This application claims the priority benefit of Taiwan application serial no. 109122530, filed on Jul. 3, 2020. The entirety of the above-mentioned patent application is hereby incorporated by reference herein and made a part of this specification.
The disclosure relates to a system, and particularly relates to an electronic system.
In an electronic system of the related art, a platform controller may only be connected to a single peripheral device through a single enhanced serial peripheral interface (eSPI) bus, so that when a plurality of peripheral devices are to be controlled or read, a plurality of buses must be used to connect the peripheral devices in order to implement control or reading operations of the peripheral devices. Therefore, in a conventional electronic system, communication and connection between the platform controller and the peripheral devices may not only increase the manufacturing cost of the electronic system, but the number of the peripheral devices connected to the electronic system is also limited by the number of physical buses, resulting in poor compatibility of the electronic system.
The invention is directed to an electronic system, in which a platform controller is capable of simultaneously connecting a plurality of peripheral devices through a single bus.
The invention provides an electronic system including a platform controller and a plurality of peripheral devices. The platform controller has a first bus. The peripheral devices are respectively connected to the platform controller through the first bus. The peripheral devices include a master peripheral device and a slave peripheral device. The master peripheral device and the slave peripheral device are connected to a communication signal line. The master peripheral device communicates with the platform controller through the first bus. When the master peripheral device receives a communication request from the slave peripheral device through the communication signal line, the master peripheral device provides a communication signal corresponding to the communication request to the first bus, so that the slave peripheral device communicates with the platform controller through the first bus.
The invention provides an electronic system including a platform controller and a plurality of peripheral devices. The platform controller has a first bus. The peripheral devices are respectively connected to the platform controller through the first bus. The peripheral devices include a master peripheral device and a slave peripheral device. The master peripheral device and the slave peripheral device are connected to an interrupt signal line. The master peripheral device communicates with the platform controller through the first bus. When the master peripheral device receives an interrupt request provided by the slave peripheral device from the interrupt signal line, the master peripheral device provides an interrupt signal to the platform controller through the first bus, and the platform controller communicates with the slave peripheral device through the first bus according to the interrupt signal.
Based on the above description, the platform controller of the electronic system may be simultaneously connected to a plurality of peripheral devices through a single bus, and the peripheral devices do not cause signal conflicts on the bus.
The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the invention, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.
Since the peripheral devices 11-14 communicate with the platform controller 10 only through the single bus CS, in order to avoid signal conflicts caused by multiple peripheral devices 11-14 communicating on the bus CS at the same time, one of the peripheral devices 11-14 (the peripheral device 11) may be preset as a master peripheral device, and the other peripheral devices 12-14 may be set as slave peripheral devices. In this way, the master peripheral device of the peripheral devices 11-14 may be responsible for most of the communications on the bus CS, and the other slave peripheral devices may monitor the communication content on the bus, and when communications of the slave peripheral devices are required, the slave peripheral devices may notify the master peripheral device, and the master peripheral device communicates with the platform controller 10.
In an embodiment, the peripheral devices 11-14 may respectively have setting pins, respectively, and the peripheral devices 11-14 may be set as the master peripheral device or the slave peripheral devices according to voltages received by the setting pins. For example, as shown in
Further, the peripheral devices 11-14 have an interconnected communication signal line L1 to communicate with each other, and when one or more of the slave peripheral devices 12-14 want to communicate, the slave peripheral devices 12-14 may provide communication requests to the communication signal line L1. When the master peripheral device 11 receives the communication requests through the communication signal line L1, it learns that one or more of the slave peripheral devices 12-14 want to communicate with the platform controller 10, and the master peripheral device 11 may provide a communication signal to the platform controller 10 through the bus CS, and the platform controller 10 may communicate with one or more of the slave peripheral devices 12-14 according to the communication signal.
Referring to
The bus signal S_CS includes a command time interval CMD, a time interval D1, a cyclic redundancy check interval CRC1, time intervals D2 and D3, a state interval STS, and a cyclic redundancy check interval CRC2. Further, in the command time interval CMD, the time interval D1, and the cyclic redundancy check interval CRC1, the signal of the bus signal S_CS may be provided to the bus CS by the platform controller 10 for the peripheral devices 11-14 to read. Then, after turn around (TAR), in the time intervals D2 and D3, the state interval STS and the cyclic redundancy check interval CRC2, in response to a command signal of the platform controller 10, the signal of the bus signal S_CS may be provided to the bus CS from one of the master periphery device 11 and the slave peripheral devices 12-14 to provide data to be read by the platform controller 10. Therefore, the platform controller 10 may provide a read command signal according to the bus signal S_CS and instruct the peripheral devices 11-14 to provide the data to be read.
