Intel Corporation

Other

Marcus W Song

Aimee D Wood

Avinash N Ananthakrishnan

Brent Ralph Boswell

Bryan L Spry

Deepak M Rangaraj

Robert J Hayes

Adam E Letendre

Robert J Greiner

Lily Pao Looi

Rupin H Vakharwala

Jeff Van Tran

Prashanth Nimmala

James A Beavens

Techniques and mechanisms for configuring an integrated circuit (IC) chip to implement a protocol stack. In an embodiment, a transaction layer of the IC chip is operable to exchange with a link layer of the IC chip transaction layer packets (TLPs) having a format compatible with one defined in a Peripheral Component Interconnect Express&#x2122; (PCIe&#x2122;) specification. Configuration circuitry of the IC chip provides for configuration of a first protocol stack including the transaction layer, circuitry of the link layer and a first physical layer of the IC chip. The configuration circuitry further provides for an alternative configuration of a second protocol stack including the transaction layer, circuitry of the link layer and a second physical layer of the IC chip. In another embodiment, the first protocol stack supports single-ended signaling to communicate TLP information, whereas the second protocol stack supports differential signaling to communicate TLP information.

Method, apparatus and system for configuring a protocol stack of an integrated circuit chip

In one embodiment, the present invention includes apparatus that is formed on a single semiconductor die having one or more cores, a memory controller, and a hub coupled to the memory controller. The hub includes multiple fabrics each to communicate with a peripheral controller via a target interface and a master interface according to a first protocol, and where the fabrics are serially coupled via a first plurality of target interfaces in an upstream direction and a second plurality of target interfaces in a downstream direction. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Integrating intellectual property (IP) blocks into a processor

Growing community of inventors

Battle Ground, WA, United States of America

Marcus W Song