CN114661650A - Communication device, electronic device, and communication method - Google Patents

Abstract

A communication apparatus, an electronic apparatus, and a communication method. The communication device includes a network layer unit, a link layer unit, and a first multiplexing control unit. The network layer unit is positioned in a network layer and comprises a first interface; the link layer unit is positioned at a data link layer and at least comprises a first bus unit and a second bus unit, wherein the first bus unit is configured to transmit data information of a first protocol type, and the second bus unit is configured to transmit data information of a second protocol type; the first multiplexing control unit is configured to control the first bus unit and the second bus unit to multiplex the first interface, so that the first bus unit and the second bus unit respectively communicate with the network layer unit through the first interface. The communication device can balance bandwidth requirements and effectively improve the bandwidth utilization rate.

Description

Communication device, electronic device, and communication method

Technical Field

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a communication apparatus, an electronic apparatus, and a communication method.

Background

System On Chip (SOC) generally refers to a digital computer System implemented On a single Chip. The modules in the system on chip are interacted through a bus, but with the rapid development of semiconductor technology and requirements, the width of the bus becomes the bottleneck of the development of the SOC, and the speed of communication inside the SOC is greatly limited. Networks On Chip (NOC) were proposed in the last 90 s to solve the SOC architecture problem, so as to implement communication between modules in the system On Chip.

Disclosure of Invention

At least one embodiment of the present disclosure provides a communication apparatus, including: the network layer unit is positioned at a network layer and comprises a first interface; the link layer unit is positioned at a data link layer and at least comprises a first bus unit and a second bus unit, wherein the first bus unit is configured to transmit data information of a first protocol type, and the second bus unit is configured to transmit data information of a second protocol type; and the first multiplexing control unit is configured to control the first bus unit and the second bus unit to multiplex the first interface, so that the first bus unit and the second bus unit respectively communicate with the network layer unit through the first interface.

For example, in a communication apparatus provided in an embodiment of the present disclosure, a first multiplexing control unit is coupled to the first interface, the first bus unit, and the second bus unit, and the first multiplexing control unit is configured to: acquiring first configuration information; and selecting a first target bus from the first bus unit and the second bus unit according to the first configuration information, and coupling the first target bus and the first interface.

For example, in the communication apparatus provided in an embodiment of the present disclosure, the first multiplexing control unit is configured to receive downlink data information from the first interface, and obtain the first configuration information by parsing the downlink data information.

For example, in the communication device provided in an embodiment of the present disclosure, the link layer unit further includes a first interface controller configured to perform protocol conversion on data information exchanged between the first interface and a first bus unit, and the first bus unit is coupled to the first multiplexing control unit through the first interface controller.

For example, in a communication apparatus provided in an embodiment of the present disclosure, the link layer unit further includes: an input output controller configured to control distribution of the data information, the first bus unit being coupled with the first interface controller through the input output controller.

For example, in a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present disclosure, the link layer unit further includes a third bus unit, the network layer unit further includes a second interface, and the third bus unit is coupled to the second interface.

For example, in a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present disclosure, the third bus unit is configured to transmit data information of the first protocol type.

For example, in a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present disclosure, the link layer unit further includes: and the second interface controller is coupled with the second interface and the input/output controller and is configured to perform protocol conversion on data information interacted between the second interface and a third bus unit, and the third bus unit is coupled with the second interface controller through the input/output controller.

For example, in the communication apparatus provided in an embodiment of the present disclosure, the first protocol type is a high-speed serial computer extended bus standard protocol, and the second protocol type is an inter-chip interconnect interface protocol.

For example, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a communication apparatus, further including: a physical layer unit located at a physical layer, the physical layer unit including at least one physical layer interface; and a second multiplexing control unit configured to control the first bus unit and the second bus unit to multiplex at least one physical layer interface.

For example, in a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present disclosure, at least one physical layer interface includes a first physical layer interface, a second multiplexing control unit is coupled to the first bus unit, the second bus unit, and the first physical layer interface, and the second multiplexing control unit is configured to: receiving second configuration information; and selecting a second target bus unit from the first bus unit and the second bus unit according to the second configuration information, and coupling the second target bus unit with the first physical layer interface.

For example, in the communication device provided in an embodiment of the present disclosure, the at least one physical layer interface further includes a second physical layer interface, the link layer unit further includes a third bus unit, the second multiplexing control unit is further coupled to the third bus unit, and the second multiplexing control unit is further configured to: two target bus units are selected from the first bus unit, the second bus unit, and the third bus unit according to the configuration information, and the two target bus units are coupled with the first physical layer interface and the second physical layer interface, respectively.

For example, in a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present disclosure, at least one physical layer interface each includes a serializer and a deserializer.

At least one embodiment of the present disclosure provides an electronic device including the communication device provided in any one of the embodiments of the present disclosure.

At least one embodiment of the present disclosure provides a communication method of a communication device, where the communication device includes a network layer unit located in a network layer, a link layer unit located in a data link layer, and a first multiplexing control unit, the network layer unit includes a first interface, the link layer unit includes a first bus unit and a second bus unit, the first bus unit transmits data information of a first protocol type, and the second bus unit transmits data information of a second protocol type, the method includes: and multiplexing the first interface by the first bus unit and the second bus unit by using the first multiplexing control unit so as to enable the first bus unit and the second bus unit to respectively communicate with the network layer unit through the first interface.

