CUSTOMER CONTROLLED DESIGN OF A COMMUNICATION SYSTEM
A system for designing a communication link for use in a data processing system, includes a parameter generator and an internal link model. The parameter generator allows a user to specify a first set of link parameters. The generator derives a set of internal parameters from the first set of parameters. The internal link model, which includes a set of configurable link cells, receives the internal parameters and instantiates each link cell based on the internal parameters. The system further includes a channel simulator or similar means for modeling a bit error rate (BER) of the instantiated communication link and may further include an estimator of the link's area and power consumption. In an embodiment that protects the intellectual property associated with the internal model from the system user, the parameter generator prevents the user from directly accessing the internal parameters and the generic link model.
1. Field of the Present Invention The present invention is in the field of electronic systems and more particularly in the field of the design of high speed communication links in an electronic system.
2. History of Related Art
An integrated communication link refers to the hardware system interface between two components and is composed of integrated transmitter and receiver circuits directly connected to a communication channel. Each of the components can be a general purpose processor, a memory, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or another electronic device. A communication channel refers to the physical medium connecting a pair of components. Integrated communication links are found on an increasing number of integrated circuits. System-on-a-chip devices, for example, now frequently incorporate an on-board communication link enabling the device to communicate with system memory and other devices. Because of a growing number of high speed communication standards and applications, however, it is generally difficult to predict the exact application and environment in which such components will be used. Designing to a generalized specification, such as a “bathtub curve” type of specification indicating a projected bit error rate (BER) as a function of the sampling point or jitter margin, is generally insufficient to guarantee an acceptable BER in any particular implementation.
The difficulty of predicting customer's channels and applications is made worse by the reluctance of many customers to reveal the details of their system. Simultaneously, providers of communication chip solutions for such customers are equally reluctant to disclose the internal details of their communication links. Fortunately, customers, who have detailed knowledge of the particular application for a communication link, are not concerned so much with the internal design of a communication link as much as they are concerned with the link's performance characteristics within the customer's specific environment. Customers view the communication link as a black box that sits in the middle of their application. The link provider, on the other hand, is focused on the details of the link itself, and views the particular application as interesting only to the extent that it determines the limits of the link's performance. It would be desirable to implement a tool that recognized these distinct views of the communication link by enabling the customer to evaluate and optimize a communication link for a specific application and to explore system-level tradeoffs with various link configurations. It would be further desirable if the implemented tool preserved implementation details of the customer's channel and application as well as the confidentiality and flexibility of the provider's link design without substantially increasing the design cycle for the customer.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONA system for designing a communication link for use in a data processing system, includes a parameter generator and an internal link model. The parameter generator allows a user to specify a first set of link parameters. The generator derives a set of internal parameters from the first set of parameters. The internal link model, which includes a set of configurable link cells, receives the internal parameters and instantiates each link cell based on the internal parameters. The system further includes a channel simulator or similar means for modeling a bit error rate (BER) of the instantiated communication link and may further include an estimator of the link's area and power consumption.
