Mellanox Technologies, Ltd.

Mellanox Technologies Tlv Ltd.

Freescale Semiconductor,inc.

Freescale

Lavi Koch

Ran Ravid

Chen Gaist

Aviv Berg

Zvi Rechtman

Michael Priel

Dotan David Levi

Gil Levy

Noam Bloch

Barak Gafni

Liron Mula

Aviv Kfir

Anton Rozen

Idan Burstein

Sanjay Kumar Wadhwa

George Elias

Ido Bourstein

Shlomo Raikin

Leonid Smolyansky

Michael Weiner

Guy Lederman

Roman Mostinski

Sagi Rotem

Roman Meltser

Stanislav Gurtovoy

Roee Shapiro

Yoni Galezer

Lior Abramovsky

Tova Bar Asher

Oded Nadir

In one embodiment, a multi-segment communication network system includes nodes connected via links, a first node including a first receiver and transmitter, and a second node including a second receiver and transmitter, wherein the first transmitter is to transmit a link training frame including a training pattern to the second receiver, which is to receive the link training frame, the second node is to find a tuning factor to which to tune the first transmitter responsively to the training pattern, and generate a request indicative of the found tuning factor, the second transmitter is to send the request in the link training frame via a plurality of the links to the first receiver, the first receiver is to receive the request, and the first node is to tune at least one parameter of the first transmitter based on the tuning factor indicated in the request.

Link training

In one embodiment, a retimer device includes a receiver to receive data from a first device via a data link, retimer circuitry to recover a clock phase from the received data, and prepare a new copy of the received data sampled by a clean clock based on the recovered clock phase, a transmitter to transmit the new copy to a second device via the data link, wherein the receiver is configured to receive an in-band standby signal from the first device having a given pattern in a physical layer of the signal, activate a power saving mode of the retimer device responsively to the standby signal having the given pattern in the physical layer of the standby signal, receive an in-band wakeup signal from the first device, and initiate an exit from the power saving mode to power up the retimer device responsively to the wakeup signal.

Power state management for fabrics

A network device includes a plurality of ports, processing circuitry, and control circuitry. The ports are to receive communication traffic from a plurality of processing devices. The processing circuitry is to process the communication traffic received via the ports. The control circuitry is to assess one or more electrical-current consumption values associated with at least the network device, and, depending on the electrical-current consumption values, to control a traffic slew-rate of the communication traffic of at least a port among the ports to remain within a specified slew-rate range, the traffic slew-rate being defined as a rate at which a bandwidth of the communication traffic received via the port changes as a function of time.

Mitigating voltage surges in a network device by controlling port bandwidths

In one embodiment, a device includes frequency generation circuitry configured to generate a clock signal, a phase-locked loop (PLL) configured to generate a local clock based on the clock signal, a receiver configured to receive a data stream from a remote clock source and recover a remote clock from the data stream, and a controller configured to find a clock differential between the local clock and the remote clock identified as a master dock, and provide a control signal to the frequency generation circuitry responsively to the clock differential, which causes the frequency generation circuitry to adjust the clock signal so as to iteratively reduce an absolute value of the clock differential between the local clock and the remote clock identified as the master clock so that the local clock generated by the PLL is synchronized with the master clock.

Synthesized clock synchronization between network devices

A network element includes at least one communication port and a processor. The communication port is configured to communicate with a peer communication port of a peer network element. The processor is configured to support a full-boot mode and a fast-boot mode, to establish, by negotiation with the peer network element, whether the fast-boot mode is supported both for the communication port and for the peer communication port, and, in response to finding that the fast-boot mode is supported both for the communication port and for the peer communication port, to coordinate with the peer network element a boot of the communication port and of the peer communication port, both using the fast-boot mode.

Enhancing port link-up time

In one embodiment, a network device includes frequency generation circuitry configured to generate a clock signal, a phase-locked loop (PLL) configured to generate a local clock based on the clock signal, a plurality of receivers configured to receive respective data streams from respective remote clock sources, each receiver of the plurality of receivers being configured to recover a remote clock from a respective data stream, and a controller configured to identify the remote clock recovered by one of the plurality of receivers as a master clock, find a clock differential between the identified remote clock and the local clock, and provide a control signal to the frequency generation circuitry responsively to the clock differential, which causes the frequency generation circuitry to adjust the clock signal so as to iteratively reduce an absolute value of the clock differential.

Apparatus including a network element including an input-output port, the input-output port including an input data lane and an output data lane, wherein the input data lane is in wired connection with a network data source external to the network element, the output data lane is in wired connection with a network data destination external to the network element, and the network data source is distinct from the network data destination. Related apparatus and methods are also described.

