Abstract:
This disclosure relates to a system of communicating, data within an integrated circuit. Multiple components, or channels, can share common physical communication lines between elements within the system. In some aspect, only one component can access the physical lines at a given time and a selection device chooses which component is active on the physical lines and makes the appropriate connection to the lines. The selection and connection can be completed without requiring or reporting information to the components, and is thus transparent.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS  
       [0001]     This disclosure claims priority from U.S. Provisional Application 60/734,623, entitled TESSELLATED MULTI-ELEMENT PROCESSOR AND HIERARCHICAL COMMUNICATION NETWORK, filed Nov. 7, 2005, and from U.S. Provisional Application 60/702,727, filed Jul. 26, 2005, entitled SYSTEM FOR GENERATING MULTIPLE CLOCK FREQUENCIES FOR MULTIPLE CLOCK DOMAINS AND FOR SHARING DATA ACROSS THOSE DOMAINS, both assigned to the assignee of the present invention and both incorporated by reference herein. 
     
    
     TECHNICAL FIELD  
       [0002]     This disclosure relates to transferring data within an integrated circuit, and, more particularly, to a system that increases the amount of data that can be transferred over a network of data communication paths within an integrated circuit.  
       BACKGROUND  
       [0003]     Efficient communication between components of an integrated circuit is always challenging, especially within integrated circuits that include a large number of communicating elements. A rich communication fabric is essential for modern data-centric digital circuits, but each physical wire that carries data consumes valuable area and power resources in the circuit. A communication fabric that is too rich for the activities that its attached components are performing is wasted by the communication fabric sitting idle for long periods of time, while a communication fabric that is too lean creates idle components waiting for data bottlenecks to clear in the communication fabric. Serializing data to reduce the number of transmission wires is one alternative to minimize power and area of a communication network, but that comes at an increased transmission latency. Further, such serial communication, to be most effective, should operate at a higher frequency than the elements that create the parallel data, otherwise the operation of the entire system slows. Integrated circuits that operate at frequency sufficiently high enough that serial communication can occur without performance penalty, i.e., integrated circuits that include communication portions that operate many multiples faster than data generation portions, can be difficult to provide. Not many modern integrated circuits have such high-frequency resources available to them.  
         [0004]      FIG. 1  illustrates example communication systems within an integrated circuit  15  in the prior art. Of course, typical integrated circuits may contain thousands or hundreds of thousands of communication channels, and those illustrated in  FIG. 1  are simple instructional examples.  
         [0005]     Communication paths can be uni-directional or bi-directional. Bi-directional communication sends data either way between two communication nodes. Uni-directional communication paths send data from a sender to a receiver. An example of uni-directional communications is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,816,562. Even in “uni-directional” paths, some data, such as protocol data or information may travel backwards from the receiver to the sender—such as sending an “acknowledge” signal after the receiver has received the data. As used in this disclosure, the term “unidirectional” communication is generally used when desired data is sent only from a sender to a receiver, without regard to protocol information, which may travel in any direction. Variants of the invention are equally applicable to both uni-directional and bi-directional communication.  
         [0006]     Referring back to  FIG. 1 , in the most simple case, a data sending node, sending node, or sender  20  sends data to a data receiving node, receiving node, or receiver  22  over a communication channel  24 . In most instances within an integrated circuit the communication channel  24  is a metal trace that carries electrical signals, but other communication methods are known in the art. After the data is received, the receiver  22  may acknowledge that it has received the data. In a bi-directional scheme, data could be sent in either direction over the data channel  24 .  
         [0007]     In the next example, a sender  30  sends data to a receiver  32 . In this example, there are four data channels  34  that operate in parallel. Thus, in one data communication cycle four pieces of data can be transferred between the sender  30  and the receiver  32 . Also included in the data channels  34  is a set of data storage nodes  36 , one for each channel  34 . The storage nodes  36  may be designed and configured to store more than one piece of data. For example, each storage node  36  may be configured to store ten pieces of data. An example of such a storage node  36  is a FIFO (First In First Out) storage, also known as a queue. FIFOs are useful in data communication because they store data in the order received until the data is ready to be used. FIFOs are especially useful in systems where the sender  30  and receiver  32  are not synchronized—i.e., in those systems where the sender  30  does not know if the receiver  32  is in a state ready to accept data. By instead loading data from the sender  30  into a FIFO, the receiver  32  can access the data whenever it is ready.  