For example, in a communication method provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure, multiplexing a first interface with a first bus unit and a second bus unit by using a first multiplexing control unit includes: acquiring first configuration information; and according to the first configuration information, the first multiplexing control unit selects a first target bus from the first bus unit and the second bus unit and couples the first target bus and the first interface.

Drawings

To more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present disclosure, the drawings of the embodiments will be briefly introduced below, and it is apparent that the drawings in the following description relate only to some embodiments of the present disclosure and are not limiting to the present disclosure.

Fig. 1 illustrates a schematic block diagram of a communication device provided by at least one embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 2 illustrates a schematic block diagram of another communication device provided by at least one embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 illustrates the data path formed by the communication device provided by the embodiment shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 illustrates another data path formed by the communication device provided by the embodiment shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 illustrates yet another data path formed by the communication device provided by the embodiment shown in FIG. 2;

fig. 6A illustrates a schematic diagram of a communication device with network layer interfaces not multiplexed, provided by at least one embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6B shows a schematic diagram of the bandwidth requirements of interface P00 and interface P10 of the communication device in the embodiment shown in FIG. 6A;

fig. 6C shows a schematic diagram of the bandwidth requirement of the communication device in the embodiment shown in fig. 2 after interface P21 is multiplexed; and

fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of a computer-readable storage medium according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Detailed Description

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the embodiments of the present disclosure more apparent, the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present disclosure will be described clearly and completely with reference to the drawings of the embodiments of the present disclosure. It is to be understood that the described embodiments are only a few embodiments of the present disclosure, and not all embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the described embodiments of the disclosure without any inventive step, are within the scope of protection of the disclosure.

Unless otherwise defined, technical or scientific terms used herein shall have the ordinary meaning as understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this disclosure belongs. The use of "first," "second," and similar terms in this disclosure is not intended to indicate any order, quantity, or importance, but rather is used to distinguish one element from another. Also, the use of the terms "a," "an," or "the" and similar referents do not denote a limitation of quantity, but rather denote the presence of at least one. The word "comprising" or "comprises", and the like, means that the element or item listed before the word covers the element or item listed after the word and its equivalents, but does not exclude other elements or items. The terms "connected" or "coupled" and the like are not restricted to physical or mechanical connections, but may include electrical connections, whether direct or indirect. "upper", "lower", "left", "right", and the like are used merely to indicate relative positional relationships, and when the absolute position of the object being described is changed, the relative positional relationships may also be changed accordingly.

The production of NOC is based on the requirement of processor scale improvement, the theoretical system of NOC and the theoretical research foundation of system-level interconnection. NOC technology has become mature in recent 20 years, and NOCs need to comprehensively measure design-time limiting factors due to limitations in area, power consumption, on-chip memory resources, integration technology, and pin count. The NOC interconnection draws the concept of a layered protocol of a system network for reference, and divides the whole communication and design process into a plurality of layers according to the difference of functional main bodies, thereby simplifying the relevance, simplifying the design, improving the repeatable utilization rate of the design and the like. Early system networks proposed seven layers of OSI protocols, and with the development of technology NOC interconnects generally adopted five layers of protocols, namely an application layer, a transport layer, a network layer, a data link layer and a physical layer.

The application layer is generally responsible for behaviors of communication contents agreed between on-chip components such as processor cores, caches, input/output (IO) interfaces, memory controllers and the like which need to communicate with each other, such as a cache coherence oriented protocol, a non-coherence protocol and the like. The main communication types of the application layer comprise control information, data information, response information and the like. The transport layer is responsible for message distribution, channel multiplexing, basic transport services, and handling the sending, receiving, and reassembly of message fragments. The network layer is responsible for routing management, flow control management, storage management and the like of the data packets from the source end to the target end. The data link layer is responsible for further dividing the data packet into smaller segments such as frames, and performing link point-to-point reliability transmission control, data encoding and decoding and the like. The physical layer is responsible for point-to-point transmission of the associated bit stream over the physical medium.

It should be noted that in the network on chip, the functions of all these networks can be implemented by software, hardware, firmware or any combination thereof.

For example, the network layer unit as the network layer includes a plurality of interfaces, and communicates with the data link layer unit as the data link layer through at least some of the plurality of interfaces. For example, two interfaces communicate with different buses in the data link layer unit respectively, and the bandwidth requirements of the two interfaces are different due to different effective bandwidths of different buses, so that the bandwidth requirements between different interfaces are easily unbalanced, which is not beneficial to improving the bandwidth utilization rate, and further affects the NOC performance.

At least one embodiment of the present disclosure provides a communication apparatus, including: the network layer unit is positioned at a network layer and comprises a first interface; the link layer unit is positioned at a data link layer and at least comprises a first bus unit and a second bus unit, wherein the first bus unit is configured to transmit data information of a first protocol type, and the second bus unit is configured to transmit data information of a second protocol type; and a first multiplexing control unit configured to control the first bus unit and the second bus unit to multiplex the first interface, so that the first bus unit and the second bus unit communicate with the network layer unit through the first interface, respectively. For example, the communication device is used for a network on chip in a system on chip, thereby effectively balancing bandwidth requirements and improving bandwidth utilization.

Fig. 1 illustrates a schematic block diagram of a communication apparatus provided in at least one embodiment of the present disclosure.

