Unified input/output controller for integrated wireless devices

• US 9,483,429 B2
• Filed: 07/14/2008
• Issued: 11/01/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 07/14/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Texas Instruments, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Texas Instruments, Inc.
• Inventors: Paycher, Alon, Dekel, Eli, Baum, Avi
• Primary Examiner(s): Unelus, Ernest
• Application Number:
  US12/172,746
• Publication Number:
  US 20100011128A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,032 Days
• Field of Search: 710/106, 710/63, 710/64
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 13/385 for adaptation of a particular data processing system to different peripheral devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2213/0038 System on Chip
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2213/3804 Memory card connected to a computer port directly or by means of a reader/writer
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2213/3814 Wireless link with a computer system port
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A novel and useful apparatus for and method of a unified IO controller well suited for use in integrated wireless devices incorporating multiple functions. The unified IO controller is operative to provide a single host interface PHY/MAC that is shared among all functions on the controller. The invention provides an IO protocol handler comprising common and unified logic that provides IO access to any function on the device. The common and unified IO PHY interface logic is shared between multiple functions within the same device (e.g., WLAN, GPS, Bluetooth, etc.). This implementation provides optimized hardware partitioning in which common SDIO logic serves multiple functions thereby eliminating the need to provide a protocol handler for each function, reducing pin count, power consumption and die size, since the SDIO protocol handling is implemented in a shared module.

Claims

1. A multifunction Input/Output (I/O) device, comprising:

a plurality of I/O function modules;

a host physical interface; and

a shared interface coupled to said host physical interface and to said plurality of function modules, the shared interface comprising;

a common configuration function comprising a register set for storing operational parameters common to all of the plurality of I/O function modules; and

a physical layer block operative to decode host read/write requests received at said host physical interface, and to route data associated with the received read/write request between a selected one of the plurality of I/O function modules and the host physical interface.

2. The device according to claim 1, wherein said physical layer block is operative to route data associated with a received read/write request for a single selected I/O function module only to the single selected I/O function module.

3. The device according to claim 1, wherein said plurality of I/O function modules comprises one or more functions selected from the group consisting of Bluetooth, Global Positioning System (GPS), Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) and Frequency Modulation (FM) radio.

4. The device according to claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of I/O function modules comprises:

an attachment module comprising one or more configuration registers and one or more synchronization buffers; and

logic circuitry for performing the I/O function of the I/O function module.

5. The device according to claim 1, further comprising:

a bus coupled between the physical layer block and each of the plurality of I/O function modules.

6. The device according to claim 5, wherein said bus comprises an Open Core Protocol compatible bus.

7. A Secure Digital Input Output (SDIO) multifunction device, comprising:

a plurality of function modules;

a host physical interface; and

a shared SDIO interface coupled to said host physical interface and to said plurality of function modules, the shared SDIO interface comprising;

a common configuration function comprising a register set for storing operational parameters common to all of the plurality of function modules; and

a physical layer block operative to decode host read/write requests corresponding to transactions according to the SDIO standard received at said host physical interface, and to route data associated with the received read/write requests between a selected one of the plurality of function modules and the host physical interface.

8. The device according to claim 7, wherein said physical layer block is operative to route data associated with a received host read/write request addressed to a single function module only to the addressed single function module.

9. The device according to claim 7, wherein said plurality of function modules comprises one or more functions selected from the group consisting of Bluetooth, Global Positioning System (GPS), Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) and Frequency Modulation (FM) radio.

10. The device according to claim 7, wherein each of the plurality of function modules comprises:

an attachment module comprising one or more configuration registers and one or more synchronization buffers; and

logic circuitry for performing the I/O function of the I/O function module.

11. The device according to claim 7, further comprising:

a bus coupled between the physical layer block and each of the plurality of function modules.

12. The device according to claim 11, wherein said bus comprises an Open Core Protocol compatible bus.