Quadrature bus protocol for carrying out transactions in a computer system

Abstract: A protocol for carrying out transactions in a multiple-processor computer system comprises: dividing the transaction cycle into four quadrature states, an arbitrate state, an I/O state, a slave address state and a virtual memory state. The protocol enables the processors to determine before arbitrating whether the memory device is busy, which reduces the number of "busied" transactions.

Description: Field of the Invention The present invention relates generally to pipelined-bus protocols for carrying out transactions in a computer system. More particularly, the invention relates to a method and corresponding apparatus for carrying out transactions in a multi-processor computer system by dividing the transactions into "quadrature state" processes. Background of the Invention Many computer systems include a plurality of processing units, e.g., master processors, that simultaneously interact with shared resources, such as I/O devices, slave processors and memory devices. The master processors of these systems are typically coupled to the various resources via a single address bus and a single data bus. Signals to/from the respective master processors must be sent from/to the respective resource devices over one of these buses. There are three important parameters that must be considered when defining a bus: bandwidth, latency and cost. Bandwidth is a measure of the quantity of data that can be transferred over the bus per second. Bandwidth is important because the data bus connecting the memory devices to the master processors can create a "bottleneck" through which all memory transactions must pass; thus, a large-bandwidth data bus is important to the overall speed of the computer system. Latency represents the time it takes to transfer data between memory and a processor. A great deal of complexity can be added to a system to improve bandwidth and latency; however, this added complexity increases the cost of the system. A goal of the bus designer is to maximize bandwidth and minimize latency for the least possible cost. To achieve this goal, a protocol is required for accessing the address bus when more than one of the master processors "desires" to conduct a transaction with one of the resources, e.g., a read or write to or from memory. In theory an infinite variety of such protocols is possible, however it is desirable that the protocol facilitate a simplified bus design by standardizing all transactions. It is further desirable that the protocol not require the memory devices to be complex, or "smart." The present invention achieves these goals. A 'pended' bus protocol for multiprocessor computer systems is described in Digest of Papers of the 34th IEEE Computer Society International Conference (Compcon 89), 3 March 1989, Washington, USA, pp 72-50, P. Woodbury et al. This system includes an arbitration on the data bus (foot of column 1, p 74) whereas the present invention is arranged to avoid this. Summary of the Invention The invention provides a method, as specified in claim 1 hereinafter, for carrying out transactions between a processor and a shared resource e.g., a slave processor. The invention also provides a computer system, as specified in claim 5 hereinafter, comprising a plurality of processors, at least one shared resource, a bus coupling the processors to the shared resource(s), and means for implementing a protocol for carrying out a transaction between one of the processors and a shared resource. The means for carrying out the protocol comprises means for carrying out the method steps of claim 1. Brief Description of the Drawings Figure 1 is a block diagram of a pipelined multi-processor computer system in accordance with the present invention. Figure 2 is a flowchart of part of a method of carrying out transactions in a pipelined multi-processor computer system in accordance with the present invention. Figure 3 is a flowchart of a method of arbitrating access to a bus, corresponding to block 10 of Figure 2. Figure 4 is an expanded view of the slave address block 14 of Figure 2. Figure 5 is an expanded view of the virtual address block 16 of Figure 2. Figures 6A-6F together make up a timing diagram for a computer system in accordance with the present invention. Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiments The present invention is an attempt to maximize bandwidth and minimize latency in a computer system while keeping complexity and cost at a reasonable level. It accomplishes this by combining pipelining with a novel address bus protocol. To achieve pipelining, all memory transactions are sent out over an address bus and data is returned over a separate data bus. Multiple addresses can be sent out before any data is returned. The time slot during which data is returned is fixed by the system and based upon the response time of the memory. This simplifies memory design and lowers cost while also allowing the memory design to be optimized for minimum latency. The address bus is split into groups of 4 states, known as "quads." Control of the bus is simplified by defining all transactions to consist of these 4 states. The 4 states are the "arbitrate state", "I/O state", "slave address state", and "virtual address state." Because the bus is pipelined and all transactions take the same amount of time, a preferred embodiment of the invention allows a processor to determine beforehand whether the memory block it needs to access is busy with a request from another processor; thus it can inhibit its arbitration until it determines the memory block is free. This reduces the number of transactions on the bus that must be "busied" (retried) by the processor, which improves bandwidth. The preferred embodiments of the invention will now be described with reference to the drawings, wherein like characters refer to like elements or steps. Figure 1 depicts a pipelined computer system in accordance with the present invention. As shown, the system of Figure 1 comprises a plurality of master processors ("MPs") 2a, 2b, 2c, etc., each of which is coupled to an associated unit of high speed cache memory 6a, 6b, 6c, etc. The master processors 2a, 2b, 2c, etc., are also coupled via an address bus to one or more slave devices 4a, 4b (e.g., a slave I/O unit and a slave processor) and a unit of main memory 5. The high speed cache units 6a, 6b, 6c, etc., are