Communication method and electronic equipment

Abstract

The invention provides a communication method and electronic equipment, and relates to the technical field of computers and communication. The method is applied to an embedded controller EC, the embedded controller EC is in communication connection with a platform control center PCH through an eSPI bus, and the method comprises the following steps: after initialization operation, receiving a first data packet sent by a first human-computer interaction device HID; packaging the first data packet into an out-of-band channel (OOB) message of the eSPI bus to obtain a first out-of-band channel message; the first out-of-band channel message is sent to a platform control center PCH through an out-of-band channel OOB, and the platform control center PCH is used for analyzing the first out-of-band channel message, obtaining a first data packet and sending the first data packet to a driving module. Hardware resources can be saved, and the communication efficiency of the man-machine interaction equipment can be improved.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The present application relates to the technical field of computer and communication, and particularly relates to a communication method and an electronic device. BACKGROUND

[0002] In an electronic device such as a notebook computer, an embedded controller EC needs to work with a platform control hub PCH to realize control and data interaction of human-computer interaction devices HID such as a keyboard, a touchpad and a fingerprint recognition.

[0003] In the related art, the embedded controller EC and the platform control hub PCH are connected through an inter-integrated circuit bus I2C to realize control and data interaction of the human-computer interaction devices HID. For a human-computer interaction device HID, the embedded controller EC and the platform control hub PCH each need to reserve three pins for unified clock, data packet transmission and interrupt control.

[0004] However, with the complication of the functions of the electronic device, multiple human-computer interaction devices HID are introduced, which makes the occupation of the general-purpose input-output pin GPIO resources of the embedded controller EC and the platform control hub PCH increasingly prominent. In addition, the transmission rate (1Mbit / s at most) of the inter-integrated circuit bus I2C is difficult to meet the data transmission requirements of high-bandwidth human-computer interaction devices HID. SUMMARY

[0005] The present application provides a communication method and an electronic device to save hardware resources and improve the communication efficiency of human-computer interaction devices.

[0006] In a first aspect, the present application provides a communication method, which is applied to an embedded controller EC, and the embedded controller EC is connected with a platform control hub PCH through an eSPI bus, and the method comprises the following steps: after an initialization operation, receiving a first data packet sent by a first human-computer interaction device HID; encapsulating the first data packet into an out-of-band channel OOB message of the eSPI bus to obtain a first out-of-band channel message; and sending the first out-of-band channel message to the platform control hub PCH through the out-of-band channel OOB, and the platform control hub PCH is used for analyzing the first out-of-band channel message to obtain the first data packet and sending the first data packet to a driver module.

[0007] In a possible implementation, after the initialization operation, the method further includes: receiving a second out-of-band channel message sent by the platform control hub PCH through the out-of-band channel OOB, where the second out-of-band channel message is obtained by encapsulating, by the platform control hub PCH, a first instruction as an out-of-band channel OOB message of the eSPI bus, the first instruction being sent by the driving module to the platform control hub PCH, and the first instruction indicating performing a target operation on the first human-computer interaction device; parsing the second out-of-band channel message to obtain the first instruction; and executing the first instruction.

[0008] In a possible implementation, the first out-of-band channel message and the second out-of-band channel message each include a device identification field indicating the first human-computer interaction device.

[0009] In a possible implementation, before sending the first out-of-band channel message to the platform control hub PCH through the out-of-band channel OOB, the method further includes: determining a priority of the first human-computer interaction device according to the device identification field; and adjusting and updating a sending order of the first out-of-band channel message according to the priority.

[0010] In a possible implementation, before sending the first out-of-band channel message to the platform control hub PCH through the out-of-band channel OOB, the method further includes: adjusting a transmission rate of the eSPI bus according to an input rate of the first human-computer interaction device.

[0011] In a possible implementation, sending the first out-of-band channel message to the platform control hub PCH through the out-of-band channel OOB includes: splitting a first data packet into a plurality of sub data packets in a case where a size of the first data packet exceeds a preset threshold, the first out-of-band channel message including a sub data packet identification field indicating boundaries and an order of the sub data packets relative to the first data packet; and sequentially sending the plurality of sub data packets through the out-of-band channel OOB.

[0012] In a possible implementation, the initialization operation includes: receiving a third out-of-band channel message sent by the platform control hub PCH through the out-of-band channel OOB, where the third out-of-band channel message is obtained by encapsulating, by the platform control hub PCH, a second instruction as an out-of-band channel OOB message of the eSPI bus, the second instruction being sent by the driving module to the platform control hub PCH, and the second instruction indicating obtaining basic information of a full set of human-computer interaction devices connected to the embedded controller and resetting the full set of human-computer interaction devices, the basic information including a descriptor of the human-computer interaction device and a report descriptor of the human-computer interaction device; parsing the third out-of-band channel message to obtain the second instruction; and executing the second instruction.

[0013] In a second aspect, the present application provides a communication method, which is applied to a platform control hub (PCH) and is connected with an embedded controller (EC) through an eSPI bus, and the method comprises the following steps: after an initialization operation, receiving a first out-of-band (OOB) message sent by the embedded controller (EC) through an out-of-band channel, the first out-of-band message being obtained by encapsulating a first data packet into an out-of-band message of the eSPI bus by the embedded controller (EC), and the first data packet being sent by a first human-computer interaction device (HID) to the embedded controller (EC); analyzing the first out-of-band message to obtain the first data packet; and sending the first data packet to a driver module.

[0014] In a possible implementation, after the initialization operation, the method further comprises the following steps: receiving a first instruction sent by the driver module, the first instruction indicating that the embedded controller performs a target operation on the first human-computer interaction device; encapsulating the first instruction into an out-of-band message of the eSPI bus to obtain a second out-of-band message; and sending the second out-of-band message to the embedded controller (EC) through the out-of-band channel, so that the embedded controller (EC) analyzes the second out-of-band message to obtain the first instruction and executes the first instruction.

