Providing a consolidated sideband communication channel between devices

• US 8,549,205 B1
• Filed: 05/22/2012
• Issued: 10/01/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/22/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tahoe Research Limited (f/k/a Learndale Limited) (Vector Capital Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Harriman, David J., Wagh, Mahesh, Gough, Robert E., Jaussi, James E.
• Primary Examiner(s): MISIURA, BRIAN THOMAS
• Application Number:
  US13/477,304
• Time in Patent Office: 497 Days
• Field of Search: 710/110, 710/305, 710/313, 713/324, 370/254, 370/476
• US Class Current: 710/313
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3203 Power management, i.e. event-based initiation of a power-saving mode
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/20 for access to input/output bus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4027 using bus bridges G06F13/4022 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4295 using an embedded synchronisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 20/00 Machine learning
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

In an embodiment, the present invention includes a protocol stack having a transaction layer and a link layer. In addition a first physical (PHY) unit is coupled to the protocol stack to provide communication between a processor and a device coupled to the processor via a physical link, where the first PHY unit is of a low power communication protocol and includes a first physical unit circuit. In turn, a second PHY unit is coupled to the protocol stack to provide communication between the processor and the device via a sideband channel coupled between the multicore processor and the device separate from the physical link, where the second PHY unit includes a second physical unit circuit. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a protocol stack including a transaction layer and a link layer;

a first physical (PHY) unit coupled to the protocol stack to provide communication between the apparatus and a device coupled to the apparatus via a physical link, the first PHY unit of a low power communication protocol and including a first physical unit circuit; and

a second PHY unit coupled to the protocol stack to provide communication between the apparatus and the device via a sideband channel coupled between the apparatus and the device separate from the physical link, wherein the second PHY unit includes a second physical unit circuit.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a sideband manager to manage the sideband channel, wherein the sideband channel comprises a serial link.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the sideband manager is to aggregate a plurality of sideband signals into a packet for communication on the serial link.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the second PHY unit and the sideband channel are enabled when at least portions of the first PHY unit and the physical link are powered down.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the second PHY unit and the sideband channel are enabled when at least portions of the first PHY unit and the physical link suffer a failure.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the second PHY unit and the sideband channel are enabled when at least portions of the first PHY unit and the physical link are not trained.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the second PHY unit is to generate a single packet message including a plurality of fields, each associated with a sideband information parameter.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the first PHY unit is further configured to communicate the single packet message.

9. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the second PHY unit further includes:

a semantic layer to configure the single packet message including the plurality of fields; and

a policy layer to comprehend an action to be performed by the apparatus responsive to at least one sideband information parameter present in a sideband message received from the device.

10. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the plurality of fields includes a configuration field to indicate that the apparatus is ready to be configured and a ready field to indicate that the apparatus is ready to be trained.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the plurality of fields includes a start field to indicate that the apparatus is ready to start training.

12. A method comprising:

determining whether a peripheral device coupled to a host device includes a second physical (PHY) unit coupled to a sideband interconnect;

if so, communicating a sideband transaction to the peripheral device via a second PHY unit of the host device coupled to the sideband interconnect; and

otherwise communicating the sideband transaction to the peripheral device via a first PHY unit of the host device coupled to a physical link coupled to the peripheral device and separate from the sideband interconnect.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the sideband transaction includes a single packet message having a plurality of fields each associated with a sideband information parameter.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising communicating the single packet message via the sideband interconnect corresponding to a single differential wire pair.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein communicating the sideband transaction from the first PHY unit comprises an in-band communication.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein communicating the sideband transaction from the second PHY unit comprises an out-of-band communication.

17. The method of claim 12, further comprising communicating the sideband transaction at a first speed via the second PHY unit and at a second speed via the first PHY unit, wherein the first speed is higher than the second speed.

18. The method of claim 12, further comprising multiplexing the sideband transaction with at least one other sideband signal via the sideband interconnect.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the at least one other sideband signal is according to a Peripheral Component Interconnect Express™

(PCIe™

) communication protocol.

20. The method of claim 12, wherein communicating the sideband transaction via the first PHY unit comprises communicating one or more physical layer ordered sets from the first PHY unit of the host device to the peripheral device.

21. A system comprising:

a multicore processor including a plurality of cores and a protocol stack to enable communication between the multicore processor and a peripheral device via a physical link, the protocol stack including;

a transaction layer and a link layer;

a first physical (PHY) unit coupled to the protocol stack to provide communication between the multicore processor and a device coupled to the multicore processor via a physical link, the first PHY unit of a low power communication protocol and including a first physical unit circuit; and

a second PHY unit coupled to the protocol stack to provide communication between the multicore processor and the device via a sideband channel coupled between the multicore processor and the device separate from the physical link, wherein the second PHY unit includes a second physical unit circuit; and

the device coupled to the multicore processor.

22. The system of claim 21, further comprising a sideband manager to manage the sideband channel, wherein the sideband channel comprises a serial link and the sideband manager is to aggregate a plurality of sideband signals into a packet for communication on the serial link.

23. The system of claim 21, wherein the second PHY unit is to generate a single packet message including a plurality of fields, each associated with a sideband information parameter and the first PHY unit is further configured to communicate the single packet message.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the second PHY unit further includes:

a semantic layer to configure the single packet message including the plurality of fields; and

a policy layer to comprehend an action to be performed by the multicore processor responsive to at least one sideband information parameter present in a sideband message received from the device.