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 device, an electronic device, and a communication method.

Background technique

System On Chip (SOC) usually refers to a digital computer system implemented on a single chip. The modules in the SoC interact through the bus, but with the rapid development of semiconductor technology and requirements, the width of the bus has become a bottleneck in the development of SOC, which greatly limits the speed of internal communication in the SoC. In the 1990s, Network On Chip (NOC) was proposed to solve the architectural problem of SOC, so as to realize the communication between various modules in the SoC.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

At least one embodiment of the present disclosure provides a communication device, including: a network layer unit located at the network layer and including a first interface; a link layer unit located at the data link layer and including at least a first bus unit and a second bus unit, a first bus unit configured to transmit data information of a first protocol type, a second bus unit 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 The first interface is multiplexed, 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 the communication device provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure, the 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: obtain the 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 device provided by 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 by 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 the first bus unit, and the first bus The unit is coupled to the first multiplexing control unit through the first interface controller.

For example, in the communication device provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure, the link layer unit further includes: an input/output controller configured to control the distribution of data information, and the first bus unit is coupled to the first interface controller through the input/output controller catch.

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

For example, in the communication device provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure, the link layer unit further includes: a second interface controller, coupled to the second interface and the I/O controller, and configured to connect to the second interface and the third bus The data information exchanged between the units is subjected to protocol conversion, and the third bus unit is coupled to the second interface controller through the input and output controller.

For example, in the communication device provided by an embodiment 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.

For example, in a communication device provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure, it further includes: a physical layer unit located at a physical layer, where the physical layer unit includes at least one physical layer interface; and a second multiplexing control unit configured to control the first bus unit Multiplexing at least one physical layer interface with the second bus unit.

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

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

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

At least one embodiment of the present disclosure provides an electronic device, where the electronic device includes the communication device provided by any embodiment of the present disclosure.

At least one embodiment of the present disclosure provides a communication method for a communication device. The communication device includes 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 includes a first multiplexing control unit. The 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: using the first complex The first bus unit and the second bus unit are multiplexed with the first interface by the control unit, 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 the communication method provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure, using the first multiplexing control unit to multiplex the first interface between the first bus unit and the second bus unit includes: acquiring first configuration information; and according to the first configuration information, the first multiplexing control unit selects the first target bus from the first bus unit and the second bus unit, and is coupled to the first target bus and the first interface.

Description of drawings

In order to explain the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present disclosure more clearly, the accompanying drawings of the embodiments will be briefly introduced below. Obviously, the drawings in the following description only relate to some embodiments of the present disclosure, rather than limit the present disclosure. .

FIG. 1 shows a schematic block diagram of a communication apparatus provided by at least one embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 shows a schematic block diagram of another communication apparatus provided by at least one embodiment of the present disclosure;

Fig. 3 shows the data path formed by the communication device provided by the embodiment shown in Fig. 2;

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

Fig. 5 shows another data path formed by the communication device provided by the embodiment shown in Fig. 2;

FIG. 6A is a schematic diagram illustrating that the network layer interface of the communication apparatus provided by at least one embodiment of the present disclosure is not multiplexed;

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

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

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of a computer-readable storage medium provided by some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Detailed ways

In order to make the purpose, technical solutions and advantages of the embodiments of the present disclosure more clear, the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present disclosure will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the accompanying drawings of the embodiments of the present disclosure. Obviously, the described embodiments are some, but not all, embodiments of the present disclosure. Based on the described embodiments of the present disclosure, all other embodiments obtained by those of ordinary skill in the art without creative efforts fall within the protection scope of the present disclosure.

Unless otherwise defined, technical or scientific terms used in this disclosure shall have the ordinary meaning as understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this disclosure belongs. As used in this disclosure, "first," "second," and similar terms do not denote any order, quantity, or importance, but are merely used to distinguish the various components. Likewise, words such as "a," "an," or "the" do not denote a limitation of quantity, but rather denote the presence of at least one. "Comprises" or "comprising" and similar words mean that the elements or things appearing before the word encompass the elements or things recited after the word and their equivalents, but do not exclude other elements or things. Words like "connected" or "connected" are not limited to physical or mechanical connections, but may include electrical connections, whether direct or indirect. "Up", "Down", "Left", "Right", etc. are only used to represent the relative positional relationship, and when the absolute position of the described object changes, the relative positional relationship may also change accordingly.

