SEMI DISTRIBUTED CONTROL SYSTEM ON CHIP

Abstract

This invention relates to a system on chip for data flow type application. The system comprises a network on chip, a central controller and processing units connected to said network via associated network interfaces. A processing unit and/or its associated interface network can be configured on command from the central controller or on a command incorporated in a data packet to be processed. The interface network comprises a client module that can request a configuration server to transmit the parameters of a configuration that is unavailable in the interface. The invention also relates to a terminal mobile/a base station comprising a base band modem implemented by such a system on chip.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Other characteristics and advantages of the invention will become clear upon reading a preferred embodiment of the invention, made in reference to the appended figures in which:

FIG. 1 shows diagrammatically a system on chip of the state of the art;

FIG. 2 shows diagrammatically a known interface network structure associated to a processing unit;

FIG. 3 illustrates the operation of a system on chip using a semi-distributed control that is known in the state of the art;

FIG. 4 illustrates the operation of a system on chip using semi-distributed control of the invention;

FIGS. 5A to 5C show configuration change chronograms;

FIG. 6 shows the structure of an interface network in one embodiment of the invention;

FIGS. 7A to 7D show the structure of an interface network according to various embodiment variants of the invention.

Claims

1. Interface network (440, 640) for network on chip adapted to interface a data processing unit (130,230) with said network, wherein said interface and/or said processing unit can be configured to a plurality of configurations, wherein the interface network comprised a local controller (470, 670) adapted to configure said interface and/or said processing unit to said configurations by means of configuration contents, wherein each configuration content defines a communication configuration of the interface and/or an operating configuration of the processing unit, wherein said interface network is characterised in that each configuration is indexed by an index, it comprises a management configuration unit (460, 660) including a client module (490, 690) adapted to:transmit via said network, when the content of a configuration is unavailable in said interface, wherein a request has for argument the index of the unavailable configuration;receive via said network of a configuration server, the content of said unavailable configuration;provide the local controller with the content of the configuration thus received.

2. Interface network of claim 1, characterised in that the management configuration unit comprises an associative memory adapted to store the respective contents of the available configurations as well as the indices of these configurations.

3. Interface network of claim 2, characterised in that the management configuration unit comprises a plurality of elementary management units (761, 762, 763), wherein each elementary management unit is adapted to manage the configuration of an element or a plurality of elements (751, 752, 753) of the interface network or to manage the configuration of said processing unit.

4. Interface network of one of the previous claims, characterised in that the local controller comprises a plurality of elementary local controllers (771, 772, 773), wherein each local controller controls an element or a plurality of elements (751, 752, 753) of the interface network.

5. Interface network of claim 3 or 4, characterised in that one of said elements is an input communication controller (751) adapted to attribute transmission credits to an emitting resource or a plurality of emitting resources connected to said network.

6. Interface network of claim 3 or 4, characterised in that one of said elements is an output communication controller (753) adapted to transmit to a destination resource or a plurality of destination resources data issued from the processing unit according to the transmission credits that have been attributed to it/them respectively.

7. Interface network of one of the previous claims, characterised in that the client module (490, 690) of the management configuration unit (460, 660) is adapted to transmit a request whose argument is the index of an unavailable configuration in the interface while the central controller configures said interface and/or said processing unit to a configuration that has previously been transmitted to it by said management unit.

8. Interface network of one of the previous claims, characterised in that each configuration index comprises: a field identifying said interface network to which said configuration applies, from a plurality of network interfaces;a field identifying the element of the interface or the processing unit to which said configuration applies;a field identifying said configuration from a plurality of possible configurations of said element or of said processing unit.

9. Interface network of claim 8, characterised in that said configuration index also comprises a field identifying a context of use of the processing unit in which it is applied.

10. System on chip comprising a network on chip (100) itself composed of routers (120) connected to one another by means of physical connections (125), wherein a plurality of network interfaces (140) each associated to a processing unit (130), a central controller (110, 410) adapted to control the running of a task by said network interfaces and/or said processing units, characterised in that: each processing unit is connected to said network via an interface network (440, 640) of one of the previous claims;at least one configuration server (495) is connected to said network, wherein said server is adapted to transmit, upon request from an interface network whose argument is a configuration index, a response to said interface including the configuration content corresponding to said index, wherein said content permits the interface network to configure at least one element of said interface and/or the associated processing unit to run said task.

11. System on chip of claim 10, characterised in that it comprises a plurality of configuration servers, wherein each server is competent to respond to requests issued from network interfaces belonging to a distinct sub-assembly of said plurality of interfaces.

12. Server for a system on chip of claim 10 or 11, characterised in that it comprises a memory adapted to store the configuration contents of the possible configurations of the network interfaces of said plurality of interfaces or of said sub-assembly of this plurality as well as the configuration contents of the possible configurations of the associated processing units, wherein said server is also adapted to analyse a request emitted by an interface network whose argument is a configuration index, to determine from said index the identity of the emitting interface network, to extract from said memory the configuration content concerning the configuration indexed by this index and to return to said emitting interface network said configuration content.

13. Server of claim 12, characterised in that it also comprises a FIFO buffer to store until they are processed the requests that are sent to it by the network interfaces and means of emitting a negative acknowledgement to the network interfaces whose requests have not been stored during saturation of said buffer.

14. Terminal mobile comprising a base band modem implemented by a system on chip of claim 10 or 11.

15. Base station comprising a base band modem implemented by a system on chip of claim 10 or 11.

16. Process for running a task by an interface network and/or its associated processing unit belonging to a system on chip (100) of claim 10 comprising the following steps: transmission (445) by the central controller (410) to said interface network (440) of a sequence of indices, wherein each index is representative of a configuration of said interface network and/or its associated processing unit;for each unavailable configuration content in said interface, transmission (491) via the interface of a request to the configuration server (495) whose argument is the index of the unavailable configuration;reception (493) by said interface of each unavailable configuration content returned by the server;running by said interface, and/or its associated processing unit, of configurations indexed by said indices in the order of said sequence, wherein a configuration is only run once its content is available in the interface and the configuration has ended.

17. Process of claim 16, characterised in that a request for an unavailable configuration is transmitted to the configuration server while a previous configuration is being run.