International Business Machines Corporation

Motorola Corporation

Robert J Reese

Frank David Ferraiolo

Daniel Mark Dreps

Kevin Charles Gower

Charles Roberts Moore

Michael B Spear

Martin L Schmatz

Anand Haridass

Wiren Dale Becker

Michael John Mayfield

Gary Alan Peterson

John Stephen Muhich

Michael Raymond Trombley

Michael Thomas Vaden

Peter L Buchmann

Michael Scott Allen

Peter Matthew Thomsen

Trinh Huy Nguyen

Michael Julio Garcia

Hector Saenz

Ken Huggins

Jason S Mevius

Ravi Kumar Arimilli

Michael Stephen Floyd

George McNeil Lattimore

Steven Michael Douskey

John Francis Bulzacchelli

Eric Eugene Retter

Kevin Franklin Reick

Gus Wai-Yan Yeung

Peichun Peter Liu

Glen Arthur Wiedemeier

Robert Russell Williams

Paul William Rudrud

Timothy O Dickson

Robert Brian Likovich, Jr

Chad Everett Winemiller

William Richard Kelly

Curtis Walter Preuss

Yoanna Baumgartner

Peter Steven Lenk

Joseph David Mendenhall

Michael C Becker

John Christopher Morris

Frank D Ferralolo

George McNell Lattimore

Tafal Kamel Jaber

James Donald Ryan

Richard Vincent Billings

Susan M Rubow

A communications system that may include a transmitter, a receiver, connected over a communications network. A communication link on the communications network may transfer data between the transmitter and the receiver. The system may also include a logic unit to scramble a plurality of portions of the data at the transmitter based upon the communication link and may unscramble the plurality of portions of the data at the receiver. As a result, the logic unit may provide improved performance of the communication link and/or reduced power consumption of the communication link.

Communications system via data scrambling and associated methods

A communications link of multiple parallel communications lines includes at least one redundant line. In a first aspect, the lines are periodically recalibrated one at a time while the others carry functional data. If a fault is detected, the faulty line is disabled and the remaining previously calibrated lines transmit functional data. In a second aspect, impending line malfunction is detected from anomalies during calibration. In a third aspect, line malfunction is detected from receiver circuit output by determining a logical lane upon which each detected error occurs, and by mapping the logical lane to a physical line currently carrying the logical lane data.

Dynamic fault detection and repair in a data communications mechanism

A parallel data link includes a redundant line. A bank of switches permits any arbitrary line of the link to be enabled or disabled for carrying functional data, each line being dynamically calibrated in turn by disabling the line and allowing other lines to carry the functional data. The switches are located downstream of alignment mechanisms so that data input to the switches is compensated for data skew. Preferably, receiver synchronization circuitry in each line operates in a respective independent clock domain, while the switches and calibration mechanism operate in a common clock domain. Preferably, the receiver synchronization circuits provide an adjustable delay corresponding to a variable number of clock cycles to align the outputs of the receiver synchronization circuits with respect to one another, which can accommodate high data skew.

Calibration of multiple parallel data communications lines for high skew conditions

A communication interface device, system, method, and design structure for error correcting code (ECC) protected quasi-static bit communication (SBC) on a high-speed bus are provided. The communication interface device includes high-speed sampling logic to capture high-speed data from the high-speed bus using a high-speed sampling clock and SBC sampling logic to capture SBC samples from the high-speed bus using an SBC sampling clock. The SBC sampling clock is slower than the high-speed sampling clock. The communication interface device also includes an SBC finite state machine (FSM) to detect a received SBC command in response to a static pattern persisting for a predetermined number of the SBC samples and command decoding logic to decode the received SBC command.

Error correcting code protected quasi-static bit communication on a high-speed bus

A memory buffer, memory system and method for power-on initialization and test for a cascade interconnect memory system. The memory buffer includes a bus interface to links in a high-speed channel for communicating with a memory controller via a direct connection or via a cascade interconnection through an other memory buffer. The interface is operable in a SBC mode and a high-speed mode. The memory buffer also includes a field service interface (FSI) slave for receiving FSI signals from a FSI master. In addition, the memory buffer includes logic for executing a power-on and initialization training sequence initiated by the memory controller.