The birth of NOC is based on the needs of increasing the scale of processors. The theoretical system of NOC is born out of the theoretical research foundation of system-level interconnection. With the development of nearly 20 years, NOC technology has become more and more mature. Due to factors such as area, power consumption, on-chip storage resources, integration technology, and the number of pins, NOC needs to comprehensively measure the design constraints. NOC interconnection draws on the concept of layered protocol of system network, and divides the entire communication and design process into multiple layers according to the different functional subjects, thereby simplifying the correlation, simplifying the design and improving the reusability of the design, etc. The early system network proposed the seven-layer protocol of OSI. With the development of technology, NOC interconnection generally adopts five-layer protocol, and the five-layer protocol is application layer, transport layer, network layer, data link layer and physical layer.

The application layer is usually responsible for the behavior of the communication content agreed between on-chip components such as processor cores, caches, input/output (IO) interfaces, and storage controllers that need to communicate with each other, such as cache coherency-oriented protocols, non-coherence protocols, etc. . The main communication types of the application layer include control information, data information and response information. The transport layer is responsible for message distribution, channel multiplexing, basic transport services, and handling the sending, receiving, and reassembly of message segments. The network layer is responsible for routing management, flow control management, and storage management of data packets from source to destination. 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, etc. The physical layer is responsible for the point-to-point transmission of related bit streams 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 part of the plurality of interfaces. For example, two interfaces communicate with different buses in the data link layer unit respectively. Due to the different effective bandwidths of different buses, the bandwidth requirements of these two interfaces are different. Therefore, the bandwidth requirements between different interfaces are easily unbalanced, which is not conducive to Improve bandwidth utilization, which in turn affects NOC performance.

At least one embodiment of the present disclosure provides a communication device, including: a network layer unit located at the network layer and including a first interface; a link layer unit located at the data link layer and including at least a first bus unit and a second bus unit , the first bus unit is configured to transmit data information of a first protocol type, the second bus unit is configured to transmit data information of a second protocol type; and a first multiplexing control unit is configured to control the first The bus unit and the second bus unit 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, the communication device is used in, for example, a network-on-chip in a system-on-chip, thereby effectively balancing bandwidth requirements and improving bandwidth utilization.

FIG. 1 shows a schematic block diagram of a communication apparatus provided by at least one embodiment of the present disclosure.

As shown in FIG. 1 , the communication apparatus 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 the network layer, and the link layer unit 120 is located at the data link layer. For example, the communication device 100 is used as a routing node of a network on chip (NOC) such as in a system on chip (chip).

The network layer unit 110 includes a first interface, which is denoted as interface P0. For example, the network layer unit 110 is responsible for routing management, flow control management, storage management, etc. of the data packets from the source end to the 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 the first protocol type, and the bus unit 122 is configured to transmit data information of the second protocol type. The bus unit 121 is an example of a first bus unit in this disclosure, and the bus unit 122 is an example of a second bus unit in this disclosure.

For example, the first protocol type may be a high-speed serial computer expansion bus standard protocol (peripheral component interconnect express, 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 defined by a chip designer or a CXL (Compute Express Link) protocol. The embodiments of the present disclosure do not limit the 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, and performing link point-to-point reliability transmission control, data encoding and decoding, and the like.

The multiplexing control unit 130 is an example of the 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 device 100 realizes the multiplexing of the interface P0 in the network layer unit 110 through the multiplexing control unit 130, so as to effectively balance the bandwidth requirements and improve the bandwidth utilization rate. For example, the network layer unit 110 further includes a second interface, which is marked as interface P1. If the interface P1 communicates with multiple buses, the bandwidth requirement of the interface P1 is relatively large, and the bandwidth requirement of the interface P0 is relatively small. At least one of the multiple buses communicating with the interface P1 communicates with the interface P0 through the multiplexing control unit 130, so as to balance the bandwidth requirements among the interfaces and improve the 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 to 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, 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 the data written to the register can 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, in the network layer unit During the communication process with the link layer unit, the first target bus and the first interface are always communicated, 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, and the first bus unit is connected to the first interface. In response to the data in the register being 0, the second bus unit is selected as the first target bus, and the second bus unit is connected to the first interface. For example, when the link layer unit 120 includes more bus units, the register of the multiplexing control unit 130 may use more bits to record the first configuration information.