In an embodiment that protects the intellectual property associated with the internal model from the system user, the parameter generator prevents the user from directly accessing the internal parameters and the generic link model. The first set of parameters, those exposed or provided to the customer, are abstract link design parameters such as a sampling complexity parameter, a loop bandwidth parameter, and a loop order parameter. The cells in the internal link model include a sampling unit cell having a configurable sample rate and a sample memory having a configurable memory size. The internal link model may further include an edge detector, a phase controller, and a phase rotator, each having at least one configurable parameter. In one embodiment, the power supply voltage is also a configurable parameter of the internal link model. In one mode of operation, the system permits the user to specify a first operational parameter and an acceptable limit for a second operational parameter. The system then optimizes the link design for the first operational parameter constrained by the second operational parameter. A user, for example, could specify maximum power consumption and optimize the design for the best possible BER.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGSOther objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent upon reading the following detailed description and upon reference to the accompanying drawings in which:
While the invention is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof are shown by way of example in the drawings and will herein be described in detail. It should be understood, however, that the drawings and detailed description presented herein are not intended to limit the invention to the particular embodiment disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTIONGenerally speaking the invention contemplates a system and method for designing a communication link that is optimized for a given customer's communication channel and application. The invention enables the customer to evaluate various designs without revealing unnecessary detail regarding the link's internal design to the customer and without revealing unnecessary detail regarding the customer's application to the provider. The provider develops a canonical model of a communication link. The canonical model includes a generic set of model blocks. Each of the generic blocks is “parameterized” so that an external user can alter one or more characteristics of each block. An internal generator provides a translation mechanism between a set of system level parameters that a customer may manipulate and a set of internal link parameters that determine the configuration of the implemented link. By modifying the system level parameters, the customer is able to investigate tradeoffs and evaluate the performance of the link in a specific application environment. The internal parameter generator hides the implementation specific details of the link itself from the customer. The reduction of the link to its generic or canonical form facilitates a configurable design that can be modified and produced in silicon in a relatively short time frame. It also allows the provider to efficiently and precisely satisfy a variety of customers with diverse requirements and optimization goals, as opposed to providing a “one-size-fits-all” design to every customer.
The customer can operate the system in various modes of operation. In a design support configuration, for example, the customer can vary one or more of the system level parameters and observe the effect of performance characteristics including power, size, and Bit-Error-Rate (BER). In an automated optimization configuration, the user specifies a set of requirements in the form of one or more operational parameters such as maximum power dissipation, and a second set of parameters or optimization criteria, such as BER, and the system determines a link configuration compliant with the requirements and having an optimal value given the optimization criteria (for example, the system will find the link that has the best BER while consuming less that the maximum power consumption).
Before describing elements of the system and method for optimizing a communication link design according to the present invention, a brief description of a communication link and the environment or application in which it is embedded is presented. Referring to
For the purpose of emphasizing inter-device communication, first device 102 is shown as comprised of functional circuitry 104 and a communication link 106 while second device 122 is shown as including functional circuitry 124 and a communication link 126. The present invention embodies virtually any implementation of functional circuits 104 and 124 whether they represent a general purpose processor, a peripheral device controller, a memory array, an ASIC, and so forth.
Communication links 106 and 126 comprise the circuitry each device employs to send and receive information at high data rates across data channel 110. In one embodiment, links 106 and 126 have substantially similar or analogous designs. For purposes of simplicity, some features of the invention are described herein with reference to only one of the links 106 and 126. It will be appreciated, however, that each of the links may include the features or circuits of the other.
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The invention may be implemented as a tool that is provided to a customer to enable the customer to evaluate various communication link designs. In such embodiments, portions of the invention may be implemented as a set or sequence of computer executable instructions (software) stored on a computer readable medium such as disk storage or the like. In other embodiment, the invention includes the actual communication link or a set of generic link block models that are used in conjunction with the link's design.
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Parametric link model 401 is configured to receive a set of values corresponding to a set of link design parameters 410. Link design parameters 410 represent customer-alterable, system-level parameters associated with a communication link. System 400 exposes link design parameters 410 to the customer to enable the customer to experiment with different configurations by specifying various permutations of high-level parameters. As described further below, the link design parameters 410 are converted to internal link parameters within parameterized link model 401. The internal link parameters specify particular implementations of generic link communication cells or blocks within link model 401. These internal link parameters and the generic cells of link model 401 are hidden from the customer to maintain the confidentiality of the link provider's design.
In addition to the link design parameters 410, the depicted embodiment of system 400 permits the customer to specify environmental parameters such as a media transfer function 420 and a data pattern type 430. The media transfer function 420 is a frequency response function that indicates how the channel will behave under the stress of certain signals of a certain frequency. The data pattern indicates the data being applied to the link model. The media transfer function is provided to the channel simulator 402 to produce a reliable estimate of the application's BER. Channel simulator 402 models the customer's channel based, at least in part, on the media transfer function 420 specified by the customer. The data pattern type 430 is also provided to the channel simulator and, in some cases, to estimation function 404.