         [0008]     In the next example, a sender  40  sends data to a receiver  42 . In this example, the sender  40  outputs eight bits of parallel data that are ‘serialized’ into, for example, one or two communication channels  46  by a serializer  44 . At the destination, a de-serializer  48  converts the serialized data back into eight bits of parallel data for use by the receiver  42 . By using a serializing system, fewer communication channels are used than the number of parallel bits output by the sender  40 , which can be a benefit in systems that may have long or many communication channels. Routing one or two wires between the sender  40  and the receiver  42  uses less resources than routing eight parallel wires. There is an extra cost, however, in that both a serializer  44  and a de-serializer  48  are added to the system cost, for each communication path that uses such a system. Additionally, unless the serializer runs at a higher clock speed than the sender  40  and receiver  42 , the overall data transmission speed of the data between the sender  40  and receiver  42  is reduced, because it takes at least four or eight times as long, depending on whether there are one or two serial communication channels  46 , to send the data to the receiver  42 . There is further delay with converting the parallel data to serial data at the sender  40  side, then re-converting the data back to parallel at the receiver side  42 , although some of these actions may be performed in parallel. Even more delay may be caused by communication protocol overhead, such as by sending a signal informing the receiver that there is data ready to be sent, and sending an acknowledgement after the data has been received. Such serial systems are common in the prior art, even given their deficiencies, due to the space savings of not having to run parallel communication paths throughout the integrated circuit.  
         [0009]     A difficulty lies in striking a balance between a communication system that is too richly connected and one that uses minimal resources while simultaneously being easy to integrate into the communication system.  
         [0010]     Embodiments of the invention address these and other limitations in the prior art. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0011]      FIG. 1  is a block diagram of various integrated circuit communication systems according to the prior art.  
         [0012]      FIG. 2  is a block diagram of a communication system including data lines and a set of protocol lines according to embodiments of the invention.  
         [0013]      FIG. 3  is a block diagram of a communication system including virtual channels according to embodiments of the invention.  
         [0014]      FIGS. 4A and 4B  are block diagrams showing additional detail of the virtual channel system illustrated in  FIG. 3 .  
         [0015]      FIG. 5  is an example flow diagram illustrating an example method of selecting the next channel to be used from the available channels in the virtual channel system according to embodiments of the invention.  
         [0016]      FIG. 6  is a block diagram of a communication system according to embodiments of the invention.  
         [0017]      FIG. 7  is a block diagram of a communication system operating in multiple clock domains according to embodiments of the invention.  
         [0018]      FIG. 8  is a block diagram of a second communication system functionally similar to the structure illustrated in  FIG. 6 .  
         [0019]      FIG. 9  is a schematic diagram of a communication system including multiple virtual channel systems according to embodiments of the invention.  
         [0020]      FIG. 10  is a schematic diagram illustrating a programmable communication channel structure according to embodiments of the invention,  
         [0021]      FIGS. 11A and 11B  illustrate example components that can be used in the programmable communication structure of  FIG. 10 , according to embodiments of the invention.  
         [0022]      FIG. 12  is a block diagram of another communication system in an arrangement of processors according to further embodiments of the invention.  
         [0023]      FIG. 13  is a block diagram illustrating a further communication system within an arrangement of components according to further embodiments of the invention.  
         [0024]      FIG. 14  is a block diagram of an example of a programmable network switch of  FIG. 13  that uses virtual channels according to embodiments of the invention.  
         [0025]      FIG. 15  is a block diagram of an example of programmable interface between a portion of a network switch and input ports of an electronic component as in  FIG. 11  according to embodiments of the invention.  
         [0026]      FIG. 16  is a block diagram of yet another communication system within an arrangement of components according to embodiments of the invention. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0027]     In embodiments of the invention, “Virtual” channels allow multiple components to share physical communication lines between elements within the system. Even if only one set of physical communication lines is established between two elements, one or more sets of data storage elements can be connected to the physical communication lines, thereby allowing virtual data “channels” to be created, each able to use a time-slice of the physical communication lines. Using virtual channels helps maximize the use of physical resources and prevents communication stalls that could affect other types of point to point communication systems.  