As shown in fig. 1, the communication device 100 includes a network layer unit 110, a link layer unit 120, and a multiplexing control unit 130, the network layer unit 110 is located at a network layer, and the link layer unit 120 is located at a data link layer. For example, the communication device 100 is used for a routing node of a Network On Chip (NOC), for example, used in a system on chip (chip).

The network layer element 110 includes a first interface, which is designated interface P0. For example, the network layer unit 110 is responsible for routing management, flow control management, storage management, and the like of data packets from a source end to a destination end.

The link layer unit 120 includes a plurality of bus units, for example, at least a bus unit 121 and a bus unit 122. The bus unit 121 is configured to transmit data information of a first protocol type, and the bus unit 122 is configured to transmit data information of a second protocol type. The bus unit 121 is an example of a first bus unit in the present disclosure, and the bus unit 122 is an example of a second bus unit in the present disclosure.

For example, the first protocol type may be a high-speed serial computer extended bus standard Protocol (PCIE), and the second protocol type may be an inter-chip interconnect interface protocol. For example, the inter-chip interconnect interface protocol may be a protocol customized by a chip designer or a cxl (computer Express link) protocol or the like. Embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited to specific examples of the first protocol type and the second protocol type.

For example, the link layer unit 120 is responsible for further dividing the data packets from the network layer into smaller segments such as frames, for link point-to-point reliability transmission control, data coding and decoding, and the like.

The multiplexing control unit 130 is an example of a first multiplexing control unit of the present disclosure. The multiplexing control unit 130 is configured to control the bus unit 121 and the bus unit 122 to multiplex the interface P0 so that the bus unit 121 and the bus unit 122 communicate with the network layer unit 110 through the interface P0, respectively.

The communication apparatus 100 implements multiplexing of the interface P0 in the network layer unit 110 through the multiplexing control unit 130, so as to effectively balance bandwidth requirements and improve bandwidth utilization. For example, the network layer unit 110 further includes a second interface, which is labeled as interface P1, and if interface P1 communicates with multiple buses, resulting in a larger bandwidth requirement for interface P1 and a smaller bandwidth requirement for interface P0, at least one of the multiple buses communicating with interface P1 may communicate with interface P0 through the multiplexing control unit 130, thereby balancing the bandwidth requirements between the interfaces and improving bandwidth utilization.

In some embodiments of the present disclosure, as shown in fig. 1, the multiplexing control unit 130 is coupled with the interface P0, the bus unit 121, and the bus unit 122. For example, the multiplexing control unit 130 is coupled with the interface P0, the bus unit 121, and the bus unit 122 through different interaction interfaces (or interaction units), respectively.

The multiplexing control unit 130 is configured to obtain the first configuration information, and select a first target bus from the first bus unit and the second bus unit according to the first configuration information, and couple the first target bus and the first interface. The first target bus may be the first bus unit or the second bus unit.

In some embodiments of the present disclosure, for example, the multiplexing control unit 130 may be statically configured, so that the multiplexing control unit 130 acquires the first configuration information. For example, a designer configures a register (not shown) of the multiplexing control unit 130 in advance, and data written to the register may be used as the first configuration information. When the system on chip is started, the multiplexing control unit 130 selects the first target bus from the first bus unit and the second bus unit according to the data in the register, and couples the first target bus and the first interface, and during the communication process between the network layer unit and the link layer unit, the first target bus and the first interface are always used for communication, and no dynamic switching is performed.

For example, in response to the data in the register being 1, the first bus unit is selected as the first target bus, the first bus unit being connected to the first interface. And responding to the data in the register to be 0, and selecting the second bus unit as the first target bus, wherein the second bus unit is connected with the first interface. For example, when the link layer unit 120 includes more bus units, the register of the multiplexing control unit 130 may record the first configuration information using more bits (bits).

The multiplexing control unit 130 couples the first target bus and the first interface may be that the multiplexing control unit 130 logically connects the first interface with the MAC layer of the protocol to which the first target bus belongs. MAC is a medium access control sublayer that is primarily responsible for controlling and interfacing with the physical medium of the physical link layer. For example, the first target bus is a PCIE protocol bus, and the multiplexing control unit 130 connects the first interface with the MAC layer logic of the PCIE protocol bus.

In other embodiments of the present disclosure, the multiplexing control unit 130 may be dynamically configured. For example, in response to receiving the downlink data information from the first interface, the multiplexing control unit 130 obtains the first configuration information by parsing the downlink data information, so that the multiplexing control unit 130 performs configuration according to the first configuration information.

For example, the multiplexing control unit 130 parses the downlink data information to obtain destination bus information for transmitting the downlink data information, so that the destination bus information is the first configuration information. For example, the destination bus information includes a protocol type of the destination bus. For example, if the protocol type of the destination bus is the PCIE protocol, the multiplexing control unit 130 couples the interface P0 with a bus that transmits data conforming to the PCIE protocol. For another example, if the destination bus protocol type is the inter-chip interconnect interface protocol, the multiplexing control unit 130 couples the interface P0 with a bus that transfers data compliant with the inter-chip interconnect interface protocol.

Fig. 2 illustrates a schematic block diagram of another communication device provided by at least one embodiment of the present disclosure.