[0015] In a possible implementation, the initialization operation comprises the following steps: receiving a second instruction sent by the driver module, the second instruction indicating that the basic information of all human-computer interaction devices connected with the embedded controller is acquired and all human-computer interaction devices are reset, and the basic information comprises a human-computer interaction device descriptor and a human-computer interaction device report descriptor; encapsulating the second instruction into an out-of-band message of the eSPI bus to obtain a third out-of-band message; and sending the third out-of-band message to the embedded controller (EC) through the out-of-band channel, so that the embedded controller (EC) analyzes the third out-of-band message to obtain the second instruction and executes the second instruction.

[0016] In a third aspect, the present application provides a communication device, which is applied to an embedded controller (EC) and is connected with a platform control hub (PCH) through an eSPI bus, and the device comprises the following modules: a receiving module, configured to receive a first data packet sent by a first human-computer interaction device (HID) after an initialization operation; an encapsulating module, configured to encapsulate the first data packet into an out-of-band (OOB) message of the eSPI bus to obtain a first out-of-band message; and a sending module, configured to send the first out-of-band message to the platform control hub (PCH) through an out-of-band channel, so that the platform control hub (PCH) analyzes the first out-of-band message to obtain the first data packet and sends the first data packet to a driver module.

[0017] In a fourth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, which is applied to a platform control hub (PCH) and is in communication connection with an embedded controller (EC) through an eSPI bus. The device comprises: a receiving module, configured to receive a first out-of-band (OOB) channel message sent by the embedded controller (EC) through an out-of-band channel after an initialization operation, the first OOB channel message being obtained by encapsulating a first data packet into an OOB channel message of the eSPI bus by the embedded controller (EC), and the first data packet being sent to the embedded controller (EC) by a first human-computer interaction device (HID); an analyzing module, configured to analyze the first OOB channel message to obtain the first data packet; and a sending module, configured to send the first data packet to a driver module.

[0018] In a fifth aspect, the present application provides an electronic device, which comprises an embedded controller (EC) and a platform control hub (PCH), and the embedded controller (EC) is in communication connection with the platform control hub (PCH) through an eSPI bus. The embedded controller (EC) is configured to execute the method of any one of the first aspect, and the platform control hub (PCH) is configured to execute the method of any one of the second aspect.

[0019] In a sixth aspect, the present application provides a computer readable storage medium, which stores computer execution instructions. When the computer execution instructions are executed, the computer execution instructions are used to implement the method of any one of the first aspect or the method of any one of the second aspect.

[0020] In a seventh aspect, the present application provides a computer program product, which comprises a computer program. When the computer program is executed, the computer program implements the method of any one of the first aspect or the method of any one of the second aspect.

[0021] In the embodiments of the present application, the first human-computer interaction device receives input data of a user, and the data is converted into a first data packet conforming to a HID protocol by the first human-computer interaction device. After the first data packet is sent to the EC, in order to adapt to the data transmission requirement of the OOB channel of the eSPI bus between the EC and the PCH, the EC encapsulates the first data packet into an OOB message to obtain a first out-of-band channel message. Thus, the EC can send the first out-of-band channel message to the PCH through the OOB channel of the eSPI bus. The PCH can analyze the first out-of-band channel message to obtain the first data packet and send the first data packet to a driver module. Thus, uplink transmission can be realized.

[0022] In the embodiments of the present application, the transmission rate of the eSPI bus between the EC and the PCH is one of 20 Mbit / s, 25 Mbit / s, 33 Mbit / s, 50 Mbit / s and 66 Mbit / s, which can be adapted to a higher transmission rate HID.

[0023] Furthermore, during the aforementioned uplink transmission process, the first data packet of the HID protocol can be transmitted via the eSPI bus's OOB channel, without relying on additional pins on the EC and PCH. Moreover, in x86 platform electronic devices, an eSPI bus is already established between the EC and PCH; therefore, there is no need to reconfigure the eSPI bus between the EC and PCH, allowing reuse of this hardware resource. Attached Figure Description

[0024] The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and form part of this specification, illustrate embodiments consistent with this application and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of this application.

[0025] Figure 1 This is a schematic diagram showing the connection between the embedded controller EC and the platform control center PCH of an electronic device in related technologies via the inter-integrated circuit bus I2C.

[0026] Figure 2 This is a schematic diagram of an electronic device according to an embodiment of this application;

[0027] Figure 3 This is an interaction diagram of the communication method according to an embodiment of this application;

[0028] Figure 4 This is a schematic diagram of the first out-of-band channel message according to an embodiment of this application;

[0029] Figure 5 This is a schematic diagram of a communication device applied to an embedded controller EC according to an embodiment of this application;

[0030] Figure 6 This is a schematic diagram of a communication device applied to the platform control hub (PCH) according to an embodiment of this application.

[0031] The accompanying drawings illustrate specific embodiments of this application, which will be described in more detail below. These drawings and descriptions are not intended to limit the scope of the concept in any way, but rather to illustrate the concept of this application to those skilled in the art through reference to particular embodiments. Detailed Implementation

[0032] Exemplary embodiments will now be described in detail, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. When the following description relates to the drawings, unless otherwise indicated, the same numbers in different drawings denote the same or similar elements. The embodiments described in the following exemplary embodiments do not represent all embodiments consistent with this application. Rather, they are merely examples of apparatuses and methods consistent with some aspects of this application as detailed in the appended claims.

[0033] The technical terms involved in the embodiments of this application will be explained below, with a laptop computer as an example of the electronic device.

[0034] An embedded controller (EC) is a dedicated microcontroller (MCU) used to manage low-power embedded functions such as power management, keyboard scanning, and touchpad control. The EC operates independently of the central processing unit (CPU), ensuring the stable operation of the laptop's basic functions.

[0035] Platform Controller Hub (PCH): In Intel architecture, the chip that replaces the Southbridge is used to connect the CPU to peripheral devices, manage the allocation of buses such as I2C between integrated circuits, and allocate general purpose input / output (GPIO) pin resources.

[0036] General Purpose Input / Output (GPIO) pins: General-purpose pins on chips (such as embedded controllers and platform control centers) that can be configured by software to be in input or output mode for transmitting control information or data.

[0037] Human Interface Device (HID): Hardware devices used to enable human-computer interaction, including keyboards, mice, touchpads, power buttons, etc.

[0038] Inter-Integrated Circuit (I2C): A half-duplex, synchronous serial communication bus used for short-distance communication between chips in embedded systems.

