TW202121175A - Method for performing reading and writing operation to i2c memory based on system management bus interface - Google Patents

Abstract

A method for performing a reading and a writing operation to a I2C memory based on a system management bus interface provided by the present disclosure includes: when performing the writing operation to the I2C memory, a high eight-bit address of the I2C memory is written to a command register (command code) of the SMBus writing command; a low eight-bit address of the I2C memory is written to a first data register (data byte low) of the SMBus writing command; byte data of the I2C memory to be written is written to a second data register of the SMBus writing command; when performing the reading operation, a SMBus receiving byte command is sent to the I2C memory and the data read form the I2C memory is written to the data register of SMBus receiving byte command.

Description

Method for reading and writing I2C memory based on system management bus interface

The invention relates to a method for reading and writing data, in particular to a method for reading and writing an I2C memory based on a system management bus interface.

In the prior art, the basic input output system (Basic Input Output System, BIOS) has master control during the system startup process, and the existing UEFI BIOS allows the power on self test (POST) process and runtime (Runtime) Read or write UEFI variables into the NVRAM of the BIOS memory to save and record the variables during the BIOS operation or the variables that need to be interacted with the operating system (Operating System, OS).

In addition, since the BIOS will transfer the control right to the OS after the startup is completed, when a system error such as memory error checking and correction (Error Checking and Correcting, ECC) occurs, it will trigger the system to enter the System Management Mode (System Management Mode). , SMM). At this time, the BIOS will regain control for a short time, check the relevant registers in the system to locate the component and location where the error occurred, and send the relevant information to the BMC through the Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) command to record and save , So that the user can query the corresponding error record through the IPMI command later.

However, the above approach has the following disadvantages:

(1) The memory NVRAM space of the BIOS is a part of the space reserved in the BIOS ROM chip. Because the code part of the BIOS itself is already quite large, the space capacity of the memory NVRAM is limited;

(2) When the BIOS is upgrading and upgrading, the entire BIOS ROM is often erased and then burned, and all the variables previously saved will be cleared;

(3) When sending IPMI commands to BMC, it relies heavily on the operating status of BMC. If BMC runs incorrectly at this time, events and errors that cannot be recorded will occur, which will directly lead to a decrease in the reliability of the server.

In view of the above-mentioned shortcomings of the prior art, the purpose of the present invention is to provide a method for reading and writing I2C memory based on the system management bus interface. The memory is used in the master-slave architecture server to record startup event information and system errors. Information to ensure the integrity of the data and the stability of the server.

In order to achieve the above and other related purposes, the present invention provides a method for reading and writing I2C memory based on a system management bus interface, which includes: when writing to the I2C memory, writing to the system management bus Write the high octet address of the I2C memory in the command register of the write command, write the low octet address of the I2C memory in the first data register of the system management bus write command, and set Write the byte data to be written into the I2C memory in the second data register of the system management bus write command; when the I2C memory is read, send the system management bus receive byte command To the I2C memory, and write the data read from the I2C memory in the data register of the system management bus that receives byte commands.

In an embodiment of the present invention, it is applied to a server with a master-slave architecture. The server with a master-slave architecture includes a master node, a multiplexer, and at least two slave nodes; each slave node passes through the multiplexer The device is connected to the master node; the slave node includes a slave node basic input output system, a slave node south bridge chip, and a slave node I2C memory; the master node includes a master node basic input output system, a master node south bridge chip, and a master node I2C memory and baseboard management controller; the slave node south bridge chip is connected to the slave node I2C memory through the system management bus interface; the master node south bridge chip is connected to the master node I2C memory through the system management bus interface体连接。 Body connected.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the slave node basic input output system records the slave node information in the slave node I2C memory through the slave node south bridge chip; the master node basic input output system records the slave node information in the slave node I2C memory; The node south bridge chip records the master node information in the master node I2C memory.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the slave node information includes one or more combinations of startup event information and system error information.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the master node information includes one or more combinations of startup event information and system error information.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the baseboard management controller selects to access the slave node I2C memory of a certain slave node through the multiplexer.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the universal input/output port of the south bridge chip of the master node is connected to the universal input/output port of the substrate controller.

In an embodiment of the present invention, when the universal input and output port signal is the first value, the master node basic input output system accesses the master node I2C memory; when the universal input and output port signal is the second value , The baseboard management controller accesses the I2C memory of the master node.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the baseboard management controller is connected to the multiplexer through an I2C bus.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the multiplexer is connected to the I2C memory of the slave node through an I2C bus.

As mentioned above, the method for reading and writing I2C memory based on the system management bus interface of the present invention has the following beneficial effects:

(1) Use memory in the master-slave architecture server to record startup event information and system error information;

(2) Expanded the storage capacity of variables in the memory NVRAM in the BIOS;

(3) Ensure the integrity of the data during the BIOS update and programming process;

(4) Without relying on the existence of BMC, events and error information during operation can be recorded by itself, which improves the reliability of the server.