As shown in fig. 2, the network layer unit 210 in the communication apparatus 200 includes an interface P21 and an interface P22, where the interface P21 is another example of the first interface in the disclosure, and the interface P22 is another example of the second interface in the disclosure. The link layer unit 220 includes a bus unit 221 and a bus unit 222, the bus unit 221 being another example of a first bus unit of the present disclosure, and the bus 222 being another example of a second bus unit of the present disclosure. The bus unit 221 is similar to the bus unit 121 described above, and the bus unit 222 is similar to the bus unit 122 described above.

As shown in FIG. 2, link layer element 220 may also include a third bus element, such as bus element 223, bus element 223 coupled with interface P22. In this embodiment, the bus unit 221 is configured to transmit data information of a PCIE protocol, that is, the bus unit 221 is a PCIE protocol bus, and the bus unit 222 is configured to transmit data information of an inter-chip interconnect interface protocol, that is, the bus unit 222 is an inter-chip interconnect interface protocol bus.

For example, bus unit 223 is configured to transmit data information of a first protocol type. In this embodiment, the first protocol type is a PCIE protocol, and the bus unit 223 is a PCIE protocol bus.

As shown in fig. 2, link layer unit 220 may include a first interface controller 124, such as a NOC interface controller, in addition to bus unit 221, bus unit 222, and bus unit 223.

The first interface controller 124 is configured to protocol convert data information exchanged between the first interface and the first bus unit. For example, the bus unit 221 is coupled with the multiplexing control unit 230 through the first interface controller 124. For example, the data information transmitted by the bus unit 221 is data conforming to the PCIE protocol, and the first interface controller 124 converts the data conforming to the PCIE protocol into data that can be recognized by the interface P21.

As shown in fig. 2, the link layer unit 220 may further include an input-output controller 125. The input output controller 125 is configured to control the distribution of data information, and the bus unit 221 is coupled with the interface controller 124 through the input output controller 125.

For example, the input output controller 125 is responsible for distributing data from the first interface controller 124 to the bus unit 221 and the bus unit 223, and for distributing data from the bus unit 221 and the bus unit 223 to different interface controllers.

As shown in fig. 2, the link layer unit 120 may further include a second interface controller 126. The second interface controller is, for example, a NOC interface controller. The second interface controller 126 is coupled to the interface P1 and the input/output controller 125, and is configured to perform protocol conversion on data information exchanged between the interface P1 and the bus unit 223, and the bus unit 223 is coupled to the second interface controller through the input/output controller 125.

As shown in fig. 2, for example, bus unit 221 and bus unit 223 are both PCIE protocol buses, and bus unit 222 is an inter-chip interconnect interface protocol bus. Currently, the actual effective bandwidth of x16PCIE5.0 is 57.6GBps, and the actual effective bandwidth of x16 inter-chip interconnect interface protocol is 45 GBps. x16 represents the number of lanes of the bus. If both PCIE protocol buses are coupled to the interface P1, the bandwidth requirement of the interface P1 is 115.2GBps, so the bandwidth requirement of the interface of the network layer unit 110 is unbalanced, which is not favorable for improving the bandwidth utilization rate, and further affects the NOC performance.

In the communication apparatus provided in at least one embodiment of the present disclosure, a multiplexing control unit (e.g., the multiplexing control unit 130 in fig. 1 and the multiplexing control unit 230 in fig. 2) is added, the multiplexing control unit 130 may enable the interface P0 to be multiplexed by the PCIE protocol bus and the inter-chip interconnect interface protocol bus, and the multiplexing control unit 230 may enable the interface P21 to be multiplexed by the PCIE protocol bus and the inter-chip interconnect interface protocol bus. Therefore, when the bandwidth requirement of the interface P1 is high, part of the PCIE protocol buses in the multiple PCIE protocol buses may be coupled to the interface P0 through the multiplexing control unit 130, and when the bandwidth requirement of the interface P22 is high, part of the PCIE protocol buses in the multiple PCIE protocol buses may be coupled to the interface P21 through the multiplexing control unit 230, so that the bandwidth requirement is balanced, and the bandwidth utilization rate is improved.

As shown in fig. 2, interface P21 coupled to the inter-chip interconnect interface protocol bus is multiplexed as an interface to communicate with the PCIE protocol bus, such that bus unit 221 is coupled to multiplexing control unit 230 through input output controller 125 and first interface controller 124, and is coupled to interface P21, and bus unit 223 is coupled to interface P22 through input output controller 125 and second interface controller 126, and is configured to reduce the bandwidth requirement of interface P22, to balance the bandwidth requirement.

It should be understood that, the above describes the communication apparatus provided in at least one embodiment of the present disclosure by taking the example that the bandwidth requirement of the interface P22 communicating with the PCIE protocol bus is high and the bandwidth requirement of the interface P21 communicating with the inter-chip interconnect interface protocol bus is low, but this does not limit the present disclosure, and the present disclosure may be applied to any scenario where the bandwidth requirements are unbalanced. For example, if the bandwidth requirement of the interface P21 communicating with the inter-chip interconnect interface protocol bus is high and the bandwidth requirement of the interface P22 communicating with the PCIE protocol bus is low, the interface P22 may be multiplexed into an interface communicating with the PCIE protocol bus and an interface communicating with the on-chip interconnect interface protocol bus.

Of course, the first bus unit and the second bus unit in at least one embodiment of the disclosure are not limited to the PCIE protocol bus and the inter-chip Interconnect interface protocol bus, and may also be other types of buses, for example, a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus or an Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) bus.

