Method and circuit for reducing SATA transmission data errors by adjusting the period of sending ALIGN primitives

• US 20050268199A1
• Filed: 01/24/2005
• Published: 12/01/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: MediaTek, Inc.
• Original Assignee: MediaTek, Inc.
• Inventors: Liu, Chuan, Tseng, Pao-Ching, Tsai, Shu-Fang
• Granted Patent: US 7,406,652 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/746
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0001 Systems modifying transmission characteristics according to link quality, e.g. power backoff adaptive data allocation for multicarrier modulation H04L5/0044; controlling transmission power for radio systems H04W52/04
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 25/49 using code conversion at the transmitter; using predistortion; using insertion of idle bits for obtaining a desired frequency spectrum; using three or more amplitude levels ; Baseband coding techniques specific to data transmission systems spectral shaping H04L25/03828

Abstract

A method and circuit for reducing SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) transmission data errors by adjusting the period of sending two consecutive ALIGN Primitives. The method reads a counting value of an 8b/10b coding error counter at a predetermined period and adjusts the period of sending two consecutive ALIGN Primitives according to the counting value. Because the system dynamically adjusts the period of sending two consecutive ALIGN Primitives according to the channel condition, the SATA transmission data errors can be reduced.

Claims

1. A method for reducing SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) transmission data errors by adjusting the period of sending ALIGN Primitives, the method comprising the steps of:

reading an error counting value at a predetermined period;

sending two consecutive ALIGN Primitives every D0 double words when the error counting value is 0; and

sending two consecutive ALIGN Primitives every D1 double words when the error counting value is greater than 0, wherein D1 is smaller than D0.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the error counting value is generated by counting 8b/10b coding errors.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the error counting value is generated according to the noise level on the channel.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein D0 is 256.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the steps of initializing the physical layer and rebuilding the connection when the error counting value is greater than a threshold value.

6. A method for reducing SATA transmission data errors by adjusting the period of sending ALIGN Primitives, the method comprising the steps of:

reading an error counting value at a predetermined period;

sending two consecutive ALIGN Primitives every D0 double words when the error counting value is 0;

sending two consecutive ALIGN Primitives every D1 double words when the error counting value is greater than 0 and smaller than or equal to a first threshold value; and

sending two consecutive ALIGN Primitives every D2 double words when the error counting value is greater than the first threshold value, wherein D1 is smaller than D0 and D2 is smaller than D1.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the error counting value is generated by an counting 8b/10b coding errors.

8. The method according to claim 6, wherein the error counting value is generated according to the noise level on the channel.

9. The method according to claim 6, wherein D0 is 256.

10. The method according to claim 6, further comprising the steps of initializing the physical layer and rebuilding the connection when the error counting value is greater than a second threshold value.

11. A method for reducing SATA transmission data errors by adjusting the period of sending ALIGN Primitives, the method comprising the steps of:

reading an error counting value at a predetermined period;

sending two consecutive ALIGN Primitives every D0 double words when the error counting value is 0;

sending two consecutive ALIGN Primitives every D1 double words when the error counting value is greater than 0 and smaller than or equal to a first threshold value;

sending two consecutive ALIGN Primitives every D2 double words when the error counting value is greater than the first threshold value and smaller than or equal to a second threshold value; and

sending two consecutive ALIGN Primitives every D3 double words when the error counting value is greater than the second threshold value, wherein D1 is smaller than D0, D2 is smaller than D1, and D3 is smaller than D2.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the error counting value is generated by counting 8b/10b coding errors.

13. The method according to claim 11, wherein the error counting value is generated according to the noise level on the channel.

14. The method according to claim 11, wherein D0 is 256.

15. The method according to claim 11, further comprising the steps of initializing the physical layer and rebuilding the connection when the error counting value is greater than a third threshold value.

16. A circuit for reducing SATA transmission data errors by adjusting the period of sending ALIGN Primitives, the circuit comprising:

an error detector for detecting illegitimate coding errors caused by noise, and generating a detection signal;

a logic control unit for receiving the detection signal and generating a control value according to the detection signal; and

an ALIGN Primitive period adjusting unit for generating a period control signal according to the control value so as to adjust the period for sending ALIGN Primitives.

17. The circuit according to claim 16, wherein when the error detector detects the illegitimate coding errors caused by the noise on the signal line, a pulse is generated in the detection signal to indicate data error.

18. The circuit according to claim 17, wherein the logic control unit counts the number of pulses of the detection signal and outputs a counting value as the control value.

19. The circuit according to claim 18, wherein the logic control unit outputs the counting value at a default period and then recounts.

20. The circuit according to claim 16, wherein the period of two consecutive ALIGN Primitives is 256 double words when the control value is 0.

21. The circuit according to claim 16, wherein the period of two consecutive ALIGN Primitives is 128 double words when the control value ranges from 1 to a first threshold value.

22. The circuit according to claim 21, wherein the period of two consecutive ALIGN Primitives is 8 double words when the control value ranges from the first threshold value to a second threshold value.

23. The circuit according to claim 16, wherein when the control value exceeds a maximum threshold value, the ALIGN Primitive period adjusting unit enables an initialization control signal so as to initialize the physical layer and to rebuild the connection.

24. A method for reducing SATA transmission data errors by adjusting the period of sending ALIGN Primitives, the method comprising the steps of:

reading an error counting value at a predetermined period;

sending two consecutive ALIGN Primitives every D0 double words when the error counting value is smaller than or equal to a first threshold value; and

initializing the physical layer and rebuilding the connection when the error counting value is greater than the first threshold value.

25. The method according to claim 24, wherein the error counting value is generated according to the noise level on the channel.

26. The method according to claim 24, wherein the error counting value is generated by an 8b/10b coding error counter.