the operation region to be accessed and a third parameter holds data read from the operation region.

17. The method of claim 15, where the operation region is accessed by a three parameter read, where a first parameter holds an initial data, a second parameter holds a reference to the operation region to be accessed and a third parameter holds a reference to data read from the operation region.

18. The method of claim 12, where handling the SMBus event notification in AML code comprises writing an operation region associated with the SMBus that generated the SMBus notification.

19. The method of claim 18, where the operation region is written by a three parameter write, where a first parameter holds a data to be written to the operation region, a second parameter holds a reference to the operation region and a third parameter holds a returned status call.

20. The method of claim 18, where the operation region is written by a three parameter write, where a first parameter holds a reference to a data to be written to the operation region, a second parameter holds a reference to the operation region and a third parameter holds a returned status call.

21. A computer system storing computer instructions operable to perform the method of claim 12.

22. A computer executable system for SMBus (System Management Bus) event handling, comprising:

means embodied on a computer readable storage medium for receiving an SMBus notification via a_Qxx control method;

means embodied on the computer readable storage medium for locating an AML (ACPI Machine Language) code event handler associated with the SMBus notification; and

means embodied on the computer readable storage medium for the_Qxx control method to dispatch the SMB notification to the AML code event handler associated with the SMBus notification, where the AML code event handler employs at least one of a three parameter buffer access read method to read data from an operation region associated with an SMBus or a three parameter buffer access write method to write data to an operation region associated with the SMBus, where a first parameter of the three parameter buffer access read method provides an initial data to a computer component providing access to the operation region associated with the SMBus and where a second parameter of the three parameter buffer access read method is a reference to the operation region associated with the SMBus from which the data will be read.

23. The system of claim 22, comprising means for the AML code event handler to access a data object employed to communicate with the SMBus.