Power-on initialization and test for a cascade interconnect memory system

Shadow selection logic is used to select a driver bit position as a shadowed driver value, and line drivers to transmit data for the selected driver bit position and the shadowed driver value on separate link segments of a bus. In addition, shadow compare logic is used to compare a selected received value with a shadowed received value from the bus and identify a miscompare in response to a mismatch of the compare Shadow counters are used to count a rate of the miscompare relative to a bus error rate over a period of time. A defective link segment is identified in response to the rate of the miscompare within a predefined threshold of the bus error rate.

Bit shadowing in a memory system

Shadow selection logic is used to select a driver bit position as a shadowed driver value, and line drivers to transmit data for the selected driver bit position and the shadowed driver value on separate link segments of a bus. In addition shadow compare logic is used to compare a selected received value with a shadowed received value from the bus and identify a miscompare in response to a mismatch of the compare, and shadow counters to count a rate of the miscompare relative to a bus error rate over a period of time. A defective link segment is identified in response to the rate of the miscompare within a predefined threshold of the bus error rate.

Enhanced microprocessor interconnect with bit shadowing

A method, apparatus, and computer instructions for managing a set of signal paths for a chip. A defective signal path within the set of signal paths for the chip is detected. Signals are re-routed through the set of signal paths such that the defective signal path is removed from the set of signal paths and sending signals using remaining data signal paths in the set of signal paths and using an extra signal path in response to detecting the defective signal path.

Self-healing chip-to-chip interface

An interface alignment pattern for de-skewing data bits received on an elastic interface is disclosed. The interface alignment pattern is 'busy' in that it has a high number of logic state transitions. The busy interface alignment pattern can be used for scrambling and unscrambling operational data. The interface alignment pattern has a unique timing sequence for determining the location of a data bit's first data beat.

Combined alignment scrambler function for elastic interface

A communication interface device, system, method, and design structure for providing dynamic segment sparing and repair in a memory system. The communication interface device includes drive-side switching logic including driver multiplexers to select driver data for transmitting on link segments of a bus, and receive-side switching logic including receiver multiplexers to select received data from the link segments of the bus. The bus includes multiple data link segments, a clock link segment, and at least two spare link segments selectable by the drive-side switching logic and the receive-side switching logic to replace one or more of the data link segments and the clock link segment.

Dynamic segment sparing and repair in a memory system

A mechanism for de-skewing and aligning data bits sent between two chips on an elastic interface. On the receiving end of an elastic interface, the eye of each data bit within a clock/data group is delayed by less than a bit time to align the eyes with the nearest clock edge of a received clock signal. In addition to aligning the eyes of the individual data bits with the nearest clock edge, IAP patterns are used to determine the amount of further delay needed to line up the individual data beats from each data bit. If the data beats for the data bits are not aligned, all but the slowest data beat are delayed to align the data beats for all bits. The additional delay is achieved using sample latches that result in a delayed signal with less jitter. As a result of having less jitter, the received, de-skewed, and aligned clock/data group can be forwarded to the operative portion of the receiving chip at an increased frequency.

Elastic interface de-skew mechanism

Methods and apparatus are disclosed for aligning received data bits in elastic interface systems. Depending upon which one of several alignment modes is selected, data bits can be loaded into FIFO latches on rising clock edges if the data was sent on rising clock edges, on falling clock edges if the data was sent on falling clock edges, or on the nearest clock edge if minimum latency is desired. Alternatively, data bits can be delayed by one or more bit times before loading into FIFO latches to reduce the elastic interface system's sensitivity to drift. The present invention permits a user to trade off factors related to for latency, drift, and skew by choosing among different alignment modes in an elastic interface system.

Alignment mode selection mechanism for elastic interface

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Austin, TX, United States of America

Robert J Reese