The multiplexing control unit 130 is coupled to the first target bus and the first interface, and the multiplexing control unit 130 may logically connect the first interface to the MAC layer of the protocol to which the first target bus belongs. MAC is the media access control sublayer, which is mainly responsible for controlling and connecting 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 logically connects the first interface with the MAC layer 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 analyzes the downlink data information to obtain the 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 the 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 to the bus that transmits data conforming to the PCIE protocol. For another example, if the type of the destination bus protocol is an inter-chip interconnect interface protocol, the multiplexing control unit 130 couples the interface P0 to a bus that transmits data conforming to the inter-chip interconnect interface protocol.

FIG. 2 shows a schematic block diagram of another communication apparatus provided by at least one embodiment of the present disclosure.

As shown in FIG. 2 , the network layer unit 210 in the communication device 200 includes an interface P21 and an interface P22, 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 is another example of the first bus unit of the present disclosure, and the bus 222 is another example of the 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 , the link layer unit 220 may further include a third bus unit, such as a bus unit 223, and the bus unit 223 is coupled to the interface P22. In this embodiment, the bus unit 221 is configured to transmit data information of the 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 the inter-chip interconnect interface protocol, that is, the bus unit 222 is a Inter-chip interconnect interface protocol bus.

For example, the bus unit 223 is configured to transmit data information of the 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 , in addition to the bus unit 221 , the bus unit 222 and the bus unit 223 , the link layer unit 220 may further include a first interface controller 124 , such as a NOC interface controller.

The first interface controller 124 is configured to perform protocol conversion on the data information exchanged between the first interface and the first bus unit. For example, the bus unit 221 is coupled to 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 and output controller 125 . The I/O controller 125 is configured to control the distribution of data information, and the bus unit 221 is coupled to the interface controller 124 through the I/O controller 125 .

For example, input output controller 125 is responsible for distributing data from first interface controller 124 to bus unit 221 and bus unit 223, and for distributing data from bus unit 221 and 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 I/O controller 125, and is configured to perform protocol conversion on the data information exchanged between the interface P1 and the bus unit 223. The bus unit 223 communicates with the second interface P1 through the I/O controller 125. The interface controller is coupled.

As shown in FIG. 2 , for example, the bus unit 221 and the bus unit 223 are both PCIE protocol buses, and the bus unit 222 is an inter-chip interconnection interface protocol bus. At present, the actual effective bandwidth of x16 PCIE5.0 is 57.6GBps, and the actual effective bandwidth of the x16 inter-chip interconnect interface protocol is 45GBps. 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 115.2 GBps. Therefore, the bandwidth requirement of the interface of the network layer unit 110 is unbalanced, which is not conducive to the improvement of the bandwidth utilization rate, thereby affecting the NOC performance.

In the communication device provided by at least one embodiment of the present disclosure, a multiplexing control unit (for example, the multiplexing control unit 130 in FIG. 1 and the multiplexing control unit 230 in FIG. 2 ) is added, and the multiplexing control unit 130 can make The interface P0 is multiplexed by the PCIE protocol bus and the inter-chip interconnect interface protocol bus, and the multiplexing control unit 230 can make the interface P21 multiplexed by the PCIE protocol bus and the inter-chip interconnect interface protocol bus. Therefore, when the bandwidth requirement of the interface P1 is relatively high, part of the PCIE protocol bus in the multiple PCIE protocol buses can be coupled to the interface P0 through the multiplexing control unit 130; when the bandwidth requirement of the interface P22 is relatively high, multiple PCIE protocol buses can be coupled Part of the PCIE protocol bus in the PCIE protocol bus is coupled to the interface P21 through the multiplexing control unit 230, so as to balance the bandwidth requirements and improve the bandwidth utilization rate.