[0039] Enhanced Serial Peripheral Interface (eSPI) bus: A serial bus protocol that includes an out-of-band (OOB) channel. The eSPI bus supports transfer rates of 20 Mbit / s, 25 Mbit / s, 33 Mbit / s, 50 Mbit / s, and 66 Mbit / s.

[0040] Out-of-band (OOB): Used to transmit messages of the extended System Management Bus (SMBus) protocol.

[0041] System Management Bus (SMBus): A low-speed, bidirectional communication protocol used for hardware monitoring and power management.

[0042] Figure 1 This diagram illustrates the connection between the embedded controller (EC) of an electronic device and the platform control hub (PCH) via the I2C inter-integrated circuit bus in related technologies. Thus, the electronic device can control and interact with the human-machine interface (HID) based on the I2C bus.

[0043] like Figure 1 As shown, the electronic device includes n human-computer interaction devices (HIDs) based on the I2C bus protocol. Each HID of the electronic device requires three pins of the embedded device EC and the platform control hub PCH. The functions of the three pins are unified clock, data transmission and control interrupt, respectively.

[0044] The relevant technologies have at least one of the following problems:

[0045] 1. With the increase in the number of human-machine interface devices, the demand for general-purpose input / output pins (GPIO) of embedded devices (EC) and platform control hubs (PCH) increases linearly.

[0046] 2. The transmission rate of the I2C bus ranges from 50kbit / s to 1Mbit / s, which is insufficient to support the data transmission requirements of high-bandwidth human-machine interface devices (such as the coordinate data stream of a touch screen).

[0047] 3. In some cases, if a new human-machine interface device (HID) is required, the printed circuit board (PCB) design needs to be modified and the board needs to be re-made, which leads to an extension of the development cycle and an increase in costs.

[0048] Based on this, embodiments of this application provide a communication method and electronic device that replaces the I2C bus with an eSPI bus and utilizes the eSPI bus's OOB channel (Tunneled SMBus Message Channel) as the transmission carrier for HID data packets. Through software protocol stack adaptation, the HID communication requirements that originally required independent hardware resources (CLK, DATA, Alert) are transformed into a software-layer data encapsulation and parsing process based on the eSPI bus. This aims to solve at least one problem in related technologies.

[0049] Figure 2 This is a schematic diagram of an electronic device according to an embodiment of this application.

[0050] like Figure 2As shown, the electronic device includes an embedded controller (EC) and a platform control hub (PCH). The embedded device EC and the platform control hub PCH are connected via an enhanced serial peripheral interface (eSPI) bus. The PCH is the master device on the eSPI bus, which is used to lead communication with the EC, while the EC is the slave device on the eSPI bus.

[0051] In this embodiment, a laptop computer is used as an example for illustration. When the electronic device is configured with an x86 architecture, the eSPI bus is the standard bus of the electronic device, meaning that the electronic device has an eSPI bus. If the electronic device does not have an sSPI bus, an sSPI bus can be pre-configured between the embedded device EC and the platform control hub PCH.

[0052] exist Figure 2 In the example, the electronic device also includes n human-computer interaction devices (HIDs). Users can perform input operations through the HIDs of the electronic device, and the embedded device EC or platform control center PCH of the electronic device executes the communication method corresponding to the embodiments of this application to achieve uplink transmission. Alternatively, users can trigger control operations on the HIDs through the HIDs, and the embedded device EC or platform control center PCH of the electronic device executes the communication method corresponding to the embodiments of this application to achieve downlink transmission.

[0053] For example, the electronic device may further include a processor and a memory. Code is stored in the memory, and the processor executes the code stored in the memory to perform the function corresponding to that code.

[0054] For example, the electronic device may also include a communication component. The processor, memory, and communication component are connected via a bus.

[0055] The processor can be a Central Processing Unit (CPU), or other general-purpose processors, digital signal processors (DSPs), application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc. A general-purpose processor can be a microprocessor or any conventional processor. The steps of the method disclosed in this invention can be directly manifested as execution by a hardware processor, or execution by a combination of hardware and software modules within the processor.

[0056] The memory may include high-speed RAM, and may also include non-volatile storage (NVM), such as at least one disk storage.

[0057] The bus can be an Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus, a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, or an Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) bus, etc. Buses can be categorized as address buses, data buses, control buses, etc. For ease of illustration, the buses shown in the accompanying drawings are not limited to a single bus or a single type of bus.

[0058] The technical solution of this application and how it solves the above-mentioned technical problems will be described in detail below with specific embodiments. These specific embodiments can be combined with each other, and the same or similar concepts or processes may not be described again in some embodiments. The embodiments of this application will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0059] Figure 3 This is an interactive schematic diagram of the communication method according to an embodiment of this application.

[0060] like Figure 3 As shown, the communication method in this embodiment includes steps S101 to S105. Steps S101 to S105 are executed after initialization operations. The embedded controller EC and the platform control center PCH are connected via an eSPI bus.

[0061] S101, the first human-machine interaction device sends a first data packet to the embedded controller EC. Correspondingly, the embedded controller EC receives the first data packet sent by the first human-machine interaction device.

[0062] The first human-computer interaction device can be understood as any human-computer interaction device among electronic devices.

[0063] The first data packet is a data packet that conforms to the human-computer interaction device protocol specification.

[0064] S102, The embedded controller EC encapsulates the first data packet into an out-of-band channel message of the eSPI bus to obtain the first out-of-band channel message.

[0065] The first out-of-band channel message can be understood as encapsulating the first data packet into a message conforming to the SMBus protocol.

[0066] S103. The embedded controller EC sends a first out-of-band message to the platform control center PCH via the out-of-band channel OOB. Correspondingly, the platform control center PCH receives the first out-of-band message sent by the embedded controller EC via the out-of-band channel OOB.

[0067] S104. The platform control center (PCH) parses the first out-of-band channel message and obtains the first data packet.

[0068] S105, The platform control center (PCH) sends the first data packet to the drive module.