loaded with data or instructions, at medium speed, from main memory 5 via data bus 9. All transactions between master processors 2a, 2b, 2c, etc., and slave devices 4a, 4b or main memory 5 are divided into an address quad and an associated data quad. The data quad is performed during a fixed interval of time following its associated address quad. The standardization of all transactions simplifies the design of interfaces between the various components of the system. The standardization also simplifies memory design, since memory simply starts its address bus accesses during an address quad and dumps data during a corresponding data quad. Referring now to Figures 2 and 6A-6F, an address quad in accordance with the invention comprises four states of fixed duration during which various processes are carried out, the processes directed toward executing a transaction between a master processor and slave I/O device 4a, slave processor 4b or memory device 5. The address quad comprises an arbitrate state 10, an I/O state 12, a slave address (SA) state 14 and a virtual address (VA) state 16. During the arbitrate state 10, the various master processors 2a, 2b, 2c, etc., contend for access to the address bus 8. This procedure is described more fully below with reference to Figure 3. During the I/O state 12, data is transferred, via address bus 8, between the master processor that won priority over the bus during a preceding arbitration and an I/O device 4a or slave processor 4b. Note that the data transferred during any I/O state 12 is data that was requested during a previous quad. In addition, it should be noted that transactions between a master processor and memory device 5 utilize the data bus 9. The foregoing can be seen from the timing diagram depicted in Figures 6A-6F, wherein "MA" denotes master address, "TT" denotes transaction type and "ST" denotes status information from a slave device. Next, during the slave address state 14, the address of the slave device 4a, 4b to be transacted with by the winning master processor 2a, 2b, 2c, etc. is transmitted onto address bus 8, from which it can be received by the respective slave devices. As shown in Figs. 4 and 6A-6F, during the slave address state 14 three parallel operations 14a, 14b, 14c take place: the slave address is sent onto the address bus, block 14a, a transaction type (TT) identifier is sent onto the address bus, block 14b, and a block ID (BLK ID) number is sent onto the address bus, block 14c. These operations are preferably performed simultaneously. Note that the block ID number is employed for interleaving blocks of memory. Finally, during the virtual address state 16 a virtual address is transmitted from the master processor having won priority over the address bus (during the arbitrate state 10) to the address bus. The virtual address state 16 is used for cache coherency checking, i.e., checking to ensure that all of the cache memory units 6a, 6b, 6c, etc., contain identical data for the same address. In addition, during the virtual address state 16, the master processor address (MA) (i.e., the address of the master processor with priority over the address bus) is transmitted onto the bus. These steps are performed in parallel, as shown in Figs. 5 and 6A-6F. Referring now to Figure 3, a preferred method of arbitrating access to the bus during the arbitrate state 10 will now be described in greater detail. First, a determination is made by a master processor whether the intended transaction is to be with a non-memory I/O device (slave) or a memory resource, step 17. If the intended transaction is with a non-memory device 4a, 4b, step 24 is executed next; otherwise, if the intended transaction is with a memory device, the memory address is mapped to a block ID number, step 18. At steps 20 and 22 the master processor determines the status of the intended device. If a non-memory device is busy, it sends a busy status signal (ST (see Figures 6D-6F)) to the master processor. Thus, if the device to be accessed is an I/O device 4a or slave processor 4b, no mapping or status check is required; the master processor is free to arbitrate provided the I/O device is not busy. The master checks the status of a memory device by maintaining a list of memory block ID numbers sent onto the bus during the previous N states. Typically, N corresponds to the number of states within the previous 120 ns. If the memory device hasn't been accessed during the previous N states it is assumed to be not busy, and the master processor is free to arbitrate. If the intended device is found to be busy, nothing further is done during the arbitrate state. If the intended device is not busy, a determination is made of which master processor is to be given priority to the bus, step 24. The determination of priority may be made on any one of a number of known arbitration algorithms, e.g., an LRU (least recently used) or DPL (distributed priority list) algorithm. The relationship between the address quads 10, 12, 14, 16 and data quads D0, D1, D2, D3 is shown in Figures 6A-6F. Six address quads are shown. The first two are memory transactions in which data is returned on the data bus some fixed time after the corresponding address quad. Typical times are 120ns after the corresponding slave address state. Note that memory accesses are usually in lines, but may also be in double lines, half lines, bytes, etc. (A line is simply a standard number of bytes associated with a particular cache "tag".) For example, if the processor attempts to read a memory location in cache, and misses, it will issue a memory transaction over the bus. A line (e.g., 32 bytes) will be loaded into cache and associated with a particular cache tag. If the transaction is with an I/O register, the data is returned via address bus 8 during the I/O state of the address quad. This is done to allow inexpensive I/O device implementations that don't have to be connected to data bus 9. It should be noted that the present invention is not intended to be limited to the specific architecture or methods described above. For example, the invention may be employed in computer systems other than ones conforming exactly to the block diagram in Figure 1. In addition, the invention is not intended to be limited to any specific set of arbitration rules. Other variations and modifications of the preferred embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art as well.

