Managing sideband segments in on-die system fabric

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9489028-B2
Application number	US-201213631870-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 29, 2012
Priority date	Sep 30, 2011
Publication date	Nov 8, 2016
Grant date	Nov 8, 2016

Abstract

Methods and apparatus for managing sideband segments in an On-Die System Fabric (OSF) are described. In one embodiment, a sideband OSF includes a plurality of segments that may be reset or powered down independently after power management logic determines that in progress messages have been handled and future messages to the segment being reset or powered down will be blocked. Other embodiments are also disclosed.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An integrated circuit comprising:
a sideband On-die System Fabric (OSF) to couple a first agent and a second agent, wherein the sideband OSF is to allow the first agent and the second agent to communicate out-of-band information via one or more routers; and
power management logic to initiate a request to reset a segment of a plurality of segments of the sideband OSF, wherein each segment of the plurality of segments is to be located in a separate power domain, wherein each segment of the plurality of segments is to include at least one of the one or more routers,
wherein the power management logic is to cause the segment to reset in response to an acknowledgement from one or more agents in the segment of the plurality of segments that the one or more agents have handled all in-progress posted messages, wherein the separate power domain is to comprise a chipset suspend power domain, wherein the chipset suspend power domain is to comprise the power management logic, wherein the one or more agents are to block new posted and non-posted messages in response to a broadcast message from the power management logic, wherein the one or more agents are to finish in-progress posted-posted handshake messages in response to a message from the power management logic.

2. The integrated circuit of claim 1 , wherein the one or more agents are to finish all in-progress posted messages in response to a message from the power management logic.

3. The integrated circuit of claim 1 , wherein the power management logic is to wait for a sideband idle state prior to causing the segment to reset.

4. The integrated circuit of claim 1 , wherein the one or more agents are to stop initiating new posted-posted handshake messages in response to a message from the power management logic.

5. The integrated circuit of claim 1 , wherein at least one agent in a different segment of the plurality of segments is to remove blocking of initiating of any message in response to a message from the power management logic that indicates the segment is reset.

6. The integrated circuit of claim 1 , wherein the first agent is to comprise a processor.

7. The integrated circuit of claim 6 , wherein the processor is to comprise one or more processor cores.

8. The integrated circuit of claim 1 , wherein the second agent is to comprise a logic block.

9. A method comprising:
routing one or more out-of-bank messages between a first agent and a second agent via a sideband On-die System Fabric (OSF); and
initiating a request to reset a segment of a plurality of segments of the sideband OSF, wherein each segment of the plurality of segments is located in a separate power domain, wherein each segment of the plurality of segments includes one or more routers,
wherein the segment is to reset in response to an acknowledgement from one or more agents in the segment of the plurality of segments that the one or more agents have handled all in-progress posted messages, wherein the separate power domain comprises a chipset suspend power domain, wherein the chipset suspend power domain comprises power management logic that initiates the request to reset the segment of the plurality of segments of the sideband wherein the one or more agents block new posted and non-posted messages in response to a broadcast message from the power management logic, wherein the one or more agents finish in-progress posted-posted handshake messages in response to a message from the power management logic.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising the one or more agents finishing all in-progress posted messages in response to a message from a power management logic.

11. The method of claim 9 , further comprising waiting for a sideband idle state prior to causing the segment to reset.

12. The method of claim 9 , further comprising the one or more agents stopping initiation of new posted-posted handshake messages in response to a message from a power management logic.

13. A system comprising:
an input/output (IO) device;
a sideband On-die System Fabric (OSF) to couple a processor to the IO device; and
power management logic to initiate a request to reset a segment of a plurality of segments of the sideband OSF, wherein each segment of the plurality of segments is to be located in a separate power domain, wherein each segment of the plurality of segments is to include one or more routers,
wherein the power management logic is to cause the segment to reset in response to an acknowledgement from one or more agents in the segment of the plurality of segments that the one or more agents have handled all in-progress posted messages, wherein the separate power domain is to comprise a chipset suspend power domain, wherein the chipset suspend power domain is to comprise the power management logic, wherein the one or more agents are to block new posted and non-posted messages in response to a broadcast message from the power management logic, wherein the one or more agents are to finish in-progress posted-posted handshake messages in response to a message from the power management logic.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the one or more agents are to finish all in-progress posted messages in response to a message from the power management logic.

15. The system of claim 13 , wherein the power management logic is to wait for a sideband idle state prior to causing the segment to reset.

16. The system of claim 13 , wherein the one or more agents are to stop initiating new posted-posted handshake messages in response to a message from the power management logic.

17. The integrated circuit of claim 1 , wherein the power management logic is to facilitate power management across the plurality of segments of the sideband OSF.

18. The integrated circuit of claim 1 , wherein the separate power domain is one of: the chipset suspend power domain, an auxiliary power domain, or a chipset core power domain.

19. The integrated circuit of claim 18 , wherein the auxiliary power domain is to comprise chipset manageability engine to support power state transition.

20. The integrated circuit of claim 18 , wherein the chipset core power domain is to comprise chipset core logic.

Assignees

• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Khor Hai Ming
• Khoo Kay Keat
• Liew Vui Yong
• Vaidya Bhushan

Classifications

• Y02B60/1282

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• G06F1/3287

  by switching off individual functional units in the computer system · CPC title

• G06F1/3206 Primary

  Monitoring of events, devices or parameters that trigger a change in power modality · CPC title

• G06F15/7825

  Globally asynchronous, locally synchronous, e.g. network on chip · CPC title

• Y02D30/50

  in wire-line communication networks, e.g. low power modes or reduced link rate · CPC title