Intel Corporation

Chunyu Zhang

Huimin Chen

Paul S Durley

Hongjiang Song

Satheesh Chellappan

Steven A Peterson

Kevin E Arendt

Chris D Matthews

Kiriti Bhagavathula

An apparatus is described having an electrical interface that supports a first specification and a second specification. The first specification specifies differentially transmitted data. The second specification specifies at least three transmitted data signals. The electrical interface includes a plurality of modular transmitter circuits where each transmitter circuit includes a single ended driver and a select circuit. The select circuit is to select either one end of a differential signal associated with the first specification or one of the at least three transmitted data signals associated with the second specification.

Multi-standard single interface with reduced I/O count

In a system where multiple controllers share a link interface but are not all (1) compatible with the same configuration of the physical layer or (2) using the same clocking, a configuration arbitration subsystem intercepts, organizes, and re-clocks configuration-access requests from the various controller agents. Priorities are assigned according to stored policies. The configuration arbiter grants configuration access to the top-priority agent, synchronizing the agent's message with the arbiter's clock. Lower-priority agents' messages are stored in command queues until they ascend to top priority. Besides preventing timing conflicts and streamlining the coordination of clocks, the configuration arbiter may provide access to physical-layer registers beyond the controllers' built-in capabilities to further optimize configuration.

Configuration arbiter for multiple controllers sharing a link interface

Systems and methods of operating a serial interconnect interface provide for generating a pulse in response to a state change in a data signal of the serial interface interconnect, and transmitting the pulse from a physical layer of the serial interconnect interface to a link layer of the serial interconnect interface. The duration of the pulse can be selected based on whether the state change corresponds to an end of packet (EOP) condition. In addition, the data signal may include a non return to zero invert (NRZI) encoded signal, wherein the pulse is part of a digital NRZI signal.

Digital NRZI signal for serial interconnect communications between the link layer and physical layer

An embodiment of the invention includes a receiver with reduced error terms and incoming jitter tracking that improves jitter tolerance. An embodiment provides these benefits based on a voltage integrator that recovers data and clock information from incoming signals without use of a PLL, PI, CDR, and the like. An embodiment provides these benefits based on a time integrator that recovers, using digital logic, data and clock information from incoming signals without use of a PLL, PI, CDR, and the like. Other embodiments are described herein.

Jitter tolerant receiver

Power consumption of an address bus interface is reduced by reducing drive duration of address signals on the address bus. The address bus interface may operate in normal or power saving mode. In power saving mode, address signals are driven for a quarter of a clock period instead of half a clock period and address strobe edges are moved so that they are aligned with valid address signals.

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Folsom, CA, United States of America

Chunyu Zhang