International Business Machines Corporation

Kaveh Naderi

Jesse Paul Arroyo

Christopher John Engel

James E Smith

Timothy Roy Block

Thomas R Sand

Ellen Marie Bauman

Harald Pross

Daniel Mark Dreps

Gregory Michael Nordstrom

Patrick Allen Buckland

Jason Eric Moore

Nanju Na

Abel Enrique Zuzuarregui

Curtis Shannon Eide

Matthew Scott Spinler

Joseph James Cahill

Christoper J Engel

A method, system and computer program product are provided for detecting state and sparing of optical Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCI-Express or PCIE) cable channels attached to an IO drawer. System firmware is provided for implementing health check functions and state detection and sparing functions. One or more optical cables are connected between a host bridge and an PCIE enclosure, each optical cable includes one or more spare optical channels. An identified failed optical channel is rerouted to the spare optical channel.

Detecting and sparing of optical PCIE cable channel attached IO drawer

A method, system and computer program product are provided for implementing cable failover in multiple cable Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIE) IO interconnections to an external IO enclosure. System firmware is provided for implementing health check functions for the PCIE IO interconnections to identify a faulted low byte cable. A cable failover mechanism recovers a PCI link to the external IO enclosure. A multiplexer logic is provided between the PCIE host bridge (PHB) and the cable connected to the IO enclosure to perform a full lane reversal of the PCIE lanes.

Implementing cable failover in multiple cable PCI Express IO interconnections

Implementing cable failover in multiple cable PCI express IO interconnections

An approach is provided in which a host system receives a request to power down a selected I/O module located in a PCIe I/O expansion drawer. The host system identifies at least one cable card located in the host system that corresponds to the selected I/O module and transmits at least one set of sideband signals to the PCIe I/O expansion drawer through at least one set of PCIe cable links. The host system, in turn, inhibits the transmission of the at least one set of sideband signals to power down the selected I/O module.

Concurrent maintenance of modular PCIe I/O expansion drawer

A method for determining cable connections identifies a plurality of cables connected to a link included in a first device. The method identifies a first cable connected to the link included in the first device. The method determines that a second cable connected to is connected to a link included in a second device The method further determines that only one of an inbound and an outbound channel of a signaling lane included in the first cable is operable. The method utilizes a second cable to perform one of disabling signal transmission or detecting loss of signal on the operable channel. The method enables and disables signal transmission on the operable channel to determine that the first cable is connected to the link included in the remote device.

Determining cable connections in a multi-cable link

A method and a system for enabling communications on a signaling link include a first and a second device interconnected by the signaling link. The first device performs the method to acquire information from the second device. Based on the information acquired the first device determines to enable the signaling link for operational communications between the first device and the second device. A computer programming product instructs a computer to perform the method.

Method for repairing a communication link failure. In certain embodiments, the method generally includes communicating with another apparatus using an initial number of channels of a plurality of channels of a communication link; selectively coupling a plurality of communication lanes with the plurality of channels of the communication link, wherein, during an initial state, a first lane of the plurality of lanes is coupled with a first channel of the plurality of channels, and wherein the plurality of channels comprises a spare channel; determining whether at least one channel of the plurality of channels is experiencing a failure; and controlling at least one of the multiplexers such that the failed channel is replaced by another channel of the plurality of channels by using the spare channel.

Dynamic link repair from lane failure with minimal link-down time while sparing fault channels

Computer program product and apparatus for repairing a communication link failure. In certain embodiments, the apparatus generally includes a controller configured to initialize the communication link for communication with another apparatus using an initial number of channels of a plurality of channels. The apparatus may also include a plurality of multiplexers configured to selectively couple a plurality of communication lanes with the plurality of channels of the communication link. In certain embodiments, during an initial state, a first lane of the plurality of lanes may be coupled with a first channel of the plurality of channels, and the plurality of channels may include a spare channel. The controller may determine whether at least one channel of the plurality of channels is experiencing a failure and control at least one of the multiplexers such that the failed channel is replaced by another channel of the plurality of channels by using the spare channel.

Dynamic link repair from lane failure with minimal link down-time while sparing fault channels

A method, system and computer program product are provided for implementing health check for optical cable attached Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIE) enclosures in a computer system. System firmware is provided for implementing health check functions. One or more optical cables are connected between a host bridge and a PCIE enclosure. A PCIE link to the PCIE enclosure is reset responsive to a predefined event. After a set delay, a PCIE link health check is performed verifying PCIE link width and speed.

Implementing health check for optical cable attached PCIE enclosure

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide an apparatus for synchronizing a common reference clock over optics. For example, a reference clock from a host device may be frequency adjusted based on a pass-band of an optical link, decoded, and converted into an optical signal, and transferred to a controller of a target device via one or more optical cables. The controller may be used to recover the reference clock using the optical signal, which may be used as a common-reference clock for communications between the host and target devices.

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Austin, TX, United States of America

Kaveh Naderi