The following describes the implementation of the present invention through specific specific examples, and those skilled in the art can easily understand other advantages and effects of the present invention from the content disclosed in this specification. The present invention can also be implemented or applied through other different specific embodiments, and various details in this specification can also be modified or changed based on different viewpoints and applications without departing from the spirit of the present invention. It should be noted that, in the case of no conflict, the following embodiments and the features in the embodiments can be combined with each other.

It should be noted that the illustrations provided in the following embodiments only illustrate the basic idea of the present invention in a schematic way. The figures only show the components related to the present invention instead of the number, shape and number of elements in actual implementation. For the size drawing, the type, number, and ratio of each component can be changed at will during actual implementation, and the component layout type may also be more complicated.

The method for reading and writing to I2C memory based on the System Management Bus (SMBus) interface of the present invention uses memory in a master-slave architecture server to record startup event information and system error information. The I2C memory performs data reading and writing, which effectively guarantees the integrity of the data and the stability of the server, and is highly practical.

According to the agreement specifications of SMBus spec and I2C spec, SMBus is fully compatible with I2C signals at the physical layer (both have only two signals, SDA and SCLK). Since SMBus has upgraded and standardized the I2C commands at the network protocol layer, when accessing the I2C memory through the SMBus interface, the access must be performed in accordance with the read and write sequence of the memory. Otherwise, the signal received by the memory will be parsed incorrectly. Cannot read or write.

As shown in FIG. 1, in one embodiment, the method for reading and writing I2C memory based on the system management bus interface of the present invention includes:

Step S1. When performing a write operation on the I2C memory, write the command register of the system management bus write command to the high octet address of the I2C memory, and write the system management bus write command Write the low octet address of the I2C memory in the first data register, and write the byte data to be written into the I2C memory in the second data register of the system management bus write command.

As shown in Figure 2 and Figure 3, comparing the I2C write timing with the protocol write command timing supported by the SMBus interface, it can be found that the write command timing of the SMBus protocol is used to simulate the comparison command timing of the I2C memory EEPROM. Therefore, according to the above-mentioned operation sequence and the definition of SMBus Host Controller Protocol, when writing to the I2C memory, write the command register (Command Code) of the SMBus bus write command to the I2C memory The high octet address, the first data register (Data Byte Low) of the SMBus bus write command is written into the low octet address of the I2C memory, and the SMBus bus write command is The second data register (Data Byte High) is written into the byte data to be written into the I2C memory. Therefore, when the I2C memory receives the above-mentioned SMBus bus write command, the byte input of the second data register can be written into the I2C memory.

Step S2. When performing a read operation on the I2C memory, send a system management bus receive byte command to the I2C memory, and write the data read from the I2C memory in the system The management bus receives byte commands in the data register.

As shown in Figures 4 and 5, comparing the I2C write timing with the protocol write command timing supported by the SMBus interface, it can be found that the received bit command timing of the SMBus protocol is used to simulate the current address read command timing of the I2C memory EEPROM. Therefore, according to the above operation sequence and the definition of SMBus Host Controller Protocol, when the I2C memory is read, the SMBus bus receive byte command is sent to the I2C memory, and the I2C memory will The data to be read is written into the data register (Data Byte from Slave) of the SMBus bus receiving byte commands, and there is no need to fill in the command register (Command Code).

In an embodiment of the present invention, the above-mentioned method for reading and writing I2C memory based on the system management bus interface is applied to a server with a master-slave architecture as shown in FIG. 6. The master-slave architecture server includes a master node 1, a multiplexer 2, and at least two slave nodes 3 (that is, slave node 1, slave node 2, ... slave node n-1 and slave node n). Wherein, the master node 1 is connected to each of the slave nodes 3 through the multiplexer 2.

As shown in FIG. 8, the slave node 3 includes a slave node BIOS 31, a slave node south bridge chip (PCH) 33, and a slave node I2C memory 32 (such as EEPROM). The slave node BIOS 31 accesses the slave node memory 32 through the slave node south bridge chip 33. The slave node south bridge chip 33 is connected to the slave node memory 32 through an SMBus interface.

As shown in FIG. 7, the master node 1 includes a master node BIOS 11, a master node south bridge chip 13, a master node I2C memory 12 (such as EEPROM), and a BMC 14. The master node south bridge chip 13 is connected to the master node I2C memory 12 through an SMBus interface.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the slave node BIOS 31 records the slave node information in the slave node I2C memory 32 through the slave node south bridge chip 33. Wherein, the slave node information includes one or more combinations of slave node startup event information and slave node system error information.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the master node BIOS 11 records the master node information in the master node I2C memory 12 through the master node south bridge chip 13. Wherein, the master node information includes one or more combinations of master node startup event information and master node system error information. The BMC 14 selects to access the I2C memory of a slave node through the multiplexer 2.

The multiplexer 2 is connected to the BMC 14 through an I2C bus, and is connected to the memory of the slave node through an I2C bus.