As shown in FIG. 2 , the interface P21 coupled to the inter-chip interconnection interface protocol bus is multiplexed as an interface that communicates with the PCIE protocol bus, so that the bus unit 221 is coupled to the first interface controller 124 through the I/O controller 125 The multiplexing control unit 230 is coupled to the interface P21, and the bus unit 223 is coupled to the interface P22 through the I/O controller 125 and the second interface controller 126, thereby reducing the bandwidth requirement of the interface P22 to balance the bandwidth requirement.

It should be understood that the above-mentioned interface P22 that communicates with the PCIE protocol bus has a relatively high bandwidth requirement, and the interface P21 that communicates with the inter-chip interconnection interface protocol bus has a relatively low bandwidth requirement as an example to illustrate that at least one embodiment of the present disclosure provides. However, this does not limit the present disclosure, and the present disclosure can be applied to any scenario with unbalanced bandwidth requirements. For example, if the bandwidth requirement of the interface P21 that communicates with the inter-chip interconnection interface protocol bus is relatively high, and the bandwidth requirement of the interface P22 that communicates with the PCIE protocol bus is relatively low, the interface P22 can be multiplexed as an interface that communicates with the PCIE protocol bus. and interface to communicate 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 present disclosure are not limited to the PCIE protocol bus and the inter-chip interconnection interface protocol bus, and may also be other types of buses, such as the interconnection of peripheral components. Standard (Peripheral Component Interconnect, PCI) bus or Accelerated Graphics Port (Accelerated Graphics Port, AGP) bus and the like.

In 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 the second multiplexing control unit of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 2 , the link layer 220 may further include a physical coding sub-layer (Physical Coding Sub-layer, PCS). The PCS communicates with the bus unit and multiplexing control unit 140 for each protocol type.

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, the serializer and deserializer (SerDes) 151 in FIG. 2 . As shown in FIG. 2, a second multiplexing control unit (eg, multiplexing control unit 140) is coupled with bus unit 221, bus unit 222 and the first physical layer interface (eg, serializer and deserializer 151).

For another example, in addition to the first physical layer interface, the physical layer unit further includes a second 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 by the embodiment of the present disclosure can only be two , in the communication device provided by 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 one physical layer interface or multiple 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 deserializer 151 can be multiplexed by the PCIE protocol bus and the inter-chip interconnect interface protocol bus, and the serializer and deserializer 152 can also be multiplexed by the PCIE protocol bus and the inter-chip interconnect interface protocol bus, or That is, the serializer and deserializer 151 can be used as the physical layer interface of the PCIE protocol bus or the physical layer interface of the inter-chip interconnect interface protocol bus, and the serializer and deserializer 152 can be used as the inter-chip interconnect interface protocol bus. The physical layer interface can also be used as the physical layer interface of the PCIE protocol bus.

Physical layer multiplexing allows designers to flexibly integrate multiple protocols and electrical specifications in communication devices, and flexibly meet different requirements under different configurations of communication devices. The physical layer is applied to the link layer of multiple interface protocols, which can maximize the use of Physical layer resources, when the communication device is used for the network-on-chip in the system-on-chip, the purpose of saving the area and power consumption of the system-on-chip is achieved.

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 associate the second target bus unit with the first physical layer interface coupling.

The second configuration information may be obtained by static configuration or obtained by dynamic configuration, which is similar to the first configuration information described above, and will not be repeated here.

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

For another example, if the second configuration information indicates that the serializer and deserializer 151 is coupled to the bus unit (ie, the inter-chip interconnect interface protocol bus) 222 , the second target bus unit is the bus unit 222 .

The link layer unit 220 further includes a third bus unit, such as a bus unit 223, and the bus unit 223 is, for example, a PCIE protocol bus. The multiplexing control unit 140 is also 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 combine the two target bus units. The bus units are coupled 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 The serializer 151 is coupled, and the bus unit 222 is coupled to the serializer and deserializer 152, so that the serializer and deserializer 151 serve as the physical layer interface of the bus unit 221, and the serializer and deserializer 152 serve as the bus unit 222. Physical layer interface.