         [0028]      FIG. 2  is a block diagram illustrating ports and storage elements in a communication system according to embodiments of the invention. A sender  50  includes two output ports,  51 , each of which includes storage elements, such as registers or latches, although any method of storing data could work. The storage elements store data and protocol signals for managing the data transfer. The protocol signals may also be referred to as protocol data. In one embodiment, there are 33 data storage elements and two protocol storage elements in each output port  51 . A receiver  52  includes two input ports  53 , which store data and protocol information in the receiver  52 . The input and output ports can be implemented as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/871,347, entitled Data Interface for Hardware Objects, assigned to the assignee of the present invention and incorporated by reference herein. As outlined in that application, these data interfaces typically operate in a clocked, synchronous system. Data messages that travel throughout a system using the data interfaces are asynchronous, however, in the sense that they may be generated at any particular time and not according to any particular schedule. Once generated, the messages can be sent across a clocked communication channel and delivered to a clocked receiver on a clock schedule, although the receiver itself, and not another outside process, controls when such messages are delivered.  
         [0029]     Data passes between the sender  50  and receiver  52  along a data communication path  56 . Protocol information passes between the sender  50  and receiver  52  along protocol communication paths  58  and  59 . For instance, the communication path  58  may transmit data that indicates the accompanying data is valid, and the communication path  59  may transmit data that indicates that a successive stage is ready to accept data. These protocols and their operation are discussed in detail in the patent application referenced above. Although this disclosure will generally refer to protocol information traveling in two directions simultaneously, forward (with the data) and reverse (opposite the data), it is understood that the protocol information may actually be traveling in a single direction without affecting the spirit of the invention.  
         [0030]     Along the communication paths  56 ,  58 , and  59  of  FIG. 2  are optional storage stages  54 . Each storage stage  54  is structured to temporarily store the data and protocol information between the sender  50  and receiver  52 . Storage stages  54  can be placed anywhere along the communication path  56 ,  58 ,  59  between the sender  50  and receiver  52 . Although not strictly necessary, storage stages  54  can be used to minimize the spanning distance of communication lines between a sender  50  and a receiver  52 . In such a case, the storage stage  54  becomes both a receiver and a sender, by receiving data and protocol information from the sender  50 , and providing it to the receiver  52 , or in the case of the communication path  59 , by receiving protocol information from the receiver  52  and providing it to the sender  50 .  
         [0031]     In operation, data is loaded into one or both output ports  51  of the sender  50 . When protocol information from one of communication paths  59  indicates that the successive stage is accepting data, the associated output port  51  sends data and protocol information along communication paths  56  and  58 , in parallel, to the storage stage  54 . As described above, the storage stage  54  is not strictly necessary, and in such a case where the storage stage is not present, the data and protocol data is sent directly from each of the output ports  51  to the respective input ports  53  of the receiver  52 . It is noted that the “accepting” data, which is part of the communication protocol, travels on communication path  59  in “reverse,” that is, in the opposite direction of the data on the communication path  56  and the protocol data on communication path  58 . The accept signal that travels via communication path  59  is used to determine when data on communication path  54  may be transmitted. Therefore, when the local accept signal sent via the communication path  59  is asserted, data and protocol information may be transmitted to the next successive stage, provided such data is valid. When the local accept signal sent via the communication path  59  is de-asserted, the data and protocol information remains in its present location, such as the output port  51  or storage stage  54 , and is not transferred to the successive stage. Although typically an asserted state is represented by a logical ‘1’ or HIGH signal and a de-asserted state is represented by a logical ‘0’ or LOW signal, such representations are implementation specific. The foregoing protocol is preferably used in the various embodiments described below.  
         [0032]      FIG. 3  is a block diagram illustrating an example system  60  of “virtual” communication channels according to embodiments of the invention. The communication channels are ‘virtual’ because, as will be described below, there is more than one communication channel for each physical channel, also referred to as a set of physical communication lines or a physical bus.  