[0069] In this embodiment, the first human-computer interaction device receives user input data, which is then converted into a first data packet conforming to the HID protocol. After the first data packet is sent to the EC, to adapt to the data transmission requirements of the eSPI bus OOB channel between the EC and PCH, the EC encapsulates the first data packet into an OOB message, obtaining a first out-of-band channel message. Thus, the EC can send the first out-of-band channel message to the PCH through the eSPI bus OOB channel. The PCH can parse the first out-of-band channel message to obtain the first data packet and send it to the driver module. This enables uplink transmission.

[0070] The eSPI bus between EC and PCH has a transmission rate of 20 Mbit / s, 25 Mbit / s, 33 Mbit / s, 50 Mbit / s, and 66 Mbit / s, which can be adapted to HID with higher transmission rates.

[0071] Furthermore, during the aforementioned uplink transmission process, the first data packet of the HID protocol can be transmitted via the eSPI bus's OOB channel, without relying on additional pins on the EC and PCH. Moreover, in x86 platform electronic devices, an eSPI bus is already established between the EC and PCH; therefore, there is no need to reconfigure the eSPI bus between the EC and PCH, allowing reuse of this hardware resource.

[0072] The above embodiments describe the uplink transmission process; in real-world scenarios, downlink transmission processes are also involved.

[0073] Specifically, such as Figure 3 As shown, in one possible embodiment, the communication method further includes steps S106 to S110. Steps S106 to S110 are executed after the initialization operation. Figure 3 The following explanation will be based on the example of steps S106 to S110 being executed after step S105.

[0074] S106. The driver module sends a first instruction to the platform control center (PCH). Correspondingly, the platform control center (PCH) receives the first instruction sent by the driver module.

[0075] The first instruction instructs the embedded controller to perform a target operation on the first human-machine interface device. This first instruction, used to instruct the control of the first human-machine interface device, needs to be transmitted to the EC (Electronic Control Unit), which then directly controls the first human-machine interface device to execute the target operation. For example, the target operation might be to acquire status data of the first human-machine interface device.

[0076] S107. The platform control center (PCH) encapsulates the first instruction into an out-of-band channel message of the eSPI bus, and obtains the second out-of-band channel message.

[0077] The second out-of-band channel message can be understood as encapsulating the first instruction into a message conforming to the SMBus protocol.

[0078] S108. The platform control center (PCH) sends a second out-of-band (OOB) message to the embedded controller (EC) via the out-of-band (OOB) channel. Correspondingly, the embedded controller (EC) receives the second OOB message sent by the platform control center (PCH) via the out-of-band (OOB) channel.

[0079] S109. The embedded controller EC parses the second out-of-band channel message and obtains the first instruction.

[0080] S110, the embedded controller EC executes the first instruction.

[0081] The execution of the first instruction by the EC can be understood as the EC performing the target operation on the first human-machine interface.

[0082] Similar to uplink transmission, in this embodiment, the first instruction instructs the embedded controller to perform a target operation on the first human-machine interface device. After the first data is sent to the PCH, in order to adapt to the data transmission requirements of the eSPI bus OOB channel between the EC and the PCH, the PCH encapsulates the first instruction into an OOB message to obtain a second out-of-band channel message. Thus, the PCH can send the second out-of-band channel message to the EC through the eSPI bus OOB channel. The EC can parse the second out-of-band channel message to obtain the first instruction, and the EC can directly execute the first instruction to achieve the target operation. This enables downlink transmission.

[0083] During downlink transmission, the eSPI bus between the EC and PCH can be adapted to issue control commands at higher transmission rates to the first HMI device, and the OOB channel of the eSPI bus can also be used to transmit control commands to the first HMI device without relying on additional pins on the EC and PCH. This will not be elaborated further here.

[0084] In one possible embodiment, both the first out-of-band channel message and the second out-of-band channel message include a device identifier field indicating the first human-computer interaction device.

[0085] For example, after receiving the first data packet sent by the first human-computer interaction device, the EC can obtain the device identifier field corresponding to the first human-computer interaction device and add the device identifier field of the first human-computer interaction device during the encapsulation of the first data packet.

[0086] Using the device identification field, the receiver of the first out-of-band channel message, i.e., the PCH, can identify the first human-machine interface device that sent the first data packet. Using the device identification field, the receiver of the second out-of-band channel message, i.e., the EC, can identify the first human-machine interface device to which the first command is directed. In other words, the device identification field can identify different human-machine interface devices connected to the EC and enable independent communication among multiple human-machine interface devices, avoiding conflicts caused by sharing the eSPI bus.

[0087] In one possible embodiment, before sending the first out-of-band channel message to the platform control center PCH via the out-of-band channel OOB in step S103, the communication method may further include steps S201 to S202.

[0088] S201. The embedded controller EC determines the priority of the first human-machine interaction device based on the device identification field.

[0089] For example, the EC can pre-store mapping information indicating the correspondence between the human-machine interaction device indicated by the device identification field and its priority. Thus, the EC can determine the priority of the first human-machine interaction device based on the device identification field.

[0090] S202. The embedded controller EC adjusts and updates the sending order of the first out-of-band channel messages according to priority.

[0091] For example, if the first human-computer interaction device is a keyboard, it has a higher priority; if the first human-computer interaction device is a stylus, it has a lower priority. Therefore, the first data packet input via the keyboard is sent before the first data packet input via the stylus.

[0092] In this embodiment, the EC adjusts and updates the sending order of the first out-of-band channel messages according to the priority of the first human-machine interaction device, thereby achieving data packet sending order scheduling based on the priority of the human-machine interaction device. This ensures the real-time transmission of data packets from critical human-machine interaction devices and avoids communication delays caused by sending data packets from low-priority human-machine interaction devices first, thus improving communication efficiency and stability.

[0093] In one possible embodiment, before sending the first out-of-band channel message to the platform control center (PCH) via the out-of-band channel (OOB) in step S103, the communication method further includes step S203. Step S203 may be executed before step S201 or after step S202.

[0094] S203. Adjust the transmission rate of the eSPI bus according to the input rate of the first human-computer interaction device.

[0095] The input rate of a first human-computer interaction device refers to the speed at which the user inputs data.

