Method for providing asynchronous event notification in systems

• US 8,631,284 B2
• Filed: 04/30/2010
• Issued: 01/14/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sandisk Technologies Incorporated (Western Digital Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Western Digital Technologies Incorporated (Western Digital Corporation)
• Inventors: Stevens, Curtis E.
• Primary Examiner(s): TRUONG, LOAN
• Application Number:
  US12/772,101
• Publication Number:
  US 20110271151A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,355 Days
• Field of Search: 714/48, 714/50, 714/25, 709/224
• US Class Current: 714/48
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0745 in an input/output transactions management context input/output processing in general G06F13/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0763 by bit configuration check, e.g. of formats or tags
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3041 where the computing system component is an input/output interface interconnection of, or transfer of information or other signals between, memories, input/output devices or central processing units G06F13/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3058 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring environmental properties or parameters of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring of power, currents, temperature, humidity, position, vibrations thermal management in cooling arrangements of a computing system G06F1/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3093 Configuration details thereof, e.g. installation, enabling, spatial arrangement of the probes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/24 using interrupt G06F13/32 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/42 Bus transfer protocol, e.g. handshake; Synchronisation

Abstract

A method is provided for asynchronous notifications from a device to a host in systems without requiring hardware provision for asynchronous operations. In an embodiment of the invention, a system supports command queuing and a command is sent from a host to a device. The device receives the command and an associated tag, and accepts the command as valid. After accepting the command, the device begins monitoring for asynchronous events. If an asynchronous event is detected, the device provides notification of the event by sending a response and the associated tag to the host. In another embodiment of the invention, a method of asynchronous notification enables use of invalid tags. In a further embodiment of the invention, asynchronous notifications may be enabled by a host and operate without additional host commands.

Claims

1. A method for asynchronous event notification by a device in a system that supports command queuing, comprising:

receiving a command and a tag from a host;

accepting the command without scheduling the command for completion;

monitoring device operation for an asynchronous event, the asynchronous event comprising at least one of an encryption condition, a license condition and a right-to-use condition;

detecting an asynchronous event; and

providing notification of the asynchronous event by scheduling the command for completion and sending a response comprising the tag to the host.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the command comprises an asynchronous event notification request.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the asynchronous event notification request comprises a command code or command option bit.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the tag comprises one of an invalid, out of range and a duplicate tag.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the asynchronous event comprises exceeding at least one threshold related to at least one of:

temperature;

shock;

vibration;

power;

humidity;

altitude;

gas pressure;

error rate;

wear out; and

delayed completion thresholds.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving and providing comprise using, at least one of Universal Serial Bus, Serial Attached SCSI, AT Attachment and Serial ATA communication.

7. A method for asynchronous event notification by a device in a system that supports command queuing, comprising;

receiving a command and a tag from a host;

determining that the command comprises an asynchronous event notification request;

accepting the command without scheduling the command for completion;

monitoring device operation for at least one asynchronous us events, the asynchronous event comprising at least one of an encryption condition, a license condition and a right-to-use condition;

detecting the at least one asynchronous event; and

providing notification of the at least one asynchronous event by scheduling the command for completion and sending a response comprising the tag to the host.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the asynchronous event notification request comprises one of a command code and a command option hit.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein determining that the command comprises an asynchronous event notification request comprises determining that the command from the host comprises an invalid tag.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the invalid tag comprises an out of range or duplicate tag.

11. The method of claim 7 wherein the asynchronous event comprises exceeding at least one threshold related to at least one of:

temperature;

shock;

vibration;

power;

humidity;

altitude;

gas pressure;

error rate;

wear out; and

delayed completion thresholds.

12. The method of claim 7 wherein receiving and providing comprise using a communication protocol comprising at least one of Universal Serial Bus, AT Attachment, Serial Attached SCSI and Serial ATA communication.

13. A method for asynchronous notification from a device in a system that supports command queuing, comprising:

receiving a command from a host to enable unsolicited queue command responses;

assigning a tag for unsolicited queue command responses;

enabling unsolicited queue command responses in response to the command from the host;

monitoring device operation for asynchronous events;

detecting an asynchronous event; and

providing notification of the asynchronous event by sending a response comprising the assigned tag to the host,

wherein the unsolicited queue command responses are enabled persistently at least one of a reset operation and a loss of power.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the tag is received with the command.

15. The method of claim 13 wherein the tag is assigned by the device.

16. The method of claim 13 wherein the tag comprises at least one of an invalid tag, out of range tag and a duplicate tag.