Methods and apparatus and system for issuing commands on a bus

Abstract

The invention discloses a method, device and system for issuing commands to the bus. In a first aspect, a first method of issuing commands onto a bus of a system is provided. The first method includes the steps of: (1) receiving a first functional memory command in the system; (2) receiving a command that causes the system to execute the functional memory commands sequentially; (3) receiving a second functional memory command in the system command; and (4) using a dependency matrix to indicate that the second functional memory command needs to access the same address as the first functional memory command, regardless of whether the second functional memory command actually has an ordering to the first functional memory command dependency. The dependency matrix is ​​adapted to store data indicating whether a functional memory command received by the system has an ordering dependency on one or more functional memory commands previously received by the system. A number of other aspects are also provided.

Description

technical field [0001] The present invention relates generally to processors, and more particularly to methods and apparatus for issuing commands onto a bus. Background technique [0002] In conventional systems, a first processor may be coupled to a second processor through an input / output (I / O) interface. The first processor may receive commands from the second processor through the I / O interface to be placed on the bus. The first processor may separate the received commands into a stream of read commands and a stream of write commands, storing the read commands in a read queue and storing the write commands in a write queue. Conventional systems can maintain order between command streams by determining whether the read command at the top of the read queue is dependent on the completion of a pending write command and / or whether the write command at the top of the write queue is dependent on the completion of a pending read command. More specifically, conventional systems...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

In addition, traditional systems require a large amount of logic to implement complex pointer manipulations, which consumes additional space on the first processor and consumes chip real estate

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