Network devices

A method includes obtaining (i) an operating-temperature profile of a hardware processing sub-unit (HPSU) of a network element as a function of time, and (ii) a dependence of an Equivalent Reliability Time (ERT) of the HPSU on operating temperature. The operating-temperature profile is weighted using the dependence of the ERT on operating temperature, to estimate an effective ERT of the HPSU. An operating condition of the HPSU in the network element is modified, depending on the effective ERT.

Raising maximal silicon die temperature using reliability model

A network device including frequency generation circuitry configured to generate a clock signal, a phase-locked loop configured to generate a local clock based on the clock signal, a plurality of receivers configured to receive respective data streams from respective remote clock sources, each receiver of the plurality of receivers being configured to recover a remote clock from a respective data stream, and a controller configured to identify the remote clock recovered by one of the plurality of receivers as a master clock, find a clock differential between the identified remote clock and the local clock, provide a control signal to the frequency generation circuitry responsively to the clock differential, which causes the frequency generation circuit to adjust the clock signal so as to iteratively reduce an absolute value of the clock differential.

Synthesized clock synchronization between networks devices

A network adapter includes one or more ports for communicating over a communication network, a bus interface, and logic circuitry. The bus interface is configured to communicate over a bus. The logic circuitry is configured to receive bus configuration request packets from an originator, to control the bus interface to generate one or more bus configuration cycles in response to at least some of the bus configuration request packets, and, in response to the bus configuration cycles, to generate and send bus configuration response packets to the originator of the bus configuration request packets.

Accessing PCIe configuration data through network

A network element includes circuitry and multiple ports. The ports are configured to transmit packets to a common destination via multiple paths of a communication network. Each port includes multiple serializers that serially transmit the packets over respective physical lanes. The power consumed by each port is a nonlinear function of the number of serializers activated in the port. The circuitry is configured to select one or more serializers among the ports to (i) meet a throughput demand via the ports and (ii) minimize an overall power consumed by the ports under a constraint of the nonlinear function, and to activate only the selected serializers. The circuitry is configured to choose for a packet received in the network element and destined to the common destination a port in which at least one of the serializers is activated, and to transmit the packet to the common destination via the chosen port.

Power-efficient activation of multi-lane ports in a network element

A method for processing data includes receiving in a peripheral device, which is connected by a bus to a host processor having host resources, a notification of a sleep state of at least one of the host resources. While the at least one of the host resources is in the sleep state, when the peripheral device receives data from a data source for delivery to the host processor, the peripheral device sends a message to the data source, which causes the data source to defer conveying further data to the peripheral device until the at least one of the host resources has awakened from the sleep state.

Control of peripheral device data exchange based on CPU power state

An integrated circuit comprises a shared resource for providing data to a buffer. The buffer is coupled to a buffer level monitor and a filling circuit. An access-requesting circuit is coupled to the shared resource for receiving the data from the shared resource when the access-requesting circuit has access to the shared resource. An arbiter is coupled to the shared resource, the filling circuit, and the access-requesting circuit, for receiving access requests from the filling circuit and from the access-requesting circuit, and for granting to a selected one thereof access to the shared resource. A controller is coupled to the buffer level monitor and to the access-requesting circuit, for causing the access-requesting circuit to reduce a rate of access requests sent to the arbiter when a condition involving the monitored level of data in the buffer indicates an anticipated violation of a timing constraint.

Integrated circuit and method for reducing violations of a timing constraint

A system that includes a phase locked loop and an activation circuit; wherein the phase locked loop includes an oscillator, a frequency divider, a phase detector, a control circuit, and a memory circuit. The activation circuit is adapted to activate the memory circuit and the oscillator; to deactivate the frequency divider, the phase detector and the control circuit during deactivation periods and to activate the frequency divider, the phase detector and the control circuit during activation periods. The timing relationship between a deactivation period and an activation period is responsive to an output signal jitter limitation and to a power consumption limitation.

Method of low power PLL for low jitter demanding applications

A device and a method for generating a output clock signal having a output cycle, the method includes: (i) adjusting a delay of an adjustable ring oscillator to provide a high frequency clock signal having a short cycle so that the output cycle substantially equals a sum of integer multiples of a sleep cycle and integer multiplies of the short cycle; wherein the output cycle differs from any integer multiples of the sleep cycle; wherein the sleep cycle characterizes a sleep clock signal that is generated by a low frequency sleep clock; wherein the short cycle is shorter than the sleep cycle; (ii) counting short cycles and sleep cycles; and (iii) generating, during a sleep mode, in response to the counting and to a predefined counting pattern, the first clock signal; wherein the generating includes activating the adjustable ring oscillator only during a portion of a single sleep cycle per each output cycle.

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Tel Aviv, Israel

Lavi Koch