Electrical margining of multi-parameter high-speed interconnect links with multi-sample probing

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9817054-B2
Application number	US-201213729756-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 28, 2012
Priority date	Jun 28, 2012
Publication date	Nov 14, 2017
Grant date	Nov 14, 2017

Abstract

Methods and apparatus relating to electrical margining of multi-parameter high-speed interconnect links with multi-sample probing are described. In one embodiment, logic is provided to generate one or more parameter values, corresponding to an electrical operating margin of an interconnect. The one or more parameter values are generated based on a plurality of eye observation sets to be detected in response to operation of the interconnect in accordance with a plurality of parameter sets (e.g., by using quantitative optimization techniques). In turn, the interconnect is to be operated at the one or more parameter values if it is determined that the one or more parameter values cause the interconnect to operate at an optimum level relative to an operation of the interconnect in accordance with one or more less optimum parameter levels. Other embodiments are also disclosed and claimed.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
generating one or more parameter values, corresponding to an electrical operating margin of an interconnect, based on a plurality of eye observation sets to be detected in response to operation of the interconnect in accordance with a plurality of parameter sets; and
operating the interconnect at the one or more parameter values based on a determination that the one or more parameter values cause the interconnect to operate at a first level relative to an operation of the interconnect at a second level with one or more less optimum parameter values than the one or more parameter values corresponding to the first level, wherein each of the plurality of observation sets comprises a plurality of eye shapes, wherein the plurality of eye shapes are generated based on repetitive sampling of a digital data signal from a receiver while a data rate of the digital data signal is used to trigger a horizontal sweep, wherein the one or more parameter values or each of the plurality of parameter sets are represented as chromosomes for a genetic algorithm, wherein a fittest one of the chromosomes is selected for a next sweep.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising configuring the interconnect to operate at an electrical margin based on an analysis of multiple eye sampling points detected by a plurality of probes.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising analyzing the plurality of eye observation sets for robustness, wherein the robustness is to be determined based on a fitness function.

4. A system comprising:
an interconnect to couple a first agent to a second agent;
memory to store one or more parameter values;
logic to generate the one or more parameter values, corresponding to an electrical operating margin of an interconnect, based on a plurality of eye observation sets to be detected in response to operation of the interconnect in accordance with a plurality of parameter sets,
wherein the interconnect is to operate at the one or more parameter values based on a determination that the one or more parameter values cause the interconnect to operate at a first level relative to an operation of the interconnect at a second level with one or more less optimum parameter values than the one or more parameter values corresponding to the first level, wherein each of the plurality of observation sets is to comprise a plurality of eye shapes, wherein the plurality of eye shapes are to be generated based on repetitive sampling of a digital data signal from a receiver while a data rate of the digital data signal is to be used to trigger a horizontal sweep, wherein the one or more parameter values or each of the plurality of parameter sets are to be represented as chromosomes for a genetic algorithm, wherein a fittest one of the chromosomes is to be selected for a next sweep.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the interconnect is to be configured to operate at an electrical margin based on an analysis of multiple eye sampling points detected by a plurality of probes using quantitative optimization techniques.

6. The system of claim 4 , wherein one or more of the first agent, the second agent, or the interconnect are on the same integrated circuit die or on a same package substrate.

7. The system of claim 4 , wherein the repetitive sampling of the digital data signal from the receiver is to be applied to a vertical input of an oscilloscope.

8. The system of claim 4 , wherein the interconnect is to be configured to operate at an electrical margin based on an analysis of multiple eye sampling points detected by a plurality of probes.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the analysis is to comprise analyzing the plurality of eye observation sets for robustness, wherein the robustness is to be determined based on a fitness function.

10. The system of claim 4 , wherein the one or more parameter values correspond to one of the plurality of parameter sets.

11. The system of claim 4 , wherein a plurality of probes is to comprise a phase interpolator probe and a voltage offset compensation probe.

12. The system of claim 4 , wherein each of the plurality of observation sets is to comprise one or more requirements of: a width value, a height value, and alignment to an eye center.

13. The system of claim 4 , wherein the each of the plurality of parameter sets or the one or more parameter values are to comprise one or more of the following parameters at one or both transmit or receive ends: an equalization parameter, a resistor compensation parameter, a duty-cycle correction coefficient, and a power supply parameter.

14. The system of claim 4 , wherein the interconnect is to comprise a high-speed differential link interconnect.

15. The system of claim 4 , wherein the interconnect is to comprise one or more point-to-point interconnects.

16. The system of claim 4 , wherein the interconnect is to couple a first agent and a second agent, and wherein the first agent or the second agent is to comprise a processor having one or more processor cores.

17. The system of claim 4 , wherein one or more of the first agent, the second agent, or the link are on the same integrated circuit die.

18. The system of claim 4 , wherein a power supply, coupled to the apparatus, is to be modulated to obtain eyes that are within a certain threshold.

19. One or more non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising one or more instructions that when executed on at least one processor configure the at least one processor to perform one or more operations to:
generate one or more parameter values, corresponding to an electrical operating margin of an interconnect, based on a plurality of eye observation sets to be detected in response to operation of the interconnect in accordance with a plurality of parameter sets; and
operate the interconnect at the one or more parameter values based on a determination that the one or more parameter values cause the interconnect to operate at a first level relative to an operation of the interconnect at a second level with one or more less optimum parameter values than the one or more parameter values corresponding to the first level, wherein each of the plurality of observation sets comprises a plurality of eye shapes, wherein the plurality of eye shapes are generated based on repetitive sampling of a digital data signal from a receiver while a data rate of the digital data signal is used to trigger a horizontal sweep, wherein the one or more parameter values or each of the plurality of parameter sets are represented as chromosomes for a genetic algorithm, wherein a fittest one of the chromosomes is selected for a next sweep.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 19 , further comprising one or more instructions that when executed on the at least one processor configure the at least one processor to perform one or more operations to cause configuration of the interconnect to operate at an electrical margin based on an analysis of multiple eye sampling points detected by a plurality of probes.

21. The computer-readable medium of claim 19 , further comprising one or more instructions that when executed on the at least one processor configure the at least one processor to perform one or more operations to cause analysis of the plurality of eye observation sets for robustness, wherein the robustness is to be determined based on a fitness function.

Assignees

• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Rangarajan Thanunathan
• Chhabbi Shreesh
• Kumar Arvind A
• Iyer Venkatraman

Classifications

• G01R31/30 Primary

  Marginal testing, e.g. by varying supply voltage (testing computers during standby operation or idle time G06F11/22) · CPC title

• G01R31/66 Primary

  Testing of connections, e.g. of plugs or non-disconnectable joints (testing for incorrect line connections G01R31/55) · CPC title

• G01R31/04 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic