Method, apparatus, and system for enabling platform power states

• US 9,537,665 B2
• Filed: 08/20/2013
• Issued: 01/03/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/05/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Bilgin, Selim, Looi, Lily P., Swanson, Jeffrey C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Rahman, Fahmida
• Application Number:
  US13/971,729
• Publication Number:
  US 20130336336A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,232 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3203 Power management, i.e. event-based initiation of a power-saving mode
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/10 Current supply arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/12 Arrangements for remote connection or disconnection of substations or of equipment thereof

Abstract

To address the need for power management, the following facilitates maintaining power states in an efficient manner based at least in part on managing packets at different layers of an input/output interface that supports multiple layers. One specific example prevents a destructive event for link layer control logic because packets and information might have been lost or dropped due to a hang condition and/or a dropped packet. In yet another example of power management, this facilitates a low power platform state by preventing the loss of packets or data upon exiting a platform power state upon initiation of a link reset condition by preventing certain types of packets from reaching link layer controller logic.

Claims

1. A method for managing an interface of a first agent, the method comprising:

determining that a second agent supports a mode of the first agent selective allowance of transmission of a packet of a first packet type and prevention of transmission of a packet of a second packet type from the first agent to the second agent, wherein determining includes handshaking between the first and second agent to determine, by the first agent, that the second agent supports the mode of the first agent selective allowance of transmission of a packet of the first packet type and prevention of transmission of a packet of the second packet type from the first agent to the second agent;

prior to entry into a low power state, the first agent enabling the selective allowance to transmit the first packet type and prevention of transmission of the second packet type by the first agent to the second agent; and

upon exit from the low power state, the first agent enabling allowance of transmission from the first agent of packets of both the first and second packet types, wherein exiting includes performing a link layer reset.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the interface supports a link layer and a physical layer.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first packet types that are selectively allowed could not result in a destructive or hang condition.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the second packet types that are prevented are protocol layer packets that are used to initiate transactions or respond to existing transactions of a quick path interconnect (QPI) protocol layer used by the interface.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and the second packet types are identifiable by at least one field of their packets.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second agents are caching processors or caching aware memory controller;

and wherein the first and second agents are communicating with each other using a high speed input/output (IO) fabric.

7. An interface for a first agent comprising:

a physical layer of the interface of the first agent to handshake between the first agent and a second agent to determine that the second agent supports the mode of the first agent selective allowance of transmission of a packet of a first packet type and prevention of transmission of a packet of a second packet type from the first agent to the second agent when the first agent is in a low power state;

the physical layer to transmit an enable signal to the second agent, the enable signal to request to enter a mode of operation of the first agent that is to allow transmission of a first packet type and prevent transmission of a second packet type to be transmitted from the first agent to the second agent when in the low power state; and

a control circuit to disable the mode of operation upon a certain condition to facilitate normal mode of operation, wherein disabling includes performing a link layer reset.

8. The interface of claim 7, wherein the certain condition is a special packet.

9. The interface of claim 7, wherein the certain condition is a link initialization.

10. The interface of claim 7, wherein the interface supports a link layer and a physical layer.

11. The interface of claim 7, wherein the first packet types of packets that are allowed could not result in a destructive or hang condition.

12. The interface of claim 7, wherein the packets of the second packet type are protocol layer packets that are used to initiate transactions or respond to existing transactions of a quick path interconnect (QPI) protocol layer used by the interface.

13. The interface of claim 7, wherein the first and second agents are caching processors or caching aware memory controller;

wherein the first and second agents are communicating with each other using a high speed input/output (IO) fabric; and

wherein the interface to transmit the enable signal is an interface of the first agent.

14. The interface of claim 7, wherein the first and the second packet types are identifiable by at least one field of the packet.

15. An apparatus comprising:

a physical layer of an interface of a first agent to handshake between the first agent and a second agent to determine that the second agent supports a mode of the first agent selective allowance of transmission of a packet of a first packet type and prevention of transmission of a packet of a second packet type from the first agent to the second agent when the first agent is in a low power state;

the physical layer to transmit an enable signal from the first agent to the second agent, the enable signal to request to enter the mode of operation of the first agent that is to allow transmission of the first packet type and prevent transmission of the second packet type to be transmitted from the first agent to the second agent when in the low power state; and

a control circuit to disable the mode of operation upon a certain condition to facilitate normal mode of operation, wherein disabling includes performing a link layer reset.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the certain condition is a special packet.

17. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the certain condition is a link initialization.

18. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the interface supports a link layer and a physical layer.

19. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the first and second agents are caching processors or caching aware memory controller;

wherein the first and second agents are communicating with each other using a high speed input/output (IO) fabric; and

wherein the interface to transmit the enable signal is an interface of the first agent.

20. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the first and the second packet types are identifiable by at least one field of the packet.

21. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the second packet type are protocol layer packets that are used to initiate transactions or respond to existing transactions of a quick path interconnect (QPI) protocol layer used by the interface.

22. An interface for a first agent comprising:

a physical layer of the interface to transmit an enable signal to a second agent, the enable signal to request to enter a mode of operation of the first agent that is to allow a first packet type and prevent a second packet type to be transmitted from the first agent to the second agent when the first agent is in a low power state;

a control circuit to disable the mode of operation upon a certain condition to facilitate normal mode of operation, wherein disabling includes performing a link layer reset; and

a credit manager circuit to manipulate credits to allow transmission of packets of the first packet type of packet when in the low power state.

23. The interface of claim 22, wherein the first and second agents are caching processors or caching aware memory controller;

wherein the first and second agents are communicating with each other using a high speed input/output (IO) fabric; and

wherein the interface to transmit the enable signal is an interface of the first agent.

24. An apparatus comprising:

a physical layer of an interface of a first agent to transmit an enable signal to a second agent, the enable signal to request to enter a mode of operation of the first agent that is to allow a first packet type and prevent a second packet type to be transmitted from the first agent to the second agent when the first agent is in a low power state;

a control circuit to disable the mode of operation upon a certain condition to facilitate normal mode of operation, wherein disabling includes performing a link layer reset; and

a credit manager circuit to manipulate credits to allow transmission of the first packet types of packets when in the low power state.

25. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the first and second agents are caching processors or caching aware memory controller;

wherein the first and second agents are communicating with each other using a high speed input/output (IO) fabric; and

wherein the interface to transmit the enable signal is an interface of the first agent.

26. A method for managing an interface of a first agent, the method comprising:

determining that a second agent supports a mode of the first agent of selective allowance of transmission of a packet of a first packet type and prevention of transmission of a packet of a second packet type from the first agent to the second agent;

prior to entry into a low power state, the first agent enabling the selective allowance to transmit the first packet type and prevention of the transmission of the second packet type by the first agent to the second agent;

manipulating credits using a credit manager to allow transmission of the first packet type of packets when in the low power state; and

upon exit from the low power state, the first agent enabling allowance of transmission from the first agent of packets of both the first and second packet types.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the first and second agents are caching processors or caching aware memory controller;

wherein the first and second agents are communicating with each other using a high speed input/output (IO) fabric; and

wherein determining is performed by the first agent.