[0096] For example, the transmission rate of the eSPI bus can be adjusted between the EC and PCH via a rate control register. For instance, if the input rate of the first human-machine interface device is lower than the rate threshold, the transmission rate of the eSPI bus can be adjusted to 20 Mbit / s, while if the input rate of the first human-machine interface device is higher than the rate threshold, the transmission rate of the eSPI bus can be adjusted to 66 Mbit / s.

[0097] In this embodiment of the application, before sending the first out-of-band channel message, the EC can optimize the real-time data transmission efficiency of the first human-machine interaction device by adjusting the transmission rate of the eSPI bus according to the input rate of the first human-machine interaction device, and meet the different input rate requirements of the first human-machine interaction device through the differentiated transmission rate of the eSPI bus.

[0098] In one possible embodiment, step S103, which involves sending the first out-of-band channel message to the platform control center (PCH) via the out-of-band channel (OOB), includes steps S1031 to S1032.

[0099] S1031. If the size of the first data packet exceeds a preset threshold, the first data packet is split into multiple sub-data packets.

[0100] For example, the EC can detect the size of the first data packet before S1031. The preset threshold is represented, for example, by the maximum out-of-band message payload in the SMbus protocol, specifically 64 bytes.

[0101] The first out-of-band channel message includes a sub-data packet identifier field, which indicates the boundary and order of the sub-data packet relative to the first data packet.

[0102] S1032. Send multiple sub-data packets sequentially through the out-of-band channel OOB.

[0103] It should be noted that the data size of the first data packet input through the first human-computer interaction device typically exceeds 64 bytes. That is, a single out-of-band transmission cannot completely transmit the first data packet. Based on this, the embodiments of this application split the first data packet into multiple word data packets and transmit them through multiple out-of-band channels to complete the transmission of the first data packet.

[0104] For example, the sub-packet identification field includes a start of message (SOM) field, an end of message field, and a packet sequence (Packet Seq) field.

[0105] To illustrate with a concrete example: Suppose the first data packet from the first human-computer interaction device is 192 bytes. Since 192 bytes is greater than 64 bytes, the EC can sequentially split the first data packet into three sub-data packets: sub-data packet 0, sub-data packet 1, and sub-data packet 2. The EC then sends sub-data packet 0, sub-data packet 1, and sub-data packet 2 sequentially through the out-of-band (OOB) channel.

[0106] In sub-data packet 0, the start boundary field (SOM) is set to 1, the end boundary field (EOM) is set to 0, and the order field is set to 0. This indicates that sub-data packet 0 is the start boundary of the first data packet, sub-data packet 0 is not the end boundary of the first data packet, and the order of sub-data packet 0 relative to the first data packet is 0. Similarly, the start boundary field (SOM) of sub-data packet 1 is set to 0, the end boundary field (EOM) is set to 0, and the order field is set to 1. The start boundary field (SOM) of sub-data packet 2 is set to 0, the end boundary field (EOM) is set to 1, the start boundary field (SOM) is set to 1, and the order field is set to 2.

[0107] In this embodiment, when the size of the first data packet exceeds a preset threshold, the EC splits the first data packet into multiple sub-data packets and adds a sub-data packet identifier field to the first out-of-band channel message. The sub-data packet identifier field indicates the boundary and order of the sub-data packets relative to the first data packet. This ensures that after the PCH receives the first out-of-band channel message, it can correctly reassemble the first data packet into multiple sub-data packets according to the sub-data packet identifier field. Therefore, the fragmentation mechanism and the addition of a data packet identifier field can achieve complete and correct transmission of the first data packet exceeding the preset threshold, thereby improving transmission efficiency and reliability.

[0108] In one possible embodiment, the initialization operation includes steps S111 to S115.

[0109] S111, the driver module sends a second instruction to the platform control center (PCH). Correspondingly, the platform control center (PCH) receives the second instruction sent by the driver module.

[0110] The second instruction instructs to obtain basic information of all human-machine interaction devices connected to the embedded controller and to reset all human-machine interaction devices. The basic information includes the descriptors of the human-machine interaction devices and the report descriptors of the human-machine interaction devices.

[0111] Both the HMI (Human-Computer Interaction) device descriptor and the HMI report descriptor are standardized metadata defined by the HMI protocol. The HMI device descriptor indicates the type, identifier, and location of the report descriptor, among other things. The HMI report descriptor indicates the data format, input report, output report, corresponding data items for feature reports, and data range, among other things.

[0112] S112, the platform control center PCH encapsulates the second instruction into an out-of-band (OOB) message of the eSPI bus, and obtains the third out-of-band message.

[0113] S113, The platform control center PCH sends a third out-of-band channel message to the embedded controller EC through the out-of-band channel OOB.

[0114] S114. The embedded controller EC parses the third out-of-band channel message and obtains the second instruction.

[0115] S110, the embedded controller EC executes the second instruction.

[0116] The execution of the second instruction by the EC can be understood as the EC obtaining basic information of all human-computer interaction devices and resetting all human-computer interaction devices.

[0117] For example, the EC can first obtain the descriptors of all human-machine interaction devices, then reset all human-machine interaction devices, and finally obtain the report descriptors of all human-machine interaction devices. This completes the initialization operation, which can be understood as enumerating all human-machine interaction devices connected to the EC.

[0118] Taking the EC obtaining descriptors of all HMI devices as an example. Specifically, the driver module sends instruction 0x0001 to the PCH via the out-of-band channel, instructing it to obtain descriptors of all HMI devices. This instruction 0x0001 is filled into message payload 1. After receiving the message payload, the PCH encapsulates message payload 1 into out-of-band channel message 1 and sends it to the EC via the out-of-band channel of the eSPI bus. After receiving the out-of-band channel message 1, the EC obtains the descriptors of all HMI devices and fills them into the message payload, obtaining out-of-band channel message 2. The EC sends out-of-band channel message 2 to the PCH via the out-of-band channel of the eSPI bus. The PCH parses out-of-band channel message 2 to obtain the descriptors of all HMI devices. The PCH then sends the descriptors of all HMI devices to the driver module.

[0119] The process of resetting all human-computer interaction devices and obtaining report descriptors for all human-computer interaction devices is similar and will not be described in detail here.

