Advanced Micro Devices Corporation

Alexander Krebs

Frank Barth

Henry Drescher

Jens Meyer

René Röllig

An ATA (Advanced Technology Attachment) controller is provided that comprises at least one parallel port for connecting to at least one ATA compliant storage device, and at least one serial port for connecting to at least one SATA (Serial ATA) compliant storage device. Further, there is a port switching unit provided for switching to at least one of the parallel and serial ports to enable data transfer to and/or from a storage device connected to the port. This enables a software driven reconfiguration making it possible to switch between a mode where the controller behaves like a conventional ATA controller, and a mode where the controller behaves like a conventional SATA controller. A significant amount of hardware may be reused.

ATA and SATA compliant controller

An on-chip event timer apparatus including a hardware timer and a debug interface. The hardware timer includes at least an up-counter for counting clocks of a clock signal, a match register for storing a programmable count value, and a comparator for monitoring whether the up-counter's count value matches the count value of the match register. The debug interface includes enable control unit for enabling the up-counter's operation based on a pre-defined relationship between a state of an enabled signal supplied to said up-counter and an internal state of the hardware timer. Additionally, the debug interface may comprise a clock divider connected to the enable control unit to reduce the clock's frequency in accordance with a pre-programmed divider value. Based on the received clock with the reduced clock frequency, the enable control unit adapts the up-counter's processing speed to the reduced clock frequency.

Growing community of inventors

Dresden, Germany

Alexander Krebs