The following describes various data paths formed by configuring the multiplexing control unit 130 and the multiplexing control unit 140 with reference to FIGS. 3 to 5 . It should be understood that FIGS. 3 to 5 are only examples of data paths formed by configuring the multiplexing control unit 130 and the multiplexing control unit 140 of the communication device 200. Those skilled in the art may The multiplexing control unit 140 is configured to obtain other data paths different from those shown in FIGS. 3-5.

FIG. 3 shows a data path formed by the communication device provided by the embodiment shown in FIG. 2 .

As shown in FIG. 3 , for example, after the multiplexing control unit 140 is statically or dynamically configured, the multiplexing control unit 140 couples the serializer and deserializer 152 to the bus unit 222 (ie, the inter-chip interconnect interface protocol bus). ), and couples the serializer and deserializer 151 to the bus unit 223 (eg, a PCIE protocol bus) so that the serializer and deserializer 152 serve as the physical layer of the bus unit 222 (eg, an inter-chip interconnect interface protocol bus) The interface, the serializer and deserializer 151 acts as the physical layer interface of the bus unit 223 (ie, the PCIE protocol bus).

The interface P21 is multiplexed by the bus unit 222 and the bus unit 221 (eg, a PCIE protocol bus). As shown in FIG. 3 , for example, after the multiplexing control unit 230 is statically configured or dynamically configured, the interface P21 is coupled to the bus unit 222 , so that the interface P21 communicates 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 (ie, the inter-chip interconnect interface protocol bus), the multiplexing control unit 230 couples the interface P0 to the bus unit 222 , thus forming a data path A 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 enables the serializer and deserializer 151 to be coupled to the bus unit 223 (ie, the PCIE protocol bus), the bus unit 223 is coupled to the interface P22 , thus forming the serializer and deserializer 151 , the multiplexing control unit 140 , the bus unit 223 , the I/O controller 125 , the second interface controller 126 , and the data path B between the interface P22 .

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 the multiplexing control unit 140 is statically configured or dynamically configured, the multiplexing control unit 140 couples the serializer and the deserializer 151 to the bus unit 222 (ie, the inter-chip interconnect interface protocol bus). ), and couples the serializer and deserializer 152 to the bus unit 223 (ie, the PCIE protocol bus), so that the serializer and deserializer 151 serve as the physical layer of the bus unit 222 (ie, the inter-chip interconnect interface protocol bus) The interface, the serializer and deserializer 152 acts as a physical layer interface to the bus unit 223 (ie, the PCIE protocol bus).

The interface P21 is multiplexed by the bus unit 222 and the bus unit 221 (eg, a PCIE protocol bus). As shown in FIG. 4 , for example, after the multiplexing control unit 230 is statically configured or dynamically configured, the interface P21 is coupled to the bus unit 222 , so 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 the deserializer 151 to the bus unit 222 (ie, the inter-chip interconnect interface protocol bus), the multiplexing control unit 230 couples the interface P21 to the bus unit 222 , thus forming 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.

As shown in FIG. 4 , since the multiplexing control unit 140 enables the serializer and deserializer 152 to be coupled to the bus unit 223 (ie, the PCIE protocol bus), the bus unit 223 is coupled to the interface P22 , thus forming the serializer and deserializer 152 , the multiplexing control unit 140, the bus unit 223, the input and output controller 125, the second interface controller 126 and the data path D between the interface P22.

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

As shown in FIG. 5 , for example, after the multiplexing control unit 140 is statically configured or dynamically configured, the multiplexing control unit 140 couples the serializer and deserializer 151 to the bus unit 221 (ie, the PCIE protocol bus), and connects The serializer and deserializer 152 is coupled to the bus unit 223 (ie, the PCIE protocol bus), so that the serializer and deserializer 151 acts as the physical layer interface, serializer and deserializer of the bus unit 221 (ie, the PCIE protocol bus). 152 serves as the physical layer interface of the bus unit 223 (ie, the PCIE protocol bus).

The interface P21 is multiplexed by the bus unit 222 and the bus unit 221 (eg, a PCIE protocol bus). As shown in FIG. 5 , for example, after the multiplexing control unit 230 is statically configured or dynamically configured, the interface P21 is coupled to the bus unit 221 , so that the interface P21 communicates with the bus unit 221 .