When accessing the I2C memory, the BIOS and BMC must be the master to have access rights, and there is no master arbitration mechanism on the I2C signal. Therefore, in the present invention, the access to the BIOS and the BMC is switched and controlled through the General Purpose Input Output (GPIO) connected between the south bridge chip of the master node and the BMC. In an embodiment of the present invention, when the GPIO signal has a first value, the master node BIOS accesses the master node memory; when the GPIO signal has a second value, the BMC accesses the master node memory body. Specifically, the GPIO reserved on the south bridge chip of the master node is used to connect with the GPIO on the BMC; when the GPIO signal is low, the BIOS can access the memory of the master node for event and error recording. At this time, the BMC is waiting for round robin Process; After the BIOS access is over, the GPIO signal is pulled high, and when the BMC detects that the GPIO signal is high, it has access authority and can read the corresponding event and error records from the memory of the master node.

In summary, the method for reading and writing I2C memory based on the system management bus interface of the present invention uses memory in a master-slave architecture server to record startup event information and system error information; expands the memory NVRAM in the BIOS The storage capacity of medium variables; the integrity of the data is ensured during the BIOS update and programming process; the events and error information in the running process can be recorded by itself without the need of relying on the existence of the BMC, which improves the reliability of the server. Therefore, the present invention effectively overcomes various shortcomings in the prior art and has a high industrial value.

The above-mentioned embodiments only exemplarily illustrate the principles and effects of the present invention, but are not used to limit the present invention. Anyone familiar with this technology can modify or change the above-mentioned embodiments without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Therefore, all equivalent modifications or changes made by those with ordinary knowledge in the technical field without departing from the spirit and technical ideas disclosed in the present invention should still be covered by the scope of patent application of the present invention.

1: master node 11: Master node BIOS 12: Master node memory 13: Main node south bridge chip 14: BMC 2: Multiplexer 3: slave node 31: Slave node BIOS 32: Slave node memory 33: Slave node south bridge chip

FIG. 1 shows a flowchart in an embodiment of the method for reading and writing to I2C memory based on the system management bus interface of the present invention; Figure 2 shows a close-up timing diagram of I2C memory; Figure 3 shows the timing diagram of the write command of the SMBus interface; Figure 4 shows the timing diagram of the current address read command of the I2C memory; Figure 5 shows a timing diagram of receiving bit commands on the SMBus interface; FIG. 6 shows a schematic diagram of the structure of the master-slave architecture server in an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 7 shows a schematic diagram of the structure of the master node in an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of the structure of a slave node in an embodiment of the present invention.

Claims (10)

A method for reading and writing I2C memory based on a system management bus interface, comprising: when a write operation is performed on the I2C memory, writing a command register of the system management bus write command into the I2C memory Write the high octet address of the system management bus write command to the low octet address of the I2C memory in the first data register of the system management bus write command, and write the system management bus write command to the second data register of the I2C memory Write byte data to be written into the I2C memory; and when the I2C memory is read, send a system management bus receive byte command to the I2C memory, and send the data from the I2C memory. The data read by the I2C memory is written into the data register of the system management bus receiving byte commands. The method for reading and writing I2C memory based on the system management bus interface as described in claim 1, which is applied to a server with a master-slave architecture, and the server with a master-slave architecture includes a master node, a multiplexer, and at least Two slave nodes; each slave node is connected to the master node through the multiplexer; the slave node includes a slave node basic input output system, a slave node south bridge chip and a slave node I2C memory, the master The node includes the basic input output system of the master node, the south bridge chip of the master node, the I2C memory of the master node and the baseboard management controller; the south bridge chip of the slave node is connected to the I2C memory of the slave node through the system management bus interface; The node south bridge chip is connected to the main node I2C memory through the system management bus interface. The method for reading and writing I2C memory based on the system management bus interface as described in claim 2, wherein the slave node basic input output system records the slave node information on the slave node I2C through the slave node south bridge chip In the memory; the master node basic input output system records the master node information in the master node I2C memory through the master node south bridge chip. The method for reading and writing to I2C memory based on the system management bus interface as described in claim 3, wherein the slave node information includes one or more combinations of startup event information and system error information. According to claim 3, the method for reading and writing to I2C memory based on the system management bus interface, wherein the master node information includes one or more combinations of startup event information and system error information. The method for reading and writing I2C memory based on the system management bus interface as described in claim 2, wherein the baseboard management controller selects to access the I2C memory of a slave node through the multiplexer. The method for reading and writing I2C memory based on the system management bus interface as described in claim 2, wherein the universal I/O port of the south bridge chip of the master node is connected to the universal I/O port of the substrate controller. The method for reading and writing I2C memory based on the system management bus interface as described in claim 7, wherein when the universal input and output port signal is the first value, the master node basic input output system accesses the master node I2C Memory; when the universal input and output port signal is a second value, the baseboard management controller accesses the master node I2C memory. The method for reading and writing to an I2C memory based on a system management bus interface as described in claim 2, wherein the baseboard management controller is connected to the multiplexer through an I2C bus. The method for reading and writing I2C memory based on a system management bus interface as described in claim 2, wherein the multiplexer is connected to the I2C memory of the slave node through an I2C bus.

Images