Claims: A method of carrying out transactions in a computer system, wherein the computer system comprises a plurality of processors (2a, 2b, 2c) and one or more shared resources (4a, 4b, 5) interconnected via a bus (8, 9), and wherein each transaction occurs between an identified one of the plurality of processors and one of the one or more shared resources, the method comprising the steps of: a) defining, i) a periodic address quad with respect to an address portion of the bus, the address quad comprising four sequential states: an arbitrate state (10), an I/O state (12), a slave address state (14), and a virtual address state (16); and ii) a periodic data quad with respect to a data portion of the bus; b) during an arbitrate state, i) allowing those processors which desire to initiate a transaction to transmit arbitration data over the address portion of the bus; and ii) identifying a processor with priority over the address portion of the bus for the current address quad; c) during a slave address state, allowing a processor with priority over the address portion of the bus to transfer an address of a particular shared resource to the address portion of the bus; d) during a virtual address state, allowing a processor with priority over the address portion of the bus to transfer a virtual address of a memory location to the address portion of the bus, the virtual address being defined within a particular shared resource addressed in an immediately preceding state of a current address quad; e) if a memory transaction is initiated during an address quad, transmitting data over the data portion of the bus during a data quad commencing at a fixed time after the memory transaction is initiated; and f) if an I/O transaction is initiated during an address quad, transmitting data over the address portion of the bus during an I/O state commencing at a fixed time after the I/O transaction is initiated. A method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of inhibiting a processor's ability to transmit arbitration data over the address portion of the bus when it is determined that a device with which the processor wishes to initiate a transaction is busy. A method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the four sequential states occur for four predefined durations. A method according to claim 3, wherein the four durations are substantially equal. A computer system comprising: a) a plurality of processors (2a, 2b, 2c); b) a bus comprising address (8) and data (9) portions; c) one or more shared resources (4a, 4b, 5) interconnected to the plurality of processors via the bus; and d) means for implementing a protocol for carrying out transactions between identified ones of the plurality of processors and the one or more shared resources, comprising: i) means for defining, A) a periodic address quad with respect to the address portion of the bus, the address quad comprising four sequential states: an arbitrate state (10), an I/O state (12), a slave address state (14), and a virtual address state (16); and B) a periodic data quad with respect to the data portion of the bus; ii) means for, A) allowing those processors which desire to initiate a transaction to transmit arbitration data over the address portion of the bus, and B) identifying a processor with priority over the address portion of the bus for the current address quad, during an arbitrate state; iii) means for allowing a processor with priority over the address portion of the bus to transfer an address of a particular shared resource to the address portion of the bus during a slave address state; iv) means for allowing a processor with priority over the address portion of the bus to transfer a virtual address of a memory location to the address portion of the bus during a virtual address state, the virtual address being defined within a particular shared resource addressed in an immediately preceding state of a current address quad; v) means for transmitting data over the data portion of the bus, if a memory transaction is initiated during an address quad, during a data quad commencing at a fixed time after the memory transaction is initiated; and vi) means for transmitting data over the address portion of the bus, if an I/O transaction is initiated during an address quad, during an I/O state commencing at a fixed time after the I/O transaction is initiated. A computer system according to claim 5, comprising means for inhibiting a processor's ability to transmit arbitration data over the address portion of the bus when it is determined that a device with which the processor wishes to initiate a transaction is busy. A computer system according to claim 5 or 6, wherein the four sequential states occur for four predefined durations. A computer system according to claim 7, wherein the four durations are substantially equal.

Inventors: BROCKMANN RUSSELL C, JAFFE WILLIAM S, JOHNSON LEITH L, BROCKMANN, RUSSELL C., JAFFE, WILLIAM S., JOHNSON, LEITH L.
Applicants: HEWLETT PACKARD CO, HEWLETT-PACKARD COMPANY
Application year: 1992
Main classification: G06F12
IPC codes: G06F15, G06F13, G06F12