Abstract: A method and apparatus for enhancing/extending a serial point-to-point interconnect architecture, such as Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) is herein described. Temporal and locality caching hints and prefetching hints are provided to improve system wide caching and prefetching. Message codes for atomic operations to arbitrate ownership between system devices/resources are included to allow efficient access/ownership of shared data. Loose transaction ordering provided for while maintaining corresponding transaction priority to memory locations to ensure data integrity and efficient memory access. Active power sub-states and setting thereof is included to allow for more efficient power management. And, caching of device local memory in a host address space, as well as caching of system memory in a device local memory address space is provided for to improve bandwidth and latency for memory accesses.

Abstract: Techniques and mechanisms for providing access to a function with an input/output (I/O) device. In an embodiment, a main memory of a computer system including the I/O device stores a function-context data structure associating a function with a context for an access to the function. The I/O device stores a configuration for the I/O device to provide the function. In another embodiment, the software process exchanges information with the function-context data structure for the access to the function. The I/O device performs a synchronization of the function-context data structure and the configuration data structure with respect to one another, wherein the function-context data structure operates as a register level interface which interfaces the I/O device and the software process with one another.

Abstract: In an embodiment, an apparatus includes a counter to count between a start value and an end value according to a local clock signal, a first register to store an output of the counter, a mirror elastic buffer to store samples of the counter output received from the first register, where the mirror elastic buffer is to mirror an elastic buffer of a receiver circuit, and a resolution logic to receive a counter output sample from the mirror elastic buffer and a current counter value output from the counter, and to determine a transit latency for a data element to traverse the receiver circuit based at least in part on the counter output sample and the current counter value. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Abstract: In one embodiment, the present invention includes a host controller with transmit logic to prepare data into a packet for communication along an interconnect and to transmit the packet. This packet may include a preamble portion having a first predetermined value, a content portion including the data and having a plurality of symbols each including a start bit separate from the data, an error detection portion including an inverted version of the content portion, and a postamble portion having a second predetermined value. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Abstract: In an embodiment, the present invention includes a protocol stack having a transaction layer and a link layer. In addition a first physical (PHY) unit is coupled to the protocol stack to provide communication between a processor and a device coupled to the processor via a physical link, where the first PHY unit is of a low power communication protocol and includes a first physical unit circuit. In turn, a second PHY unit is coupled to the protocol stack to provide communication between the processor and the device via a sideband channel coupled between the multicore processor and the device separate from the physical link, where the second PHY unit includes a second physical unit circuit. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Abstract: An interface for low power, high bandwidth communications between units in a device in provided herein. The interface comprises a USB 3.0 system interface and a SuperSpeed inter-chip (SSIC) protocol adaptor configured to facilitate communications between the USB 3.0 system interface and an M-PHY interface.

Abstract: In an embodiment, the present invention includes a protocol stack having a transaction layer and a link layer. In addition a first physical (PHY) unit is coupled to the protocol stack to provide communication between a processor and a device coupled to the processor via a physical link, where the first PHY unit is of a low power communication protocol and includes a first physical unit circuit. In turn, a second PHY unit is coupled to the protocol stack to provide communication between the processor and the device via a sideband channel coupled between the multicore processor and the device separate from the physical link, where the second PHY unit includes a second physical unit circuit. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Abstract: In one embodiment, the present invention includes a host controller with transmit logic to prepare data into a data packet for communication along an interconnect and to transmit the data packet. This data packet may include a preamble portion having a first predetermined value, a content portion including the data and having a plurality of symbols each including a start bit separate from the data, an error detection portion including an inverted version of the content portion, and a postamble portion having a second predetermined value. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus for opportunistic improvement of Memory Mapped Input/Output (MMIO) request handling (e.g., based on target reporting of space requirements) are described. In one embodiment, logic in a processor may detect one or more bits in a message that is to be transmitted from an input/output (I/O) device. The one or more bits may indicate memory mapped I/O (MMIO) information corresponding to one or more attributes of the I/O device. Other embodiments are also disclosed.