In still other embodiments of the present disclosure, the communication apparatus may further include a physical layer unit located at the physical layer and a second multiplexing control unit. The physical layer unit includes at least one physical layer interface, and the second multiplexing control unit is configured to control the first bus unit and the second bus unit to multiplex the at least one physical layer interface.

As shown in fig. 2, the communication apparatus 200 may further include a physical layer unit 150 and a multiplexing control unit 140. The multiplexing control unit 140 is an example of a second multiplexing control unit of the present disclosure. As shown in fig. 2, the link layer 220 may also include a Physical Coding Sub-layer (PCS). The PCS communicates with bus units of respective protocol types and the multiplexing control unit 140.

In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the physical layer unit includes at least one physical layer interface, each physical layer interface including a serializer and a deserializer.

For example, the physical layer unit includes a first physical layer interface. The first physical layer interface is, for example, a serializer and deserializer (SerDes)151 in fig. 2. As shown in fig. 2, a second multiplexing control unit (e.g., multiplexing control unit 140) is coupled with bus unit 221, bus unit 222, and the first physical layer interface (e.g., serializer and deserializer 151).

For another example, the physical layer unit includes a second physical layer interface in addition to the first physical layer interface. The second physical layer interface is, for example, the serializer and deserializer (SerDes)152 in fig. 2.

Although fig. 2 shows that the physical layer unit 150 includes two serializers and deserializers, that is, two physical layer interfaces, it does not mean that the number of physical layer interfaces in the communication device provided in the embodiment of the present disclosure is only 2, and in the communication device provided in at least one embodiment of the present disclosure, the number of physical layer interfaces may be any number greater than or equal to 1, for example, the communication device includes 1 physical layer interface or a plurality of physical layer interfaces.

In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the same physical layer interface may be multiplexed by the first bus unit and the second bus unit. For example, the serializer and the deserializer 151 may be multiplexed by a PCIE protocol bus and an inter-chip interconnect interface protocol bus, and the serializer and the deserializer 152 may also be multiplexed by a PCIE protocol bus and an inter-chip interconnect interface protocol bus, that is, the serializer and the deserializer 151 may serve as a physical layer interface of the PCIE protocol bus or a physical layer interface of the inter-chip interconnect interface protocol bus, and the serializer and the deserializer 152 may serve as a physical layer interface of the inter-chip interconnect interface protocol bus or a physical layer interface of the PCIE protocol bus.

The physical layer multiplexing can enable designers to flexibly integrate various protocols and electrical specifications in the communication device, different requirements of the communication device under different configurations are flexibly met, the physical layer is applied to a link layer of various interface protocols, physical layer resources can be utilized to the maximum extent, and the purpose of saving the area and power consumption of the system on chip is achieved when the communication device is used for a network on chip in the system on chip.

The multiplexing control unit 140 is configured to receive the second configuration information, and select a second target bus unit from the first bus unit and the second bus unit according to the second configuration information, and couple the second target bus unit with the first physical layer interface.

The second configuration information may be obtained by static configuration or dynamic configuration, and is similar to the first configuration information described above, and is not described herein again.

For example, the second configuration information indicates that the serializer and deserializer 151 is coupled with the bus unit 121, and then the second target bus unit is the bus unit 221.

As another example, the second configuration information indicates that serializer and deserializer 151 are coupled to bus unit (i.e., the interchip interconnect interface protocol bus) 222, and the second target bus unit is bus unit 222.

The link layer unit 220 further comprises a third bus unit, such as bus unit 223, the bus unit 223 being, for example, a PCIE protocol bus. The multiplexing control unit 140 is further coupled to the bus unit 223, and the multiplexing control unit 140 is further configured to select two target bus units from the bus unit 221, the bus unit 222, and the bus unit 223 according to the configuration information, and couple the two target bus units to the first physical layer interface and the second physical layer interface, respectively.

For example, if the configuration information indicates that the serializer and deserializer 151 is coupled with the bus unit 221 and the serializer and deserializer 152 is coupled with the bus unit 222, the multiplexing control unit 140 couples the bus unit 221 with the serializer and deserializer 151 and couples the bus unit 222 with the serializer and deserializer 152 such that the serializer and deserializer 151 serves as a physical layer interface of the bus unit 221 and the serializer and deserializer 152 serves as a physical layer interface of the bus unit 222.

The various data paths formed by the configuration of multiplexing control unit 130 and multiplexing control unit 140 are described below in conjunction with fig. 3-5. It should be understood that fig. 3-5 are merely examples of data paths formed by configuring the multiplexing control unit 130 and the multiplexing control unit 140 of the communication device 200, and those skilled in the art can configure the multiplexing control unit 130 and/or the multiplexing control unit 140 to obtain other data paths different from those shown in fig. 3-5.

Fig. 3 illustrates the data path formed by the communication device provided by the embodiment shown in fig. 2.

As shown in fig. 3, for example, after statically or dynamically configuring the multiplexing control unit 140, the multiplexing control unit 140 couples the serializer and deserializer 152 to the bus unit 222 (i.e., an inter-chip interconnect interface protocol bus) and couples the serializer and deserializer 151 to the bus unit 223 (e.g., a PCIE protocol bus), so that the serializer and deserializer 152 serves as a physical layer interface of the bus unit 222 (e.g., an inter-chip interconnect interface protocol bus) and the serializer and deserializer 151 serves as a physical layer interface of the bus unit 223 (i.e., a PCIE protocol bus).