[0120] In this embodiment, the above initialization operations enable the PCH to acquire descriptors of all human-computer interaction devices, reset the human-computer interaction devices, and acquire report descriptors of all human-computer interaction devices. Thus, data transmission can occur between the PCH and the EC to achieve data interaction.

[0121] Specifically, the following data interactions will be used as examples for illustration.

[0122] During uplink transmission, the first human-computer interaction device can send an input report via the first data packet. The driver module performs data analysis based on the input report, specifically based on the input item in the report descriptor of the first human-computer interaction device. Alternatively, the first human-computer interaction device can send a feature report via the first data packet, which the driver module can receive. The feature report includes the data analysis content based on the feature item in the report descriptor of the first human-computer interaction device.

[0123] During downlink transmission, the driver module can send out output reports. For example, the first human-machine interaction device performs data analysis based on the output report, specifically by analyzing the output items in the report descriptor of the first human-machine interaction device. Similarly, the driver module can send out feature reports. For example, the first human-machine interaction device receives feature reports.

[0124] It should be noted that, in one possible embodiment, the first out-of-band channel message may further include a Service Req field, which indicates that the human-computer interaction device needs to report data to the driver module or application. When the Service Req field is set to 1, it indicates that the human-computer interaction device is requesting an upper-layer service. For example, in the above embodiment, when all human-computer interaction devices report their report descriptors to the driver after a reset, the corresponding out-of-band channel message's Service Req field is set to 1.

[0125] Figure 4 This is a schematic diagram of the first out-of-band channel message in an embodiment of this application.

[0126] like Figure 4As shown, the first out-of-band channel message in this embodiment is obtained through the following nested structure: the outermost layer is the out-of-band channel message header (OOB header), the middle layer is the out-of-band channel message (OOB Data), the out-of-band channel message includes the SMbus header and SMbus Block Write Date, and the inner layer is the data checksum (PEC). The out-of-band channel message header indicates that the message is an out-of-band channel message. The SMbus Block Write Date of the out-of-band channel message includes the HID control field and the actual HID data. The HID control field includes the aforementioned device identifier field, sub-data packet identifier field, and Service Req request reporting field, etc.

[0127] like Figure 4 As shown, Byte0 in the out-of-band channel message header indicates that the transaction type of eSPI is an out-of-band channel message, and Byte1 and Byte2 declare the message length of the out-of-band channel message.

[0128] The SMbus header of out-of-band channel messages is the protocol layer of SMbus, used to inform the message receiver that the message is an SMBus write or read operation, etc.

[0129] The SMbus Block Write Date of the out-of-band channel message carries the control field and actual data of the HID, as detailed in the above embodiments, and will not be repeated here.

[0130] In summary, the communication method of this application embodiment has at least one of the following technical effects:

[0131] 1. Saves hardware resources: The eSPI bus is a commonly used bus in electronic devices such as laptops. By mounting the human-machine interface (HMI) protocol on the out-of-band channel of the eSPI bus, it is unnecessary to use three additional pins on both the EC and PCH ends to support the data transmission of the first HMI device. This saves hardware resources and reserves them for the implementation of other functions.

[0132] 2. High transmission rate: By connecting EC and PCH via eSPI bus communication, high-speed data transmission between EC and PCH regarding human-machine interaction devices can be achieved, improving throughput.

[0133] 3. Easy Portability: Most x86 platform laptops and other electronic devices have an eSPI bus, meaning there's no need to modify hardware principles, PCBs, or re-manufacture. Simply implementing the HMI (Human Machine Interaction) protocol on the out-of-band channel of the eSPI bus on the EC (Electronic Control Center) and PCH (Power Controller) immediately adds HMI output transmission functionality. Furthermore, subsequent upgrades and maintenance only involve the software; modifying the code is all that's required to add new HMI devices or maintain existing functions.

[0134] Figure 5 This is a schematic diagram of the communication device provided in an embodiment of this application. The device is applied to an embedded controller (EC), which is connected to the platform control hub (PCH) via an eSPI bus. Figure 5 As shown, the device includes a receiving module 310, an encapsulation module 320, and a transmitting module 330.

[0135] The receiving module 310 is used to receive the first data packet sent by the first human-machine interaction device (HID) after the initialization operation.

[0136] The encapsulation module 320 is used to encapsulate the first data packet into an out-of-band (OOB) message of the eSPI bus to obtain the first out-of-band message.

[0137] The sending module 330 is used to send a first out-of-band channel message to the platform control center PCH through the out-of-band channel OOB. The platform control center PCH is used to parse the first out-of-band channel message, obtain the first data packet, and send the first data packet to the driver module.

[0138] In one possible embodiment, the receiving module is further configured to receive a second out-of-band (OOB) message sent by the platform control center (PCH) via an out-of-band (OOB) channel. The second OOB message is obtained by the PCH encapsulating a first instruction into an eSPI bus OOB message. The first instruction is sent to the PCH by the driving module and instructs the execution of a target operation on the first human-machine interface device. The device further includes a parsing module, configured to parse the second OOB message to obtain the first instruction. The device also includes an execution module, configured to execute the first instruction.

[0139] In one possible embodiment, both the first out-of-band channel message and the second out-of-band channel message include a device identifier field indicating the first human-computer interaction device.

[0140] In one possible embodiment, the device further includes: a priority determination module, configured to determine the priority of the first human-computer interaction device based on a device identification field; and an adjustment module, configured to adjust and update the sending order of the first out-of-band channel messages based on the priority.

[0141] In one possible embodiment, the adjustment module is further configured to adjust the transmission rate of the eSPI bus according to the input rate of the first human-machine interaction device.

[0142] In one possible embodiment, the sending module includes: a splitting submodule, configured to split the first data packet into multiple sub-data packets when the size of the first data packet exceeds a preset threshold, wherein the first out-of-band channel message includes a sub-data packet identifier field, the sub-data packet identifier field indicating the boundary and order of the sub-data packets relative to the first data packet; and a sending submodule, configured to sequentially send the multiple sub-data packets through the out-of-band channel OOB.