As shown in FIG. 5 , since the multiplexing control unit 140 enables the serializer and the deserializer 151 to be coupled to the bus unit 221 (ie, the PCIE protocol bus), and the multiplexing control unit 230 enables the interface P21 to be coupled to the bus unit 221, thus forming a serial A data path E between the serializer and deserializer 151, the multiplexing control unit 140, the bus unit 221, the multiplexing control unit 230, and the interface P21.

As shown in FIG. 5 , since the multiplexing control unit 140 enables the serializer and deserializer 152 to be coupled to the bus unit 223 (ie, the PCIE protocol bus), the bus unit 223 is coupled to the interface P22 , thus forming the serializer and deserializer 152 , the multiplexing control unit 140, the bus unit 223, the input and output controller 125, the second interface controller 126, and the data path F between the interface P22.

It should be noted that, in the embodiments of the present disclosure, the data paths are all bidirectional paths for data interaction between the interface of the network layer unit and the physical layer interface, rather than a unidirectional path, that is, data can be transmitted by the physical layer interface through the uplink path. The interface that is transmitted to the network layer unit, and the physical layer interface that can also be transmitted by the interface of the network layer unit through the downstream 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 the interfaces of the network layer of the network-on-chip, not only the physical layer, with low hardware overhead, which 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, only need to add a few circuits, and has little impact on the system-on-chip area.

As server chips become larger and larger, the demand for IO is also increasing. The same chip will have a variety of different configurations to meet different needs in various application scenarios. Different configurations have different IO requirements. With the increasing number of IOs and the higher IO speed, the size of the physical layer has an increasing impact on the SOC area. It is necessary to consider the multiplexing of the physical layer under different configurations to avoid PHY waste. This method of multiplexing at the physical layer has unbalanced bandwidth requirements, which is not conducive to the improvement of bandwidth utilization and affects NOC performance.

FIG. 6A is a schematic diagram illustrating that the network layer interfaces of the communication apparatus provided by at least one embodiment of the present disclosure 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, through the configuration of the multiplexing control unit 610, the serializer and the deserializer 651 are used as the physical layer interface of the inter-chip interconnect interface protocol bus, and the serializer and the deserializer 652 are used as the PCIE protocol bus 621. The physical layer interface with the PCIE protocol bus 623. Each interface in the network layer unit is not multiplexed. The interface P00 is used to communicate with the inter-chip interconnection interface protocol bus, and the interface P10 is used to communicate with the PCIE protocol bus. Since the interface P10 communicates with the PCIE protocol bus 621 and the PCIE protocol bus 623, and the actual effective bandwidth of the x16PCIE5.0 is 57.6GBps, the bandwidth requirement of the interface P10 is 115.2GBps, and the actual effective bandwidth of the x16 inter-chip interconnect interface protocol is 45GBps, so the actual effective bandwidth of interface P00 is 45GBps.

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

FIG. 6C shows a schematic diagram of bandwidth requirements after the interface P21 of the communication device in the embodiment shown in FIG. 2 is multiplexed. As shown in FIG. 6C , the bandwidth requirements of the interface P21 and the interface P22 are both 57.6 Gbps. After multiplexing the network layer of the communication device, for example, to form the data path of any of the embodiments in FIGS. 3 to 5 , the bandwidth requirements of P21 and P22 are both 57.6 Gbps. Compared with the bandwidth requirement of interface P10 which is 115.2GBps and the actual effective bandwidth of interface P00 is 45GBps, the bandwidth requirements of the three configurations in Figures 3 to 5 are significantly reduced and more balanced, which is conducive to improving NOC performance.

At least one embodiment of the present disclosure provides an electronic device, including the communication device in any of the foregoing embodiments. For example, the electronic device may be a system on a chip, or other device involving network communication protocols. The electronic device can balance the bandwidth requirements of the network layer interface and effectively improve the bandwidth utilization. Regarding the communication device in the electronic device, please refer to the description of the above embodiment.

