Efficient Asynchronous Communication Protocol

Abstract

A more efficient asynchronous protocol transmits data from a transmitter circuit at a first time to a receiver circuit and transmits a next data from the transmitter circuit to the receiver circuit at a second time so that the next data arrives at the receiver circuit at approximately the same time an acknowledge signal of the first data from the receiver circuit arrives at the transmitting circuit. The propagation delay may be measured at the beginning of a transfer to help determine when to send data.

Description

BACKGROUND[0001]1. Field of the Invention[0002]This disclosure relates to data communications and more particularly to efficient communication between transmitters and receivers.[0003]2. Description of the Related Art[0004]It is often necessary to move data over on-chip-interconnects, on interposer between dies, or other interconnect channels. Data movement performance is expressed in bandwidth and latency of the combined transmitter, interconnect-channel and receiver. FIG. 1 illustrates a basic interconnect structure with a transmitter 101 transmitting data 103 over the interconnect channel 105 to a receiver 107. Control information 109 controls the movement of data over the interconnect channel between the transmitter and receiver.[0005]FIG. 2 illustrates asynchronous handshake principles that may be used to communicate over the interconnect of FIG. 1. For the transmitter to receiver handshake, when transmitter has a new data ready, the transmitter drives data 201 and asserts the ...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

As can be seen in FIG. 2, propagation delay resulting from the handshake can consume a significant amount of time.

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