Abstract: Described are embodiments of methods, apparatuses, and systems for PCIe tunneling across a multi-protocol I/O interconnect of a computer apparatus. A method for PCIe tunneling across the multi-protocol I/O interconnect may include establishing a first communication path between ports of a switching fabric of a multi-protocol I/O interconnect of a computer apparatus in response to a peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) device being connected to the computer apparatus, and establishing a second communication path between the switching fabric and a PCIe controller. The method may further include routing, by the multi-protocol I/O interconnect, PCIe protocol packets of the PCIe device from the PCIe device to the PCIe controller over the first and second communication paths. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a test apparatus includes a field programmable gate array (FPGA) including a first transmitter to communicate first signals according to current mode logic (CML) signaling and a first receiver to receive second signals according to the CML signaling, and an interface circuit to couple the FPGA to a device that is to communicate according to voltage mode signaling. The interface circuit may adapt the first signals communicated by the first transmitter according to the CML signaling to voltage mode signaling signals for receipt by the device. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Abstract: A method and apparatus to reduce the idle link power in a platform. In one embodiment of the invention, the host and its coupled endpoint(s) in the platform each has a low power idle link state that allows disabling of the high speed link circuitry in both the host and its coupled endpoint(s). This allows the platform to reduce its idle power as both the host and its coupled endpoint(s) are able to turn off their high speed link circuitry in one embodiment of the invention.

Abstract: Techniques and mechanisms for providing access to a function with an input/output (I/O) device. In an embodiment, a main memory of a computer system including the I/O device stores a function-context data structure associating a function with a context for an access to the function. The I/O device stores a configuration for the I/O device to provide the function. In another embodiment, the software process exchanges information with the function-context data structure for the access to the function. The I/O device performs a synchronization of the function-context data structure and the configuration data structure with respect to one another, wherein the function-context data structure operates as a register level interface which interfaces the I/O device and the software process with one another.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for supporting multiple device numbers on point-to-point interconnect upstream ports. In one embodiment, the method includes a downstream component (DC) that performs discovery of internal device components of the DC during initialization of the DC. Subsequent to the discovery of internal devices of the DC, the DC may issue a multiple device number (MDN) request to an upstream component (UC) of the DC. In one embodiment, the MDN request may include an indication that the DC supports a “multiple device number capability,” as well as a quantity of the internal device components of the DC. The DC may receive an acknowledgement MDN from the UC to indicate a quantity of device numbers allocated to the DC. Subsequently, the DC may assign device numbers to the internal device components of the DC according to configuration requests received from the UC. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for enhancing/extending a serial point-to-point interconnect architecture, such as Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) is herein described. Temporal and locality caching hints and prefetching hints are provided to improve system wide caching and prefetching. Message codes for atomic operations to arbitrate ownership between system devices/resources are included to allow efficient access/ownership of shared data. Loose transaction ordering provided for while maintaining corresponding transaction priority to memory locations to ensure data integrity and efficient memory access. Active power sub-states and setting thereof is included to allow for more efficient power management. And, caching of device local memory in a host address space, as well as caching of system memory in a device local memory address space is provided for to improve bandwidth and latency for memory accesses.

Abstract: A host chipset heartbeat may be utilized, in some embodiments, to handle interrupts from external devices on a power efficient basis. The availability of the host chipset heartbeat may be signaled to external devices and those external devices may time their activities to a period of time when not only are resources available, but the assertion of the activity is advantageous because the host chipset is already transitioning from a lower power consumption state.

Abstract: Described are embodiments of methods, apparatuses, and systems for PCIe tunneling across a multi-protocol I/O interconnect of a computer apparatus. A method for PCIe tunneling across the multi-protocol I/O interconnect may include establishing a first communication path between ports of a switching fabric of a multi-protocol I/O interconnect of a computer apparatus in response to a peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) device being connected to the computer apparatus, and establishing a second communication path between the switching fabric and a PCIe controller. The method may further include routing, by the multi-protocol I/O interconnect, PCIe protocol packets of the PCIe device from the PCIe device to the PCIe controller over the first and second communication paths. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.

Abstract: In one embodiment, the present invention includes a method for handling a registration message received from a host processor, where the registration message delegates a poll operation with respect to a device from the host processor to another component. Information from the message may be stored in a poll table, and the component may send a read request to poll the device and report a result of the poll to the host processor based on a state of the device. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a converged protocol stack can be used to unify communications from a first communication protocol to a second communication protocol to provide for data transfer across a physical interconnect. This stack can be incorporated in an apparatus that includes a protocol stack for a first communication protocol including transaction and link layers, and a physical (PHY) unit coupled to the protocol stack to provide communication between the apparatus and a device coupled to the apparatus via a physical link. This PHY unit may include a physical unit circuit according to the second communication protocol. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a converged protocol stack can be used to unify communications from a first communication protocol to a second communication protocol to provide for data transfer across a physical interconnect. This stack can be incorporated in an apparatus that includes a protocol stack for a first communication protocol including transaction and link layers, and a physical (PHY) unit coupled to the protocol stack to provide communication between the apparatus and a device coupled to the apparatus via a physical link. This PHY unit may include a physical unit circuit according to the second communication protocol. Other embodiments are described and claimed.