Abstract: In embodiments, an apparatus for serial communication includes a transceiver, to receive a precoding request from a downlink receiver across a serial communication link, and to transmit data bits to the downlink receiver over the serial communication link. In embodiments, the apparatus further includes a precoder, coupled to the transceiver, to: receive scrambled data bits of a subset of the data bits to be transmitted, from a coupled scrambler, and, in response to the request from the downlink receiver, precode the scrambled data bits, and output the precoded scrambled data bits to the transceiver, for transmission to the downlink receiver across the serial communication link together with other unscrambled data bits.

Abstract: A device is provided with two or more uplink ports to connect the device via two or more links to one or more sockets, where each of the sockets includes one or more processing cores, and each of the two or more links is compliant with a particular interconnect protocol. The device further includes I/O logic to identify data to be sent to the one or more processing cores for processing, determine an affinity attribute associated with the data, and determine which of the two or more links to use to send the data to the one or more processing cores based on the affinity attribute.

Abstract: In one embodiment, an apparatus includes: a transmitter to send a first plurality of flits to a second device coupled to the apparatus via a link; and a control circuit coupled to the transmitter to change a configuration of the link from a flit-based encoding to a packet-based encoding. In response to the configuration change, the transmitter is to send a first plurality of packets to the second device via the link. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Abstract: An interconnect interface is provided to enable communication with an off-package device over a link including a plurality of lanes. Logic of the interconnect interface includes receiver logic to receive a valid signal from the off-package device on a dedicated valid lane of the link indicating that data is to arrive on a plurality of dedicated data lanes in the plurality of lanes, receive the data on the data lanes from the off-package device sampled based on arrival of the valid signal, and receive a stream signal from the off-package device on a dedicated stream lane in the plurality of lanes. The stream signal corresponds to the data and indicates a particular data type of the data. The particular data type can be one of a plurality of different data types capable of being received on the plurality of data lanes of the link.

Abstract: There is disclosed in an example an interconnect apparatus having: a root circuit; and a downstream circuit comprising at least one receiver; wherein the root circuit is operable to provide a margin test directive to the downstream circuit during a normal operating state; and the downstream circuit is operable to perform a margin test and provide a result report of the margin test to the root circuit. This may be performed in-band, for example in the L0 state. There is also disclosed a system comprising such an interconnect, and a method of performing margin testing.

Abstract: A system and apparatus can include a port for transmitting data; and a link coupled to the port. The port can include a physical layer device (PHY) to decode a physical layer packet, the physical layer packet received across the link. The physical layer packet can include a first bit sequence corresponding to a first ordered set, and a second bit sequence corresponding to a second ordered set, the first bit sequence immediately adjacent to the second bit sequence. The first ordered set is received at a predetermined ordered set interval, which can occur following a flow control unit (flit). The first ordered set comprises eight bytes and the second ordered set comprises eight bytes. In embodiments, bit errors in the ordered sets can be determined by checking bits received against expected bits for the ordered set interval.

Abstract: A test mode signal is generated to include a test pattern and an error reporting sequence. The test mode signal is sent on link that includes one or more extension devices and two or more sublinks. The test mode signal is to be sent on a particular one of the sublinks and is to be used by a receiving device to identify errors on the particular sublink. The error reporting sequence is to be encoded with error information to describe error status of sublinks in the plurality of sublinks.

Abstract: Methods, apparatus, and systems, for transporting data units comprising multiple pieces of transaction data over high-speed interconnects. A flow control unit, called a KTI (Keizer Technology Interface) Flit, is implemented in a coherent multi-layer protocol supporting coherent memory transactions. The KTI Flit has a basic format that supports use of configurable fields to implement KTI Flits with specific formats that may be used for corresponding transactions. In one aspect, the KTI Flit may be formatted as multiple slots used to support transfer of multiple respective pieces of transaction data in a single Flit. The KTI Flit can also be configured to support various types of transactions and multiple KTI Flits may be combined into packets to support transfer of data such as cache line transfers.

Abstract: Systems, methods, and devices can involve a host device that includes a root complex, a link, and an interconnect protocol stack coupled to a bus link. The interconnect protocol stack can include multiplexing logic to select one of a Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) upper layer mode, or an accelerator link protocol upper layer mode, the PCIe upper layer mode or the accelerator link protocol upper layer mode to communicate over the link, and physical layer logic to determine one or more low latency features associated with one or both of the PCIe upper layer mode or the accelerator link protocol upper layer mode.