[0143] In one possible embodiment, the device further includes an initialization module, which includes a receiving submodule for receiving a third out-of-band (OOB) message sent by the platform control center (PCH) via an out-of-band (OOB) channel. The third OOB message is obtained by the PCH encapsulating a second instruction into an eSPI bus OOB message. The second instruction is sent to the PCH by the driver module and indicates the acquisition of basic information of all human-machine interface devices connected to the embedded controller and the reset of all human-machine interface devices. The basic information includes the descriptors and report descriptors of the human-machine interface devices. A parsing submodule is also included for parsing the third OOB message to obtain the second instruction. Finally, an execution submodule is included for executing the second instruction.

[0144] The communication device for embedded controller EC provided in this application embodiment can be used to execute the technical solution of the communication method for embedded controller EC in any of the above embodiments of this application. Its implementation principle and technical effect are similar, and will not be repeated here.

[0145] Figure 6 This is a schematic diagram of the communication device provided in an embodiment of this application. The device is applied to the platform control hub (PCH), which is connected to the embedded controller (EC) via an eSPI bus. Figure 6 As shown, the device includes a receiving module 410, a parsing module 420, and a sending module 430.

[0146] The receiving module 410 is used to receive the first out-of-band channel message sent by the embedded controller EC through the out-of-band channel OOB after the initialization operation. The first out-of-band channel message is obtained by the embedded controller EC encapsulating the first data packet into an eSPI bus out-of-band channel OOB message. The first data packet is sent to the embedded controller EC by the first human-machine interaction device HID.

[0147] The parsing module 420 is used to parse the first out-of-band channel message to obtain the first data packet.

[0148] The sending module 430 is used to send the first data packet to the driver module.

[0149] In one possible embodiment, the receiving module is further configured to receive a first instruction sent by the driving module, the first instruction instructing the embedded controller to perform a target operation on the first human-machine interaction device; the device further includes an encapsulation module for encapsulating the first instruction into an out-of-band channel message of the eSPI bus to obtain a second out-of-band channel message; the sending module is further configured to send the second out-of-band channel message to the embedded controller EC through the out-of-band channel OOB, the embedded controller EC for parsing the second out-of-band channel message to obtain the first instruction and execute the first instruction.

[0150] In one possible embodiment, the device further includes an initialization module, comprising: a receiving submodule for receiving a second instruction sent by a driver module, the second instruction indicating the acquisition of basic information of all human-machine interaction devices connected to the embedded controller and the reset of all human-machine interaction devices, the basic information including human-machine interaction device descriptors and human-machine interaction device report descriptors; an encapsulation submodule for encapsulating the second instruction into an out-of-band channel message of the eSPI bus to obtain a third out-of-band channel message; and a sending submodule for sending the third out-of-band channel message to the embedded controller EC through the out-of-band channel OOB, the embedded controller EC parsing the third out-of-band channel message to obtain the second instruction and executing the second instruction.

[0151] The communication device provided in this application embodiment for the platform control center PCH can be used to execute the technical solution of the communication method applied to the platform control center PCH in any of the above embodiments of this application. Its implementation principle and technical effect are similar, and will not be described again in this embodiment.

[0152] This application provides a computer-readable storage medium storing computer-executable instructions, which, when executed, are used to implement the method described in the above-described method embodiments.

[0153] The aforementioned computer-readable storage medium can be implemented by any type of volatile or non-volatile storage device or a combination thereof, such as static random access memory (SRAM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), programmable read-only memory (PROM), read-only memory (ROM), magnetic storage, flash memory, magnetic disk, or optical disk. The readable storage medium can be any available medium accessible to a general-purpose or special-purpose computer.

[0154] An exemplary readable storage medium is coupled to a processor, enabling the processor to read information from and write information to the readable storage medium. Of course, the readable storage medium can also be a component of the processor. The processor and the readable storage medium can reside in an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC). Alternatively, the processor and the readable storage medium can exist as discrete components in the device.

[0155] This application provides a computer program product, including a computer program, which, when executed, implements the methods provided in any of the embodiments described above.

[0156] It should be noted that, for the sake of simplicity, the foregoing method embodiments are all described as a series of actions. However, those skilled in the art should understand that this application is not limited to the described order of actions, as some steps may be performed in other orders or simultaneously according to this application. Furthermore, those skilled in the art should also understand that the embodiments described in the specification are all optional embodiments, and the actions and modules involved are not necessarily essential to this application.

[0157] It should be further noted that although the steps in the flowchart are shown sequentially according to the arrows, these steps are not necessarily executed in the order indicated by the arrows. Unless explicitly stated herein, there is no strict order restriction on the execution of these steps, and they can be executed in other orders. Moreover, at least some steps in the flowchart may include multiple sub-steps or multiple stages. These sub-steps or stages are not necessarily completed at the same time, but can be executed at different times. The execution order of these sub-steps or stages is not necessarily sequential, but can be performed alternately or in turn with other steps or at least some of the sub-steps or stages of other steps.

[0158] It should be understood that the above-described device embodiments are merely illustrative, and the device of this application can also be implemented in other ways. For example, the division of units / modules in the above embodiments is only a logical functional division, and there may be other division methods in actual implementation. For example, multiple units, modules, or components may be combined, or integrated into another system, or some features may be ignored or not executed.

[0159] Furthermore, unless otherwise specified, the functional units / modules in the various embodiments of this application can be integrated into one unit / module, or each unit / module can exist physically separately, or two or more units / modules can be integrated together. The integrated units / modules described above can be implemented in hardware or as software program modules.

[0160] When integrated units / modules are implemented in hardware, the hardware can be digital circuits, analog circuits, etc. The physical implementation of the hardware structure includes, but is not limited to, transistors, memristors, etc. Unless otherwise specified, the processor can be any suitable hardware processor, such as a CPU, GPU, FPGA, DSP, and ASIC, etc. Unless otherwise specified, the storage unit can be any suitable magnetic or magneto-optical storage medium, such as Resistive Random Access Memory (RRAM), Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), Static Random Access Memory (SRAM), Enhanced Dynamic Random Access Memory (EDRAM), High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM), Hybrid Memory Cube (HMC), etc.

