3Com Corporation

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.p.

Hewlett-Packard Company

Nathan Henderson

Chi-Lie Wang

BaoDong Hu

Eric Roger Davis

Jeffrey Ross

A power management circuit for managing power of a network interface is provided. The network interface includes a medium interface unit coupled to a network media supporting at least a high speed protocol and a lower speed protocol. The power management logic includes logic to determine that an event signalling entry of the medium interface unit into the lower speed protocol has occurred; and logic to force the medium interface unit into the lower speed protocol in response to a determination that the event has occurred.

High speed network interface with automatic power management with auto-negotiation

A computer system comprises host processor and a network interface, wherein the host processor includes resources supporting a full power mode, a lower power mode and a power down mode, as seen in standard system bus specifications such as PCI and InfiniBand. The network interface includes a medium interface unit coupled to network media supporting a least high speed protocol, such as a Gigabit Ethernet or high-speed InfiniBand, and a lower speed protocol, such as one of 10 Mb and 100 Mb Ethernet or a lower speed InfiniBand. Power management circuitry forces the medium interface unit to the lower speed protocol in response to an event signaling entry of the lower power mode. In the lower power mode, the network interface consumes less than the specified power when executing the lower speed protocol, and consumes greater than the specified power when executing the high speed protocol. Logic in the network interface operates in the lower power mode, and uses the lower speed protocol to detect a pattern in incoming packets. In response to the detection of said pattern, the logic issues a reset signal to the host processor. Thus, the network interface operates as a wake-up device in the lower power mode, using the lower speed protocol.

Integrated circuit having a networking interface module supporting a plurality of protocols

A system which provides for generation of alert packets using network interfaces. The alert packets are downloaded into a network interface, for example during a transition from an OS-present state to an OS-absent state. The alert packets are provided with control fields which, in various combinations, indicate alert conditions upon which such packets are to be transmitted, and which indicate a repetition mode for transmission of the packet after a match of the alert condition. Logic in the network interface, causes scanning in the plurality of packets downloaded into the network interface at scan intervals to identify packets having control codes matching alert signals received by the network interface. The process allows for more than one alert packet to be matched with a single alert signal during a given scan interval, and to be transmitted. Also, in one embodiment, each alert packet which matches an alert signal can be transmitted according to a repetition mode indicated in the control fields of the packet.

System and method for alert generation using network interface

The present invention allows NIC resources to be accessed through auxiliary power and an ASIC clock while the PC is powered down and while PCI power and the PCI clock are not available. The present invention also provides an alternate path for accessing the NIC registers, downloading keep-alive and alert-on-LAN packets to the transmit packet buffer (TPB), as well as uploading received packets from the receive packet buffer (RPB). The present invention also allows monitoring PCI activity and seamlessly servicing the PCI configuration cycle (when PCI power and the PCI clock are restored) in conjunction with responding to the access through the alternate path (while PCI power and the PCI clock are not available).

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Nathan Henderson