Bus independent platform for sensor hub peripherals to provide coalescing of multiple reports

• US 9,430,414 B2
• Filed: 03/16/2013
• Issued: 08/30/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/16/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Trethewey, James
• Primary Examiner(s): PHAN, RAYMOND NGAN
• Application Number:
  US13/844,826
• Publication Number:
  US 20140281109A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,263 Days
• Field of Search: 710104-110, 710306-315
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/126 and has means for transferring I/O instructions and statuses between control unit and main processor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/385 for adaptation of a particular data processing system to different peripheral devices

Abstract

A disclosed computer system includes a processor, an I/O hub including a first host bus interface to communicate via a first transport bus, and a sensor hub. The sensor hub includes a first transport bus interface and a sensor hub microcontroller. The sensor hub microcontroller includes a peripheral stack that includes a second transport bus driver to communicate with a peripheral device via a second transport bus. The peripheral device may comply with a device specification such as the human interface device (HID) standard. The peripheral stack further includes a second transport bus plugin to adapt bus-specific operations to generic operations for the device specification, a device class driver to communicate bus-independent peripheral reports based on the generic operations, and a peripheral management module to coalesce multiple peripheral reports into a single instance visible to the I/O hub via the first transport bus interface and the first host bus interface.

Claims

1. A computer system, comprising:

a processor;

an I/O hub including a first host bus interface to communicate via a first transport bus; and

a sensor hub including;

a first transport bus interface to communicate with the I/O hub via the first transport bus; and

a sensor hub microcontroller including;

a second transport bus driver to communicate with a peripheral device via a second transport bus, wherein the peripheral device complies with a device specification;

a second transport bus plugin to adapt bus-specific operations to generic operations for the device specification;

a device class driver to communicate bus-independent peripheral reports based on the generic operations; and

a peripheral management module to coalesce multiple peripheral reports into a single instance visible to the I/O hub via the first transport bus interface and the first host bus interface.

2. The computer system of claim 1, further comprising:

the peripheral device, wherein the peripheral device is communicatively coupled to the sensor hub microcontroller via the second transport bus.

3. The computer system of claim 2, wherein the peripheral device complies with a human interface device (HID) specification.

4. The computer system of claim 3, wherein the peripheral device communicates a general purpose I/O interrupt to the sensor hub microcontroller.

5. The computer system of claim 3, wherein the peripheral device is selected from the group of devices consisting of:

a touchscreen device, a touchpad device, a keyboard device, a compass, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a global positioning system (GPS) device, and an ambient light sensor.

6. The computer system of claim 5, wherein:

the first transport bus is selected from a plurality of transport buses consisting of;

a USB-compliant transport bus, an SPI-compliant transport bus, a Bluetooth-compliant transport bus, and a PCIe-compliant transport bus.

7. The computer system of claim 6, wherein:

the second transport bus comprises an I2C-compliant transport bus.

8. A sensor hub, comprising:

a first transport bus interface to communicate with an I/O hub via a first transport bus; and

a sensor hub microcontroller including;

a second transport bus driver to communicate with a peripheral device via a second transport bus, wherein the peripheral device complies with a device specification;

a second transport bus plugin to adapt bus-specific operations to generic operations for the device specification;

a device class driver to communicate bus-independent peripheral reports based on the generic operations; and

a peripheral management module to coalesce multiple peripheral reports into a single instance visible to the I/O hub via the first transport bus interface and the first host bus interface.

9. The sensor hub of claim 8, further comprising:

the peripheral device, wherein the peripheral device is communicatively coupled to the sensor hub microcontroller via the second transport bus.

10. The sensor hub of claim 9, wherein the peripheral device complies with a human interface device (HID) specification.

11. The sensor hub of claim 10, wherein the peripheral device communicates a general purpose I/O interrupt to the sensor hub microcontroller.

12. The sensor hub of claim 10, wherein the peripheral device is selected from the group of devices consisting of:

a touchscreen device, a touchpad device, a keyboard device, a compass, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a global positioning system (GPS) device, and an ambient light sensor.

13. The sensor hub of claim 12, wherein:

the first transport bus is selected from a plurality of transport buses consisting of;

a USB-compliant transport bus, an SPI-compliant transport bus, a Bluetooth-compliant transport bus, and a PCIe-compliant transport bus.

14. The sensor hub of claim 13, wherein:

the second transport bus comprises an I2C-compliant transport bus.

15. The sensor hub of claim 14, further comprising an HID report descriptor, accessible to the peripheral manager module, for a virtual HID peripheral device.

16. A computer readable storage medium including processor executable program instructions, the program instructions comprising:

first transport bus interface instructions to communicate with an I/O hub via a first transport bus;

second transport bus driver instructions to communicate with a peripheral device via a second transport bus, wherein the peripheral device complies with a device specification;

second transport bus plugin instructions to adapt bus-specific operations to generic operations for the device specification;

device class driver instructions to communicate bus-independent peripheral reports based on the generic operations; and

peripheral management module instructions to coalesce multiple peripheral reports into a single instance visible to the I/O hub via the first transport bus interface and the first host bus interface.

17. The computer readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the peripheral device complies with a human interface device (HID) specification.

18. The computer readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the second transport bus comprises an I2C-compliant transport bus.

19. The computer readable storage medium of claim 18, further comprising:

general purpose I/O interrupt instructions to process a general purpose interrupt from the peripheral device.

20. The computer readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the first transport bus is selected from a plurality of transport buses consisting of:

a USB-compliant transport bus, an SPI-compliant transport bus, a Bluetooth-compliant transport bus, and a PCIe-compliant transport bus.