In the command time interval CMD, the platform controller 10 may provide a command code to the bus CS, and the peripheral devices 11-14 may determine operation content to be performed by the platform controller 10 according to the command code. The command code provided by the platform controller 10 may be, for example, a command code of an input/output read command (for example, PUT_IORD_SHORT) or a memory read command (for example, PUT_MEMRD32_SHORT), so that the peripheral devices 11-14 may learn the operation content to be performed by the platform controller 10 according to the command code received in the command time interval CMD.
In the time interval D1, the platform controller 10 may provide address information to the bus CS. The peripheral devices 11-14 may read the address information and determine a reading target of the platform controller 10. Further, the address information stores physical address information (for example, 32-byte physical address information) to be read by the platform controller 10, and each of the peripheral devices 11-14 may respectively determine whether it is the reading object of the platform controller 10 after reading the address information, and when the peripheral devices 11-14 determine to correspond to the reading object of the platform controller 10 according to the address information, the corresponding peripheral devices 11-14 respond to the read command or the memory read command of the platform controller 10 through the bus CS in a subsequent time interval.
In the cyclic redundancy check interval CRC1, the platform controller 10 may provide a corresponding verification code to the bus CS according to data content transmitted in the command time interval CMD and the time interval D1, and the peripheral devices 11-14 determine whether the data received in the command time interval CMD and the time interval D1 is correct according to the verification code.
In the time interval D2, the master peripheral device 11 may detect the communication signal line L1 to determine whether the slave peripheral devices 12-14 need to transmit data. When the master peripheral device 11 receives a communication request from the communication signal line L1, the master peripheral device 11 may provide a communication signal to the platform controller 10 through the bus CS, and one or more of the slave peripheral devices 12-14 may communicate with the platform controller 10 through the bus CS.
When the address information provided by the platform controller 10 in the time interval D1 corresponds to the slave peripheral device 12, it represents that the platform controller 10 intends to perform a read operation on the slave peripheral device 12. The master peripheral device 11 may detect a voltage level of the communication signal line L1 to determine whether the communication request is received. For example, the communication signal line L1 may be driven by a driving circuit (not shown in
In the time interval D3, the master peripheral device 11 does not provide a signal to the bus CS, but the slave peripheral device 12 that provides the communication request provides data to the bus CS to avoid data conflicts on the bus CS. The platform controller 10 may obtain the data to be read according to the data in the time interval D3.
In the state interval STS, the master peripheral device 11 and the platform controller 10 may provide a state of data transmission through the bus CS, for example, information about whether the peripheral devices 11-14 still have data to be transmitted, or whether the data to be transmitted is ready for transmission, etc.
In the cyclic redundancy check interval CRC2, the master peripheral device 11 may provide the corresponding verification codes to the bus CS according to the data content transmitted in the time intervals D2, D3 and the state interval STS, so that the platform controller 10 may determine whether the data received in the time intervals D2, D3 and the state interval STS is correct according to the verification codes.
Therefore, the platform controller 10 in the electronic system 1 may be connected to a plurality of the peripheral devices 11-14 through the single bus CS. By configuring the master peripheral device and the slave peripheral devices of the peripheral devices 11-14, the master peripheral device 11 may effectively integrate and manage communications of the peripheral devices 11-14 with the platform controller 10 on the bus CS through the communication signal line L1, so that the electronic system 1 may be simultaneously connected to a plurality of the peripheral devices 11-14 without signal conflicts on the bus CS, thereby reducing the manufacturing cost of the electronic system 1 and improving the scalability of the electronic system 1 at the same time.
Then, referring to
In the electronic system 2, in order to avoid signal conflicts, the master peripheral device 21 may be responsible for most of the communications on the bus CS to communicate with the platform controller 10. When one of the slave peripheral devices 22-24 needs to send an interrupt request and needs to communicate with the platform controller 10, the slave peripheral devices 22-24 may provide an interrupt request through the interrupt signal line L2 to notify the master peripheral device 21, and the master peripheral device 21 sends an interrupt request (IRQ) to the platform controller 10.
Then, referring to
An interrupt request signal S_IRQ1 shown in
As shown in
In the reset time interval T0, the master peripheral device 21 may change the voltage level of the interrupt signal line L2 from the first voltage level (for example, the high voltage level) to the second voltage level (for example, the low voltage level) to provide a reset signal to the interrupt signal line L2, such that the slave peripheral devices 22-24 may perform reset operations according to the reset signal. For example, the reset signal may be a second voltage level signal (for example, the low voltage level) that lasts for 16 time periods.
