MULTIPLE CORE SYSTEM

• US 20090297146A1
• Filed: 05/30/2008
• Published: 12/03/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NXP USA, Inc. (NXP Semiconductors NV)
• Original Assignee: Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. (NXP Semiconductors NV)
• Inventors: Pelley, Perry H. III, Pessoa, Lucio F. C.
• Granted Patent: US 8,032,030 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 398/45
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/14 Backbone network devices
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

An integrated circuit has a group of cores that communicate with a packet switch using carrierless ultra wideband (UWB) radio frequency (RF) signaling. The packet switch communicates outside the integrated circuit using optical signaling. The carrierless UWB provides for high frequency communication and processing without requiring additional space for interconnects. No special paths are necessary because the signals used by the cores for communicating with the packet switch are RF signals therefore they can be broadcast by the packet switch and be received by a plurality of cores. No conductor line or waveguide is required. Because the signals are carrierless, they can be transmitted with low power. With multiple cores providing information to the switch, the total information being received may exceed the capacity of the RF bandwidth so an external optical interface is provided to multiplex information provided via carrierless UWB RF signals by a plurality of cores.

Claims

1. An integrated circuit comprising:

a packet switch having an optical transceiver, a first carrierless ultra wideband (UWB) radio frequency (RF) transceiver, and a packet processor which communicates data packets between the optical transceiver and the first carrierless UWB RF transceiver; and

a first module which communicates via carrierless UWB RF signaling with the first carrierless UWB RF transceiver.

2. The integrated circuit of claim 1, wherein the packet processor translates between carrierless UWB RF data packets and optical data packets.

3. The integrated circuit of claim 1, wherein the packet switch further includes a second carrierless UWB RF transceiver, the integrated circuit further comprising:

a second module which communicates via carrierless UWB RF signaling with the second carrierless UWB RF transceiver.

4. The integrated circuit of claim 3, wherein the packet switch receives, via the optical transceiver, a plurality of optical data packets, translates the plurality of optical data packets into a plurality of carrierless UWB RF data packets, and distributes the plurality of carrierless UWB RF data packets between the first and second carrierless UWB RF transceivers.

5. The integrated circuit of claim 3, wherein the packet switch receives, via the first and second carrierless UWB RF transceivers, a plurality of carrierless UWB RF data packets, translates the plurality of carrierless UWB RF data packets into optical data packets and multiplexes the plurality of optical data packets via the optical transceiver.

6. The integrated circuit of claim 3, wherein each of the first UWB RF transceiver and the second UWB RF transceiver communicates with an external test probe having at least one antenna.

7. The integrated circuit of claim 1, wherein the first UWB RF transceiver communicates with an external test probe having at least one antenna.

8. The integrated circuit of claim 1, wherein the packet switch further comprises a transceiver control unit coupled to the optical transceiver and the first carrierless UWB RF transceiver to configure the optical transceiver and the first carrierless UWB RF transceiver.

9. The integrated circuit of claim 1, wherein the first module comprises a processor core.

10. The integrated circuit of claim 1, wherein the optical transceiver communicates with an external tester.

11. An integrated circuit, comprising:

a packet switch having an optical transceiver, a plurality of carrierless ultra wideband (UWB) radio frequency (RF) transceivers, and a packet processor which translates carrierless UWB RF data packets received via the plurality of carrierless UWB RF transceivers to optical data packets to be output by the optical transceiver and translates optical data packets received via the optical transceiver to carrierless UWB RF data packets to be output by one or more of the plurality of carrierless UWB RF transceivers; and

a plurality of processor cores, wherein each processor core communicates carrierless UWB RF data packets with a corresponding one of the plurality of carrierless UWB RF transceivers.

12. The integrated circuit of claim 11, wherein one or more of the plurality of processor cores communicates carrierless UWB RF data packets with one or more other processor cores of the plurality of processor cores.

13. The integrated circuit of claim 11, wherein one or more of the plurality of processor cores communicates carrierless UWB RF data packets directly with an external test probe having at least one antenna.

14. The integrated circuit of claim 11, wherein the packet switch distributes the received and translated optical data packets among at least a subset of the plurality of carrierless UWB RF transceivers.

15. The integrated circuit of claim 11, wherein the packet switch further comprises a transceiver control unit coupled to the optical transceiver and each of the plurality of carrierless UWB RF transceivers to configure the optical transceiver and the plurality of carrierless UWB RF transceivers.

16. A method comprising:

providing, by a first module located on an integrated circuit, a first plurality of carrierless UWB RF data packets to a first carrierless UWB RF transceiver;

translating, by a packet processor located on the integrated circuit and coupled to the first carrierless UWB RF transceiver, the first plurality of carrierless UWB RF data packets into a first plurality of optical data packets; and

communicating the first plurality of optical data packets external to the integrated circuit via an optical transceiver coupled to the packet processor.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

receiving, by the optical transceiver, a second plurality of optical data packets;

translating, by the packet processor, the second plurality of optical data packets into a second plurality of carrierless UWB RF data packets; and

providing, via the first carrierless UWB RF transceiver, at least a portion of the second plurality of carrierless UWB RF data packets to the first module.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

providing, by a second module located on the integrated circuit, a second plurality of carrierless UWB RF data packets to a second carrierless UWB transceiver;

translating, by the packet processor, the second plurality of carrierless UWB RF data packets into a second plurality of optical data packets; and

communicating the second plurality of optical data packets external to the integrated circuit via the optical transceiver.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

communicating a third plurality of carrierless UWB RF data packets between the first module and the second module.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

communicating a second plurality of carrierless UWB RF data packets between the first carrierless UWB RF transceiver and an external test probe having at least one antenna.