Parametric link model 401 receives a set 410 of high-level link design parameter values specified by the customer. In one embodiment, link model 401 converts the customer-specified link design parameter values to a typically larger set of internal link parameters that are used to configure the actual link model. In one embodiment, the conversion of the set 410 of link design parameters to a set of internal link parameters is achieved using a look up table (LUT)-based parameter generator. Referring now to
In the depicted embodiment, internal parameter generator 502 is implemented with a lookup table (LUT) 503. As its name implies, LUT 503 includes a set of entries where each entity represents a particular set of link design parameters 410 and a corresponding set of internal link parameters 505.
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The rotator control rate parameter and the rotator step size parameter determine whether phase changes within a certain bandwidth can be tracked by the loop and how much jitter within a certain bandwidth will be filtered by that loop. Specifically, the “rotator control rate” parameter determines how fast the rotator control machine runs. Therefore, it is a factor in the overall ability to keep up with long-term phase changes of a certain frequency or bandwidth. The “rotator step size” parameter determines the size of each step in internal phase movements. The bigger the step the faster the loop can change the phase of the sampling clocks, and thus the faster it can react to phase movements of the input serial data. The trade-off is that larger steps can increase so-called algorithmic jitter.
Similarly, the rotator FSM type and flywheel range parameters affect the “order” of the loop, since they affect the order of the filtering functions implemented by the flywheel and rotator state machine blocks. (The block referred to as “flywheel” here is an extra filtering block typically used to increase the ability of the rotator machine to track fast long-term frequency changes.)
The internal link parameters 505 are provided to and used by internal link model 504 to instantiate or configure the set of cells in the actual circuit based on link parameters 505. The mapping depicted in
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In the embodiment of internal link model 504 depicted in
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In an embodiment that emphasizes preserving the details of the implemented communication link from the customer while also enabling the customer to preserve details of its application from the link's provider or designer, the internal elements of system 400 are not accessible to the customer. Instead, system 400 exposes a limited set of high-level parameters to the customer. While the customer is able to manipulate these parameters and observe the resulting effect on the link's performance characteristics, the customer is prevented from accessing (and has no need to access) the internal elements of system 400. The confidentiality of the system's internal components is especially true for parametric link model 401. Whereas the details of the channel simulator and area estimator may not be highly proprietary (except to the extent that those details reveal information about the generic communication link model), the details of parametric link model are likely to be highly proprietary. System 400 enables both parties to respect the limits of the other's confidential information by providing a tool that a customer can use to optimize a link using a set 410 of high level parameters that does not reveal implementation details of either the communication link itself or the specific application into which the link will be located.
The invention contemplates at least two modes of operation. In the first mode of operation as described above, the customer or user manipulates, perhaps using a graphical user interface, link design parameters 410 and observes the effects on BER 442, power consumption 444, and area 446. This mode provides and intuitive tool for system level designers and frees the designer from having to understand intricacies associated with the link design. In another operational mode, referred to as the optimization mode, the user specifies a first operational parameter (e.g., the maximum acceptable BER) and then invokes system 400 to optimize one or more other operational parameters (e.g., power consumption and/or die size area). System 400 may achieved optimization of the link in this case by simulating every possible permutation of the internal link parameters and selecting the permutation producing the most desirable results consistent with the user's specified limitations. If the number of internal link parameters is not too extensive and each parameter is limited in the number of values it can assume, the full enumeration technique might well be acceptably efficient. Otherwise, an optimization algorithm may be used. In another embodiment, the system makes an educated guess about the optimum solution for a given constraint based on pre-existing characterization of the link. In either embodiment, the optimization mode is a powerful design tool that enables a system level designer to derive a communication link that is optimal for the application.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art having the benefit of this disclosure that the present invention contemplates a mechanism for evaluating or optimizing the design of a high speed communication link. It is understood that the form of the invention shown and described in the detailed description and the drawings are to be taken merely as presently preferred examples. It is intended that the following claims be interpreted broadly to embrace all the variations of the preferred embodiments disclosed.