[0161] If the integrated unit / module is implemented as a software program module and sold or used as an independent financial product, it can be stored in a computer-readable storage device (CMD). Based on this understanding, the technical solution of this application, in essence, or the part that contributes to the prior art, or all or part of the technical solution, can be embodied in the form of a software financial product. This computer software financial product is stored in a memory and includes several instructions to cause a computer device (which may be a personal computer, server, or network device, etc.) to execute all or part of the steps of the methods of the various embodiments of this application. The aforementioned memory includes various media capable of storing program code, such as a USB flash drive, read-only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), portable hard drive, magnetic disk, or optical disk.

[0162] In the above embodiments, the descriptions of each embodiment have their own emphasis. For parts not described in detail in a certain embodiment, please refer to the relevant descriptions of other embodiments. The technical features of the above embodiments can be combined arbitrarily. For the sake of brevity, not all possible combinations of the technical features in the above embodiments are described. However, as long as the combination of these technical features does not contradict each other, it should be considered within the scope of this specification.

[0163] Other embodiments of this application will readily occur to those skilled in the art upon consideration of the specification and practice of the invention disclosed herein. This application is intended to cover any variations, uses, or adaptations of this application that follow the general principles of this application and include common knowledge or customary techniques in the art not disclosed herein. The specification and examples are to be considered exemplary only, and the true scope and spirit of this application are indicated by the following claims.

[0164] It should be understood that this application is not limited to the precise structure described above and shown in the accompanying drawings, and various modifications and changes can be made without departing from its scope. The scope of this application is limited only by the appended claims.

Claims

1. A communication method, characterized in that, The method is applied to an embedded controller EC, which is connected to the platform control hub PCH via an eSPI bus. The method includes: After initialization, receive the first data packet sent by the first human-computer interaction device (HID); The first data packet is encapsulated into an out-of-band (OOB) message of the eSPI bus to obtain the first out-of-band message; The first out-of-band (OOB) message is sent to the platform control center (PCH) via the out-of-band (OOB) channel. The PCH parses the first OOB message to obtain the first data packet and sends the first data packet to the driver module.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, After the initialization operation, the method further includes: The second out-of-band channel message sent by the platform control center (PCH) is received through the out-of-band channel (OOB). The second out-of-band channel message is obtained by the platform control center (PCH) by encapsulating the first instruction into an out-of-band channel (OOB) message of the eSPI bus. The first instruction is sent to the platform control center (PCH) by the driver module. The first instruction indicates that a target operation is performed on the first human-machine interaction device. Parse the second out-of-band channel message to obtain the first instruction; Execute the first instruction.

3. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that, Both the first out-of-band channel message and the second out-of-band channel message include a device identifier field indicating the first human-computer interaction device.

4. The method according to claim 3, characterized in that, Before sending the first out-of-band (OOB) message to the platform control center (PCH) via the out-of-band (OOB) channel, the method further includes: The priority of the first human-computer interaction device is determined based on the device identification field; The sending order of the first out-of-band channel messages is adjusted and updated according to the priority.

5. The method according to any one of claims 1-4, characterized in that, Before sending the first out-of-band (OOB) message to the platform control center (PCH) via the out-of-band (OOB) channel, the method further includes: The transmission rate of the eSPI bus is adjusted according to the input rate of the first human-computer interaction device.

6. The method according to any one of claims 1-4, characterized in that, The step of sending the first out-of-band (OOB) message to the platform control center (PCH) via the out-of-band (OOB) channel includes: If the size of the first data packet exceeds a preset threshold, the first data packet is split into multiple sub-data packets. The first out-of-band channel message includes a sub-data packet identifier field, which indicates the boundary and order of the sub-data packets relative to the first data packet. The multiple sub-data packets are sent sequentially through the out-of-band (OOB) channel.

7. The method according to any one of claims 1-4, characterized in that, The initialization operation includes: The third out-of-band (OOB) message sent by the platform control center (PCH) is received through the out-of-band (OOB) channel. The third OOB message is obtained by the platform control center (PCH) by encapsulating the second instruction into an eSPI bus OOB message. The second instruction is sent to the platform control center (PCH) by the driver module. The second instruction indicates the acquisition of basic information of all human-machine interaction devices connected to the embedded controller and the reset of the all human-machine interaction devices. The basic information includes the descriptor of the human-machine interaction device and the report descriptor of the human-machine interaction device. The second instruction is obtained by parsing the third out-of-band channel message; Execute the second instruction.

8. A communication method, characterized in that, The method is applied to the platform control hub (PCH), which is connected to the embedded controller (EC) via an eSPI bus. The method includes: After initialization, the first out-of-band message sent by the embedded controller EC is received through the out-of-band channel OOB. The first out-of-band message is obtained by the embedded controller EC encapsulating the first data packet into the out-of-band channel OOB message of the eSPI bus. The first data packet is sent to the embedded controller EC by the first human-machine interaction device HID. Parse the first out-of-band channel message to obtain the first data packet; The first data packet is sent to the driver module.

9. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, After the initialization operation, the method further includes: The system receives a first instruction sent by the driver module, wherein the first instruction instructs the embedded controller to perform a target operation on the first human-machine interaction device. The first instruction is encapsulated into an out-of-band channel message of the eSPI bus to obtain a second out-of-band channel message; The second out-of-band message is sent to the embedded controller EC via the out-of-band channel (OOB). The embedded controller EC parses the second out-of-band message to obtain the first instruction and executes the first instruction.

10. The method according to claim 8 or 9, characterized in that, The initialization operation includes: The system receives a second instruction sent by the driver module. The second instruction indicates that the system acquires basic information of all human-computer interaction devices connected to the embedded controller and resets the all human-computer interaction devices. The basic information includes a human-computer interaction device descriptor and a human-computer interaction device report descriptor. The second instruction is encapsulated into an out-of-band channel message of the eSPI bus to obtain a third out-of-band channel message; The third out-of-band message is sent to the embedded controller EC via the out-of-band (OOB) channel. The embedded controller EC parses the third out-of-band message to obtain the second instruction and executes the second instruction.

11. An electronic device, characterized in that, include: An embedded controller EC and a platform control center PCH are provided. The embedded controller EC and the platform control center PCH are connected via an eSPI bus. The embedded controller is used to execute the method as described in any one of claims 1-7, and the platform control center PCH is used to execute the method as described in any one of claims 8-10.

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