In the sub-time intervals T1-T15 after the reset time interval T0, the sub-time intervals T1-T15 may respectively have a synchronization time interval and a signal determination time interval. The master peripheral device 21 may provide a synchronization signal during the synchronization time interval to synchronize the operations of each of the slave peripheral devices 22-24, and let each of the slave peripheral devices 22-24 to distinguish each of the sub-time intervals. Then, in the signal determination time interval after the synchronization time interval, one or more of the slave peripheral devices 22-24 may provide an interrupt request to the interrupt signal line L2, and the master peripheral device 21 may detect the interrupt signal line L2 to determine whether the interrupt request is received.
Taking the sub-time interval T1 as an example, in a synchronization time interval T11, the master peripheral device 21 may provide a synchronization signal to the interrupt signal line L2 to synchronize the operations of the slave peripheral devices 22-24, and the slave peripheral devices 22-24 may identify the sub-time interval T1 according to the synchronization signal. For example, the synchronization signal may be the second voltage level signal (for example, the low voltage level) that lasts for 2 time periods.
In a signal determination time interval T12 after the synchronization time interval T11, one or more of the slave peripheral devices 22-24 may provide an interrupt request to the interrupt signal line L2. In detail, the sub-time intervals T1-T15 may correspond to different interrupt request types, and the master peripheral device 21 may determine the interrupt request type to be provided by the slave peripheral devices 22-24 according to the sub-time interval when the interrupt request is received. For example, one or more of the slave peripheral devices 22-24 may change the voltage level on the interrupt signal line L2 from the first voltage level (for example, the high voltage level) to the second voltage level (for example, the low voltage level), and last for 2 time periods to provide the interrupt request to the interrupt signal line L2. The voltage level on the interrupt signal line L2 may be changed back to the first voltage level (for example, the high voltage level) by the driving circuit (not shown in
In the embodiment, the master peripheral device 21 proceeds with the reset time interval T0 and the sub-time intervals T1-T15 to determine whether to send an interrupt request to the platform controller 10 according to the interrupt request sent by the slave peripheral devices 22-24. After the reset time interval T0 and the sub-time intervals T1-T15 are ended, the master peripheral device 21 periodically repeats the reset time interval T0 and the sub-time intervals T1-T15 to continuously detect whether the slave peripheral devices 22-24 intend to send the interrupt request.
As shown in
In the enable time interval T00 of the interrupt request signal S_IRQ2, one of the slave peripheral devices 22-24 may provide an enable signal to the interrupt signal line L2, so as to change the voltage level on the interrupt signal line L2 from the first voltage level (for example, the high voltage level) to the second voltage level (for example, the low voltage level). For example, the enable signal may be the second voltage level signal (for example, the low voltage level) that lasts for 3 time periods. After receiving the enable signal, the master peripheral device 21 may learn that one of the slave peripheral devices 22-24 needs to send an interrupt request, so that the master peripheral element 21 may proceed with the one-time reset time interval T0 and the sub-time intervals T1-T15 after the enable time interval T00 to determine the type of interrupt request to be provided. After the reset time interval T0 and the interrupt request time interval (the sub-time intervals T1-T15) are ended, the voltage level on the interrupt signal line L2 may be driven to the first voltage level (for example, the high voltage level) by the driving circuit of the electronic system 2. The master peripheral device 21 may wait for trigger of the next enable signal before the master peripheral device 21 repeats the reset time interval T0 and the interrupt request time interval (the sub-time intervals T1-T15).
Therefore, in the electronic system 2, the platform controller 10 may be connected to a plurality of the peripheral devices 21-24 through the single bus CS. The peripheral devices 21-24 may effectively integrate whether the peripheral devices 21-24 need to send an interrupt request through the interrupt signal line L2, so that the electronic system 2 may be simultaneously connected to a plurality of the peripheral devices 21-24 without signal conflicts on the bus CS, thereby further reducing the manufacturing cost of the electronic system 2 and improving the scalability of the electronic system 2 at the same time.
Referring to
In summary, the platform controller in the electronic system may be simultaneously connected to a plurality of the peripheral devices through the single bus. By setting one of the peripheral devices as the master peripheral device and setting the other peripheral devices as the slave peripheral devices, the master peripheral device may integrate communications between the slave peripheral devices and the platform controller through the communication signal line and/or the interrupt signal line interconnected to the peripheral devices, or determine whether the slave peripheral devices need to send the interrupt request. In this way, in case that the platform controller in the electronic system is simultaneously connected to a plurality of the peripheral devices through the single bus, signal conflicts may also be effectively avoided, thereby reducing the manufacturing cost of the electronic system and improving the scalability of the electronic system at the same time.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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109122530 | Jul 2020 | TW | national |