Abstract: A multi-protocol retimer apparatus and method for using the same are disclosed. In one embodiment, an apparatus for performing retiming between first and second devices according to a plurality of protocols comprises: a receiver operable to receive data; a transmitter to transmit data; a first data path coupled to the receiver and the transmitter and operable to transfer data received from the receiver to the transmitter during protocol specific training, where the first data path comprises control circuitry to control protocol specific training of one or both of the transmitter and receiver in response to an indication of one protocol of the plurality of protocols; and a second data path coupled to the receiver and the transmitter, the second data path having a lower latency than the first data path and for use in transferring data received from the receiver to the transmitter after protocol specific training.

Abstract: In embodiments, an apparatus for serial communication includes a transceiver, to receive a precoding request from a downlink receiver across a serial communication link, and to transmit data bits to the downlink receiver over the serial communication link. In embodiments, the apparatus further includes a precoder, coupled to the transceiver, to: receive scrambled data bits of a subset of the data bits to be transmitted, from a coupled scrambler, and, in response to the request from the downlink receiver, precode the scrambled data bits, and output the precoded scrambled data bits to the transceiver, for transmission to the downlink receiver across the serial communication link together with other unscrambled data bits.

Abstract: A system and apparatus can include a first port configured to support a first link width; a second port configured to support a second link width, the second link width different from the first link width; and physical layer logic to receive from the first port a first data block arranged according to the first link width and frequency; create at least one second data block arranged according the second link width and frequency, the at least one second data block including data bytes from the first data block arranged sequentially in the at least one second data block; and transmit the at least one second data block to the second port.

Abstract: An identification is made that a link is to exit an active state, the link comprising a plurality of lanes. Parity information is maintained for the lanes based on data previously sent over the link, and an indication of the parity information is sent prior to the exit from the active state.

Abstract: Physical layer logic is provided that is to receive data on one or more data lanes of a physical link, receive a valid signal on another of the lanes of the physical link identifying that valid data is to follow assertion of the valid signal on the one or more data lanes, and receive a stream signal on another of the lanes of the physical link identifying a type of the data on the one or more data lanes.

Abstract: A test mode signal is generated to include a test pattern and an error reporting sequence. The test mode signal is sent on link that includes one or more extension devices and two or more sublinks. The test mode signal is to be sent on a particular one of the sublinks and is to be used by a receiving device to identify errors on the particular sublink. The error reporting sequence is to be encoded with error information to describe error status of sublinks in the plurality of sublinks.

Abstract: A flit-based packetization approach is used for transmitting information between electronic components. A protocol stack can generate transaction layer packets from information received from a transmitting device, assemble the transaction layer packets into one or more flits, and protect the flits with a flit-level cyclic redundancy check (CRC) scheme and a flit-level forward error correction or parallel-forward error correction (FEC) scheme. Flit-level FEC schemes can provide improved latencies and efficiencies over per-lane FEC schemes. To improve retry probability, flits can contain information indicating whether immediately preceding flits are null flits. Receivers can avoid sending a retry request for a corrupted flit if a seceding flit indicates the corrupted flit is a null fit. Parity flits can be used to protect groups of flits and correct single-flit errors.

Abstract: Provided are a method, system, computer readable storage medium, and switch for configuring a switch to assign partitions in storage devices to compute nodes. A management controller configures the switch to dynamically allocate partitions of at least one of the storage devices to the compute nodes based on a workload at the compute node.

Abstract: A physical layer (PHY) is coupled to a serial, differential link that is to include a number of lanes. The PHY includes a transmitter and a receiver to be coupled to each lane of the number of lanes. The transmitter coupled to each lane is configured to embed a clock with data to be transmitted over the lane, and the PHY periodically issues a blocking link state (BLS) request to cause an agent to enter a BLS to hold off link layer flit transmission for a duration.

Abstract: Methods and apparatuses associated with a secure stream protocol for a serial interconnect are disclosed herein. In embodiments, an apparatus comprises a transmitter and a receiver. The transmitter and receiver are configured to transmit and receive transaction layer data packets through a link, the transaction layer data packets including indicators associated with transmission of order set transmitted after a predetermined number of data blocks, when the transmission is during a header suppression mode. Additional features and other embodiments are also disclosed.

Abstract: A device is provided with two or more uplink ports to connect the device via two or more links to one or more sockets, where each of the sockets includes one or more processing cores, and each of the two or more links is compliant with a particular interconnect protocol. The device further includes I/O logic to identify data to be sent to the one or more processing cores for processing, determine an affinity attribute associated with the data, and determine which of the two or more links to use to send the data to the one or more processing cores based on the affinity attribute.