Interface P21 is multiplexed by bus unit 222 and bus unit 221 (e.g., a PCIE protocol bus). As shown in FIG. 3, for example, after statically or dynamically configuring the multiplexing control unit 230, the interface P21 is coupled to the bus unit 222 such that the interface P21 is in communication with the bus unit 222.

As shown in fig. 3, since the multiplexing control unit 140 couples the serializer and deserializer 152 to the bus unit 222 (i.e., the interchip interconnect interface protocol bus) and the multiplexing control unit 230 couples the interface P0 to the bus unit 222, a data path a is formed between the serializer and deserializer 152, the multiplexing control unit 140, the bus unit 222, the multiplexing control unit 230, and the interface P21.

As shown in fig. 3, since the multiplexing control unit 140 couples the serializer and deserializer 151 to the bus unit 223 (i.e., PCIE protocol bus), and the bus unit 223 is coupled to the interface P22, a data path B between the serializer and deserializer 151, the multiplexing control unit 140, the bus unit 223, the input-output controller 125, the second interface controller 126, and the interface P22 is formed.

Fig. 4 shows another data path formed by the communication device provided by the embodiment shown in fig. 2.

As shown in fig. 4, for example, after statically or dynamically configuring the multiplexing control unit 140, the multiplexing control unit 140 couples the serializer and deserializer 151 to the bus unit 222 (i.e., inter-chip interconnect interface protocol bus) and couples the serializer and deserializer 152 to the bus unit 223 (i.e., PCIE protocol bus), so that the serializer and deserializer 151 serves as a physical layer interface of the bus unit 222 (i.e., inter-chip interconnect interface protocol bus) and the serializer and deserializer 152 serves as a physical layer interface of the bus unit 223 (i.e., PCIE protocol bus).

Interface P21 is multiplexed by bus unit 222 and bus unit 221 (e.g., a PCIE protocol bus). As shown in FIG. 4, for example, after statically configuring or dynamically configuring the multiplexing control unit 230, the interface P21 is coupled to the bus unit 222 such that the interface P21 communicates with the bus unit 222.

As shown in fig. 4, since the multiplexing control unit 140 couples the serializer and deserializer 151 to the bus unit 222 (i.e., the interchip interconnect interface protocol bus) and the multiplexing control unit 230 couples the interface P21 to the bus unit 222, a data path C between the serializer and deserializer 151, the multiplexing control unit 140, the bus unit 222, the multiplexing control unit 230, and the interface P21 is formed.

As shown in fig. 4, since the multiplexing control unit 140 couples the serializer and deserializer 152 to the bus unit 223 (i.e., PCIE protocol bus), and the bus unit 223 is coupled to the interface P22, a data path D between the serializer and deserializer 152, the multiplexing control unit 140, the bus unit 223, the input-output controller 125, the second interface controller 126, and the interface P22 is formed.

Fig. 5 illustrates yet another data path formed by the communication device provided by the embodiment shown in fig. 2.

As shown in fig. 5, for example, after statically or dynamically configuring the multiplexing control unit 140, the multiplexing control unit 140 couples the serializer and deserializer 151 to the bus unit 221 (i.e., PCIE protocol bus) and couples the serializer and deserializer 152 to the bus unit 223 (i.e., PCIE protocol bus), so that the serializer and deserializer 151 serves as a physical layer interface of the bus unit 221 (i.e., PCIE protocol bus) and the serializer and deserializer 152 serves as a physical layer interface of the bus unit 223 (i.e., PCIE protocol bus).

Interface P21 is multiplexed by bus unit 222 and bus unit 221 (e.g., a PCIE protocol bus). As shown in FIG. 5, for example, after statically or dynamically configuring multiplexing control unit 230, interface P21 is coupled to bus unit 221 such that interface P21 is in communication with bus unit 221.

As shown in fig. 5, since the multiplexing control unit 140 couples the serializer and the deserializer 151 to the bus unit 221 (i.e., PCIE protocol bus), and the multiplexing control unit 230 couples the interface P21 to the bus unit 221, a data path E between the serializer and the deserializer 151, the multiplexing control unit 140, the bus unit 221, the multiplexing control unit 230, and the interface P21 is formed.

As shown in fig. 5, since the multiplexing control unit 140 couples the serializer and deserializer 152 to the bus unit 223 (i.e., PCIE protocol bus), and the bus unit 223 is coupled to the interface P22, a data path F between the serializer and deserializer 152, the multiplexing control unit 140, the bus unit 223, the input-output controller 125, the second interface controller 126, and the interface P22 is formed.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present disclosure, the data paths are both bidirectional paths for data interaction between the interfaces of the network layer unit and the physical layer interface, and are not unidirectional paths, that is, data may be transmitted from the physical layer interface to the interfaces of the network layer unit through an uplink path, or may be transmitted from the interfaces of the network layer unit through a downlink path. For example, the upstream path of data path a is interface P21-multiplexing control unit 230-inter-chip interconnect interface protocol bus-multiplexing control unit 140-serializer and deserializer 152, and the downstream path is serializer and deserializer 152-multiplexing control unit 140-inter-chip interconnect interface protocol bus-multiplexing control unit 230-interface P21.

