Abstract: A peripheral device having a protocol communication chip is provided. The protocol communication chip is configured to manage communication between the peripheral device and a host computer over a serial bus. The protocol communication chip includes a bus interface and a link control and status register. The link control status register is provided for setting link parameters, and is configured to be either read or written by the host computer by the transmission of a 16 byte packet having a DataType 0. The 16 byte packet is an OUTDATA packet for control and an INSTART packet for status. The peripheral device is configured to receive device command information from the host computer using a DataType 1 packet, and host computer being configured to access data resident on the peripheral devices using a DataType 2 packet.

Abstract: A host controller for enabling communication between a host computer and a device over a serial link is provided. The host controller includes a bus interface circuit that is connected to a system bus of the host computer. The host controller further includes host controller registers to enable code configuration of the host controller for operation, initialize the device, and send commands to the device. A packet generator/decoder circuit is also provided for generating poll packets to be sent to the device and for sending and receiving packets to or from the device. The host controller also has a serializer/deserializer for converting parallel data received from the bus interface circuit and to be sent over the serial link to the device into serial data and converting serial data received from the serial link to parallel data to be sent to the bus interface circuit and to the host computer.

Abstract: A method for communicating data and control from a host computer to a device is provided. The method includes generating a packet at the host computer and transmitting the packet to the device. The device responding to the packet with a handshake, and the handshake includes one of an ACK, a NACK, and an ALERT. The ACK is indicative that the packet was received without errors and a next packet in a sequence of packets can be sent to the device, the NACK is indicative that the packet was received without errors but a re-transmission should be attempted, and the ALERT is indicative of an error condition at the device and a re-transmission should not be attempted.

Abstract: A method and system are provided for determining maximum data throughput between a host adapter and one or more target devices coupled to the host adapter through a bus. A first set of device identifying data is obtained from a target device over the bus. Then, a maximum data throughput rate is negotiated between the host adapter and the target device over the bus. Next, a second set of device identifying data is obtained from the target device over the bus at the negotiated maximum data throughput rate. Read and write tests are performed to determine the maximum data throughput rate. When the first and second sets of device identifying data are identical, the host adapter and the target device are operated over the bus at the negotiated maximum data throughput rate.