         [0033]     In  FIG. 3 , the system  60  includes two data sending registers,  62 ,  66  and two receiving registers  64 ,  68 . Although these devices are referred to as “registers,” they may be formed of any storage type element without changing the nature of their operation and embodiments of the invention are not limited to using any particular type of hardware structure. Also, although shown as distinct elements, the sending registers  62 ,  66  may be part of a single element, such as two output ports on a single processor.  
         [0034]     In general, the data sending registers  62 ,  66  send their data to a virtual channel master  70 . The virtual channel master selects one of the channels and places the data from the selected register on the physical channel  72 , while the non-selected data register waits. In one embodiment, causing the non-selected channel to wait means that the virtual channel master  70  causes the “accept” line in the protocol buffer of the non-selected sending register to be de-asserted. The channel master  70  also de-asserts the valid bit of the protocol information of all of the non-selected channels. In other words, when the channel master  70  selects a virtual channel to be active, it sets the protocol information indicating validity of the data, also referred to as a “valid” bit, of the selected channel to 1, and sets all the valid bits of the non-selected channels to 0.  
         [0035]     The output of the channel master  70  is then sent on the physical channel  72  to its destination. In one embodiment, as illustrated in  FIG. 3 , the physical channel  72  includes a number of separate communication lines that equals the amount of data stored in the sending register  62  plus the amount of protocol data stored in the other registers that are coupled to the virtual channel master  70 . For instance, in  FIG. 3 , each of the data paths from the sending registers  62 ,  66  is 33 bits wide, and the protocol paths are each two bits wide. There are two sending registers  62 ,  66  connected to the channel master  70 , and thus  FIG. 3  illustrates a two-virtual-channel system  60 . The physical channel  72  is therefore 37 lines wide, also referred to as 37 bits wide. Of the 37 communication lines, 33 communication lines carry the data from the selected channel, and four more lines carry the protocol data for both of the sending registers  62 ,  66 . Other embodiments may include a different number of lines on the physical channel  72 . For example, some of the protocol information may be encoded to minimize the number of lines needed for the physical channel  72 . Other examples are discussed below. Also, if the sending registers  62 ,  66  were constructed of more or fewer protocol registers than illustrated, the size of the physical channel could be designed to match. Although not required, selecting the number of lines in the physical channel  72  to be equal to the number of data bits in a single one of the sending registers  62 ,  66  plus the number of protocol bits in all of the attached sending registers makes for very efficient data transfer, as illustrated below.  
         [0036]     The data on the physical channel  72  is sent to a virtual channel decoder  74  that separates the data for the set of receiving registers  64 ,  68 . In some embodiments, like the one illustrated in  FIG. 3 , the physical channel  72  may include one or more channel storage stages  76 , which function to temporarily store data of the physical channel as described with reference to  FIG. 2  above. The storage stage  76  differs from the storage stage  54  in  FIG. 2  in that the storage stage  76  includes storage for more than one set of protocol information. Specifically, the storage stage  76  can store protocol information for all of the separate virtual channels attached to the virtual channel master  70 . Additionally, the storage stage  76  is not limited to housing a single set of parallel registers, which would have a depth of ‘1,’ but may include multiple sets of registers or could be formed by a FIFO (First In First Out) buffer for a greater storage depth. Of course, in those embodiments where data moves through one register stage per clock, having a greater storage depth increases the latency time between when data leaves the channel master  70  and when it reaches the channel decoder  74 .  
         [0037]     In operation, the virtual channel master  70  selects one of the sending registers  62 ,  66 , i.e., one of the virtual channels, to be active on the physical channel  72 . It does this by first inspecting the state of the protocol data in each protocol register. In one embodiment, the virtual channel master  70  evaluates the forward protocol from the sending register and the reverse protocol from the stage most directly connected to the channel master in the direction opposite from the sending register. For instance, in the system  60  illustrated in  FIG. 3 , the channel master  70  inspects the forward protocol from the sending registers  62 ,  66  and the reverse protocol from the storage stage  76 . If the storage stage  76  were not present, the channel master  70  inspects the reverse protocol from the receiving registers  64 ,  68 .  