At least one embodiment of the present disclosure multiplexes interfaces of a network layer of a network on chip, but not only in a multiplexing physical layer, which has low cost of hardware overhead, and is beneficial to balancing bandwidth requirements and effectively improving bandwidth utilization. At least one embodiment of the present disclosure can meet bandwidth requirements in various configurations, requiring only a small amount of circuitry to be added, with little impact on system-on-chip area.

With the server chip becoming larger, the demand for IO is increasing. The same chip can be configured in different ways to meet different requirements in various application scenarios. The demands on IO are also different for different configurations. With the increasing number of the IO, the speed of the IO is higher and higher, the size of the physical layer has an increasing influence on the SOC area, and multiplexing of the physical layer under different configurations needs to be considered to avoid waste of the PHY. The method for multiplexing on the physical layer has unbalanced bandwidth requirement, is not beneficial to improving the bandwidth utilization rate and influences the performance of the NOC.

Fig. 6A illustrates a schematic diagram of a communication device provided in at least one embodiment of the present disclosure in which network layer interfaces are not multiplexed. For example, the embodiment of fig. 6A is based on the embodiment shown in fig. 2.

As shown in fig. 6A, for example, by the configuration of the multiplexing control unit 610, the serializer and deserializer 651 serve as a physical layer interface of the inter-chip interconnect interface protocol bus, and the serializer and deserializer 652 serve as a physical layer interface of the PCIE protocol bus 621 and the PCIE protocol bus 623. Each interface in the network layer unit does not realize multiplexing, an interface P00 is used for communicating with an inter-chip interconnection interface protocol bus, and an interface P10 is used for communicating with a PCIE protocol bus. Since interface P10 communicates with PCIE protocol bus 621 and PCIE protocol bus 623, and the actual effective bandwidth of x169csic5.0 is 57.6GBps, the bandwidth requirement of interface P10 is 115.2GBps, while the actual effective bandwidth of x16 inter-chip interconnect interface protocol is 45GBps, so the actual effective bandwidth of interface P00 is 45 GBps.

Fig. 6B shows a schematic diagram of the bandwidth requirements of interface P00 and interface P10 of the communication device in the embodiment shown in fig. 6A. As shown in FIG. 6B, the bandwidth requirement of interface P10 is 115.2GBps, and the actual effective bandwidth of interface P00 is 45 GBps. Therefore, the bandwidth requirements of interface P10 and interface P00 are unbalanced, resulting in a waste of bandwidth resources.

Fig. 6C is a diagram showing the bandwidth requirement after the interface P21 of the communication apparatus is multiplexed in the embodiment shown in fig. 2. As shown in FIG. 6C, the bandwidth requirements of both interface P21 and interface P22 are 57.6 Gbps. After multiplexing the network layer of the communication device, for example, forming the data path of any of the embodiments in fig. 3-5, the bandwidth requirements of both P21 and P22 are 57.6 Gbps. Compared with the bandwidth requirement of the interface P10 being 115.2GBps, the actual effective bandwidth of the interface P00 being 45GBps, the three configuration bandwidth requirements of FIGS. 3-5 are obviously reduced and are more balanced, which is beneficial to improving the performance of NOC.

At least one embodiment of the present disclosure provides an electronic device including the communication device in any of the above embodiments. For example, the electronic device may be a system-on-a-chip, or other device that involves a network communication protocol. The electronic device can meet the bandwidth requirement of the balanced network layer interface, and effectively improves the bandwidth utilization rate. With regard to the communication device in the electronic device, please refer to the description of the above embodiments.

At least one embodiment of the present disclosure provides a communication method of a communication apparatus. The communication device comprises a network layer unit positioned in a network layer, a link layer unit positioned in a data link layer and a first multiplexing control unit, wherein the network layer unit comprises a first interface, the link layer unit comprises a first bus unit and a second bus unit, the first bus unit transmits data information of a first protocol type, and the second bus unit transmits data information of a second protocol type. For a detailed description of the communication device, please refer to any of the above embodiments, which are not repeated herein. The communication method comprises the following steps: and multiplexing the first interface by the first bus unit and the second bus unit by using the first multiplexing control unit so as to enable the first bus unit and the second bus unit to respectively communicate with the network layer unit through the first interface.

In some embodiments of the present disclosure, multiplexing the first interface with the second bus unit using the first multiplexing control unit includes: acquiring first configuration information; and according to the first configuration information, the first multiplexing control unit selects a first target bus from the first bus unit and the second bus unit and couples the first target bus and the first interface.

The communication method of the communication device can meet the bandwidth requirement of the balanced network layer interface, and effectively improves the bandwidth utilization rate.

In some embodiments of the disclosure, the link layer unit further includes a first interface controller configured to perform protocol conversion on data information exchanged between the first interface and a first bus unit, the first bus unit being coupled to the first multiplexing control unit through the first interface controller.

For example, the first bus unit is a PCIE protocol bus, and the first interface controller is an NOC interface controller. For example, the NOC interface controller may protocol convert data messages from the bus units to a protocol format recognizable by the first interface, or the NOC interface controller may convert data messages from the first interface to a protocol format supported by the first bus unit.

For example, the link layer unit further includes: an input output controller configured to control distribution of the data information, the first bus unit being coupled with the first interface controller through the input output controller.

