Patent ID: 9552319
Date: 2017-01-24
CPC Classifications: G06F,H04L,Y02D

Claim:
1. A method of managing communications between a pair of physical link layers of an interface connecting processing units within a computer system, the method comprising: first changing at least one of a first active width or a first operating frequency of a first one of the pair of physical link layers to at least one of a second active width or a second operating frequency; first communicating an indication of at least one of the second active width or the second operating frequency to a second one of the pair of physical link layers over a spare bit lane of the interface; receiving the indication at the second one of the pair of physical link layers; responsive to receiving the indication, second changing at least one of an active width or an operating frequency of the second one of the pair of physical link layers to the at least one of the second width or the second operating frequency; and second communicating an acknowledgement from the second one of the pair of physical link layers to the first one of the physical link layers that indicates that the second one of the physical link layers is operating with the at least one of the second width or the second operating frequency as changed by the second changing in response to receiving the indication, wherein, subsequent to the second changing the second active width of the interface, the interface has a current active width less than a maximum active width of the interface, whereby one or more bit-lanes are disabled, and wherein the second communicating uses the one or more disabled lanes of the interface to communicate the acknowledgement, whereby the indication is communicated over the spare bit-lane, but the acknowledgement is not communicated over the spare bit-lane.