         [0038]     If the protocol data indicates that the data is valid (valid: asserted) and the successive stage is ready for data transfer (accept: asserted), then the associated sending register  62 ,  66  is ready to send data. If either the valid or accept protocol data is de-asserted, then the associated sending register  62 ,  66  is not ready to send data. Of course, if the sending register  62 ,  66  is not ready to send data, then the channel master  70  would not select it to be active on the physical channel  72 . Once the channel master determines how many of the sending registers  62 ,  66  are ready to send data, the virtual master  70  then determines which of them will be selected. Any method of arbitration could be used to select the active register from the pool of registers ready to send data, such as round-robin, most-recently-used, or least-recently-used, or others, as are known in the art.  
         [0039]     Once selected, the channel master  70  couples the data from the one selected sending register  62  or  66 , plus forward protocol data for all of the registers  62 ,  66  to the physical channel  72 , where it propagates forward to the virtual channel decoder  74 . If one or more storage stages  76  are present, the data would be temporarily stored in the storage stage  76  as it moves across the physical channel  72  to the decoder  74 . Once the data arrives at the virtual channel decoder  74 , the decoder places the data just transferred into the appropriate receiving register  64 ,  68  that is associated with the sending registers  62 ,  66 . Additionally, the decoder  74  routes the protocol information for both receiving registers  64 ,  68  into the appropriate register. The “accept” protocol information travels in the reverse direction, as described above.  
         [0040]     Because of the parallel nature of the system  60  operation, one of the sending registers ( 62  or  66 ), the storage stage  76 , and one of the receiving registers ( 64  or  68 ) can propagate data at every clock cycle. Thus, the system  60  can have a very high data throughput from the sending registers  62 ,  66  to the receiving registers  64 ,  68 .  
         [0041]     In one embodiment, the virtual channel master  70  controls the forward protocol information of the sending registers  62 ,  66 , and the reverse protocol information from the storage stage  76 . Because, for each data transmission cycle only one virtual channel can be selected, the virtual channel master  70  manipulates the forward protocol information for all of the non-selected channels to indicate that the non-selected channels are not valid. Similarly, the virtual channel master  70  manipulates the reverse protocol information for all of the non-selected channels to indicate that the successive registers of the non-selected channels are not accepting data input. This is known as “one-hot,” in that regardless of how many sending registers  62 ,  66  are ready to send data and how many receiving registers  64 ,  68  are ready to receive data, the virtual channel master  70  signals only the selected data sending register as valid (by de-asserting all other forward protocol values), and signals only the selected data receiver as receiving by de-asserting all the non-selected receiving registers. Such protocol manipulation ensures that data will stay in its correct sending register  62 ,  66 , until it is ready to be sent. It also ensures that only valid data is transmitted to the receiving registers  64 ,  68 .  
         [0042]      FIG. 4A  is a schematic diagram illustrating an example embodiment and environment of the virtual channel master  70  of  FIG. 3 . In operation, the channel master  70  uses protocol information from the virtual channels  0  and  1 , among other information, such as a previous or current state, to determine which virtual channel to select as the next active on the physical channel  72 . Once selected, the channel master  70  couples the appropriate data path from the selected sending register  62 ,  66  to the physical channel  72 , as well as controls protocol information into and from virtual channels  0  and  1 .  
         [0043]     Inputs to the channel master  70  include data from the virtual channel  0  from sending register  62  and data from the virtual channel  1  from sending register  66 . As described above, the data typically includes parallel data, which can be referred to as a word, and in this example, includes 33 bits of information. In the 33 bit example of  FIG. 4A , one of the data bits, referred as the 33 rd  bit, can signify membership in a message packet, or group of data, as described in the above-incorporated patent application. Alternatively, the packet membership identifier could be viewed as a bit of protocol information, and not as a separate data bit. In other embodiments, the width of the data word can be any size.  
         [0044]     Data lines from the registers  62 ,  66  are coupled to a controller  80 , which could be for example a multiplexer, having as many sets of inputs as there are virtual channels in the system. The controller  80  also includes one set of output data, which is the data component of the physical channel  72 . A channel select device  82 , which operates effectively as a small state machine, determines which set of data i.e., which virtual channel, is placed on the physical channel  72 , and then sends an appropriate signal to the controller  80 .  