In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the first protocol type is a high speed serial computer expansion bus standard protocol and the second protocol type is an inter-chip interconnect interface protocol.

At least one embodiment of the present disclosure also provides a computer-readable storage medium for storing non-transitory computer-readable instructions that, when executed by a processor, may implement at least some of the steps of the communication method described above.

Fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of a computer-readable storage medium according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown in fig. 7, the computer-readable storage medium 700 is used to store non-transitory computer-readable instructions 710. For example, the non-transitory computer readable instructions 710, when executed by a processor, may perform one or more steps of a communication method according to a communication apparatus described above. The computer-readable storage medium 700 may be applied to the communication apparatus 200, for example.

The following points need to be explained:

(1) the drawings of the embodiments of the disclosure only relate to the structures related to the embodiments of the disclosure, and other structures can refer to common designs.

(2) Without conflict, embodiments of the present disclosure and features of the embodiments may be combined with each other to arrive at new embodiments.

The above description is only a specific embodiment of the present disclosure, but the scope of the present disclosure is not limited thereto, and the scope of the present disclosure should be subject to the scope of the claims.

Claims (16)

1. A communication device, comprising:

the network layer unit is positioned at a network layer and comprises a first interface;

the link layer unit is positioned at a data link layer and at least comprises a first bus unit and a second bus unit, wherein the first bus unit is configured to transmit data information of a first protocol type, and the second bus unit is configured to transmit data information of a second protocol type; and

and the first multiplexing control unit is configured to control the first bus unit and the second bus unit to multiplex the first interface, so that the first bus unit and the second bus unit respectively communicate with the network layer unit through the first interface.

2. The communication device of claim 1, wherein the first multiplexing control unit is coupled with the first interface, the first bus unit, and the second bus unit,

the first multiplexing control unit is configured to:

acquiring first configuration information; and

selecting a first target bus from the first bus unit and the second bus unit according to the first configuration information, and coupling the first target bus and the first interface.

3. The communication device according to claim 2, wherein the first multiplexing control unit is configured to receive downlink data information from the first interface, and obtain the first configuration information by parsing the downlink data information.

4. The communications apparatus of claim 1, wherein the link layer unit further comprises:

a first interface controller configured to perform protocol conversion on data information exchanged between the first interface and the first bus unit,

wherein the first bus unit is coupled to the first multiplexing control unit through the first interface controller.

5. The communication device of claim 4, wherein the link layer unit further comprises:

an input-output controller configured to control distribution of the data information,

wherein the first bus unit is coupled with the first interface controller through the input-output controller.

6. The communication device of claim 5, wherein the link layer unit further comprises a third bus unit, the network layer unit further comprises a second interface,

the third bus unit is coupled with the second interface.

7. The communication device according to claim 6, wherein the third bus unit is configured to transmit data information of the first protocol type.

8. The communications apparatus of claim 7, wherein the link layer unit further comprises:

a second interface controller coupled to the second interface and the input/output controller and configured to perform protocol conversion on data information exchanged between the second interface and the third bus unit,

wherein the third bus unit is coupled with the second interface controller through the input-output controller.

9. The communication device according to any one of claims 4 to 8, wherein the first protocol type is a high speed serial computer extension bus standard protocol and the second protocol type is an inter-chip interconnect interface protocol.

10. The communication device of claim 1, further comprising:

a physical layer unit at a physical layer, wherein the physical layer unit comprises at least one physical layer interface; and

a second multiplexing control unit configured to control the first bus unit and the second bus unit to multiplex the at least one physical layer interface.

11. The communication apparatus of claim 10, wherein the at least one physical layer interface comprises a first physical layer interface,

the second multiplexing control unit is coupled with the first bus unit, the second bus unit and the first physical layer interface,

the second multiplexing control unit is configured to:

receiving second configuration information; and

selecting a second target bus unit from the first bus unit and the second bus unit according to the second configuration information, and coupling the second target bus unit with the first physical layer interface.

12. The communication device of claim 11, wherein the at least one physical layer interface further comprises a second physical layer interface, the link layer unit further comprises a third bus unit, the second multiplexing control unit further coupled with the third bus unit,

the second multiplexing control unit is further configured to: selecting two target bus units from the first bus unit, the second bus unit, and the third bus unit according to configuration information, and coupling the two target bus units with the first physical layer interface and the second physical layer interface, respectively.

13. The communication device of any of claims 10 to 12, wherein the at least one physical layer interface each comprises a serializer and a deserializer.

14. An electronic device comprising a communication device according to any of claims 1-13.

15. A communication method of a communication device, wherein the communication device comprises a network layer unit located at a network layer, a link layer unit located at a data link layer and a first multiplexing control unit, the network layer unit comprises a first interface, the link layer unit comprises a first bus unit and a second bus unit, the first bus unit transmits data information of a first protocol type, the second bus unit transmits data information of a second protocol type,

the method comprises the following steps:

and multiplexing the first interface by the first bus unit and the second bus unit by using the first multiplexing control unit so as to enable the first bus unit and the second bus unit to respectively communicate with the network layer unit through the first interface.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein causing the first bus unit and the second bus unit to multiplex the first interface with the first multiplexing control unit comprises:

acquiring first configuration information; and

according to the first configuration information, the first multiplexing control unit selects a first target bus from the first bus unit and the second bus unit, and couples the first target bus and the first interface.

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