At least one embodiment of the present disclosure provides a communication method of a communication device. The communication device includes 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 includes a first interface, and the link layer unit includes a first bus unit and a second multiplexing control unit. A 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 the specific description of the communication device, please refer to any of the above embodiments, which will not be repeated here. The communication method includes: using the first multiplexing control unit to multiplex the first interface between the first bus unit and the second bus unit, so that the first bus unit and the second bus unit communicate with the network layer unit through the first interface respectively.

In some embodiments of the present disclosure, using the first multiplexing control unit to multiplex the first interface with the first bus unit and the second bus unit includes: acquiring first configuration information; and, according to the first configuration information, the first multiplexing The 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 balance the bandwidth requirements of the network layer interface and effectively improve the bandwidth utilization rate.

In some embodiments 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 the first bus unit, and the first bus unit passes the first interface The controller is coupled to the first multiplexing control unit.

For example, the first bus unit is a PCIE protocol bus, and the first interface controller is a NOC interface controller. For example, the NOC interface controller performs protocol conversion on the data information from the bus unit, and converts the data information into a protocol format that can be recognized by the first interface, or the NOC interface controller converts the data information from the first interface into the first bus Protocol formats supported by the unit.

For example, the link layer unit further includes: an input/output controller configured to control the distribution of data information, and the first bus unit is coupled to 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, which can be implemented when the non-transitory computer-readable instructions are executed by a processor At least part of the steps of the above communication method.

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

The following points need to be noted:

(1) The drawings of the embodiments of the present disclosure only relate to the structures involved in the embodiments of the present disclosure, and other structures may refer to general designs.

(2) The embodiments of the present disclosure and features in the embodiments may be combined with each other to obtain new embodiments without conflict.

The above descriptions are only specific embodiments of the present disclosure, but the protection scope of the present disclosure is not limited thereto, and the protection scope of the present disclosure should be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims (16)

1. A communication device comprising: a network layer unit, located at the network layer and including a first interface; A link layer unit is located at the data link layer and includes at least a first bus unit and a second bus unit, the first bus unit is configured to transmit data information of the first protocol type, and the second bus unit is configured to transmit the first bus unit. Two protocol types of data information; 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 respectively pass through the first interface. An interface communicates with the network layer unit. 2. The communication device of claim 1, wherein the first multiplexing control unit is coupled to the first interface, the first bus unit and the second bus unit, The first multiplexing control unit is configured as: obtain first configuration information; and According to the first configuration information, a first target bus is selected from the first bus unit and the second bus unit, and the first target bus and the first interface are coupled. 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 by parsing the downlink data information information. 4. The communication device 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 the distribution of the data information, Wherein, the first bus unit is coupled to the first interface controller through the input and output controller. 6. The communication device according to 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 to the second interface. 7. The communication device of claim 6, wherein the third bus unit is configured to transmit data information of the first protocol type. 8. The communication device 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 to the second interface controller through the input and output controller. 9 . The communication device according to claim 4 , 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 . 10. The communication device of claim 1, further comprising: a physical layer unit at the physical layer, wherein the physical layer unit includes 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 to the first bus unit, the second bus unit and the first physical layer interface, The second multiplexing control unit is configured as: receiving second configuration information; and According to the second configuration information, a second target bus unit is selected from the first bus unit and the second bus unit, and the second target bus unit is coupled with the first physical layer interface. 12. The communication device according to 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 is also coupled to the third bus unit, The second multiplexing control unit is further configured to: select two target bus units from the first bus unit, the second bus unit and the third bus unit according to the configuration information, and combine the two target bus units. Target bus units are coupled to the first physical layer interface and the second physical layer interface, respectively. 13. The communication apparatus of any of claims 10-12, wherein the at least one physical layer interface each comprises a serializer and a deserializer. 14. An electronic device comprising the communication device according to any one of claims 1-13. 15. A communication method for 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 including a first multiplexing control unit. an 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: The first bus unit and the second bus unit are multiplexed with the first interface by the first multiplexing control unit, so that the first bus unit and the second bus unit pass through the The first interface communicates with the network layer unit. 16. The method of claim 15, wherein using the first multiplexing control unit to multiplex the first interface with the first bus unit and the second bus unit comprises: obtain 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 second bus unit an interface.

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