Claims
1. A system for designing a communication link for use in a data processing system, said system comprising:
- a parameter generator configured to permit a user to specify a first set of parameters associated with the communication link and further configured to derive a set of internal parameters associated with the communication link from the first set of parameters;
- an internal link model comprising a set of configurable link cells, wherein the internal link model is configured to receive the derived set of internal parameters and to instantiate each link cell in the set of configurable link cells based on the set of internal parameters;
- means for modeling a bit error rate (BER) of the communication link based upon the instantiated set of link cells; and
- means for presenting at least one characteristic of the modeled communication link to the user.
2. The system of claim 1, further comprising an estimator configured to estimate the area and power consumption based on the user-specified first set of parameters.
3. The system of claim 1, wherein the means for modeling the BER includes:
- a channel simulator configured to receive the instantiated set of configurable link cells from the parameter generator; and
- a media transfer function specified by the user, wherein the media transfer function is indicative of a channel to which the instantiated set of configurable link cells is connected.
4. The system of claim 1, wherein the parameter generator prevents the user from directly accessing the set of internal parameters and the internal link model.
5. The system of claim 1, wherein the first set of parameters includes link design parameters selected from a set of parameters comprising a sampling complexity parameter, a loop bandwidth parameter, and a loop order parameter.
6. The system of claim 1, wherein the set of configurable link cells in the internal link model includes a sampling latch cell having a configurable sample rate and a sample memory having a configurable memory size.
7. The system of claim 6, wherein the set of configurable link cells in the internal link model further includes an edge detector, a phase controller, and a phase rotator, each having at least one configurable parameter.
8. The system of claim 1, wherein power supply voltage is a configurable parameter of the internal link model.
9. The system of claim 1, wherein the system is configured to permit the user to specify a first operational parameter and an acceptable limit for a second operational parameter, and to instantiate each link cell to obtain an optimal value for the first operational parameter constrained by the second operational parameter.
10. A computer program product comprising:
- a tangible computer readable medium;
- program code, within the computer readable medium, for designing a communication link for use in a data processing system, said program code including:
- parameter generator code for permitting a user to specify a first set of parameters associated with the communication link and further for deriving a set of internal parameters associated with the communication link from the first set of parameters;
- internal link model code for modeling an internal link comprising a set of configurable link cells, wherein the internal link model code is configured to receive the derived set of internal parameters and to instantiate each link cell in the set of configurable link cells based on the set of internal parameters;
- bit error rate (BER) modeling code for modeling a bit error rate (BER) of the instantiated set of configurable link cells; and
- code for presenting at least one characteristic of the communication link to the user.
11. The computer program product of claim 10, further comprising code for estimating the area and power consumption based on the user-specified first set of parameters.
12. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the BER modeling code includes:
- code for receiving the instantiated set of configurable link cells from the parameter generator; and
- a media transfer function specified by the user, wherein the media transfer function is indicative of a channel to which the instantiated set of configurable link cells is connected.
13. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the parameter generator code prevents the user from directly accessing the set of internal parameters and the model of the internal link.
14. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the first set of parameters includes link design parameters selected from a set of parameters comprising a sampling complexity parameter, a loop bandwidth parameter, and a loop order parameter.
15. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the set of configurable link cells in the internal link model includes a sampling latch cell having a configurable sample rate and a sample memory having a configurable memory size.
16. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the set of configurable link cells in the internal link model further includes an edge detector, a phase controller, and a phase generator, each having at least one configurable parameter.
17. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein a power supply voltage is a configurable parameter of the internal link model.
18. The computer program product of claim 10, further comprising:
- code for permitting the user to specify a first operational parameter of the communication link; and
- code for determining values of the internal parameters to optimize the first operational parameter of the link constrained by the second operational parameter.
Type: Application
Filed: Jan 10, 2008
Publication Date: May 8, 2008
Inventor: JUAN-ANTONIO CARBALLO (Austin, TX)
Application Number: 11/971,974
International Classification: G06G 7/62 (20060101);