         [0045]     In one example, the channel select device  82  uses a least-recently-used (LRU) algorithm to determine which of the virtual channels to select as an active virtual channel on the physical channel  72 .  FIG. 5  is an example flow diagram illustrating a flow  100  that can be used by the channel select device  82  to select the active virtual channel in the channel master  70 . Initially, in a process  110 , the channel select device  82  creates a subgroup of only those virtual channels in the virtual channel system  60  that are ready to send data. Having data ready to send can be determined by inspecting the forward protocol information that accompanies the data on each virtual channel  0 ,  1  and by inspecting the reverse protocol information from the successive stage. In the protocol discussed above, having data that is ready to send is indicated by having both of the valid and accept signals asserted for the associated virtual channel. The process  120  then determines, of the virtual channels that are ready to send data, which virtual channel was selected longest ago and selects that virtual channel as the active virtual channel. Such fair arbitration prevents any single virtual channel from dominating the virtual channel system  60 . Of course, if a designer wished to always promote one virtual channel over another, for example, if the designer wished to always send data on virtual channel  0  if it is present, regardless of when it was last used, the channel select device  82  could be constructed to operate in such a manner. Other schemes such as fair but unbalanced arbitration could be used, where one virtual channel is generally selected over another, but the non-preferred virtual channel is guaranteed a minimum opportunity to send data. Such a fair scheme prevents a virtual channel from becoming starved, and never selected.  
         [0046]     A process  130  generates the appropriate signals for the controller  80  to choose the virtual channel selected in the process  120  as the active virtual channel. For instance, this process could involve using the channel select device  82  to generate the signals to drive the controller  80 . The channel select device  82  could use protocol information from the registers  62 ,  66  plus stored information of which virtual channel was last selected, or other information to make its selection. The process  130  can also control the protocol information by de-asserting the forward protocol information and the reverse protocol information for all but the selected virtual channel.  
         [0047]     Finally, the process  140  updates the currently selected channel (the active virtual channel) to be the most-recently-used channel. In operation, in a two-channel virtual channel system, if both virtual channels are always ready to send data, the channel master  70  will simply alternate from one channel to the other, sending data one word at a time across the physical channel until either channel were not ready to send more data. In the case where only one virtual channel is ready to send data, then that channel would occupy the physical channel  72  exclusively.  
         [0048]     In an alternative embodiment, the channel select device  82  could also consider the contents of the 33 rd  bit, which as described above can be used to signify the last word in a group or message packet. In such a system, the channel select device  82  could keep a selected virtual channel always selected, provided its valid and accept protocol bits were always asserted, until the 33 rd  bit indicated the end of a message packet before allowing the physical channel  72  to be connected to the other virtual channel. For example, assume both virtual channel  0  and virtual channel  1  include five 33-bit word packets each. In the previous system, described above, the channel master  70  would alternate from channel  0  to channel  1  and back for each interleaving word. Thus, channel  0  would send its last word in the 9 th  data transfer cycle and channel  1  would send its last word in the 10 th  cycle. In the latter-described system, provided virtual channel  0 &#39;s valid and accept bits were constantly asserted, the channel master  70  would send all five words successively from virtual channel  0  before sending the five words in virtual channel  1 . Such an embodiment could be valuable if a subsequent process were waiting idle for an end of a message packet before it could proceed.  
         [0049]      FIG. 4B  is a block diagram illustrating an example channel decoder  74 . In this efficient embodiment, the decoder simply connects the physical communication lines making up the data portion of the physical channel  72  to both of the connected receiving registers  64 ,  68 . Recall that, in some of the embodiments described above, the valid bit of protocol information of all of the non-selected virtual channels will be de-asserted by the channel master  70 , while the valid protocol bit of only the selected virtual channel will be asserted. Therefore, it is not a problem to duplicate data for the non-asserted virtual channel, because its associated protocol information indicating validity will simply be de-asserted in the associated protocol register  64 ,  68 , indicating that the data should not be used. In other embodiments, the channel decoder  74  could inspect which of the virtual channels was selected by inspecting the protocol information, and only store data in the register associated with the selected virtual channel.  
         [0050]      FIG. 6  is a block diagram illustrating a four-channel virtual channel system according to embodiments of the invention. In this example, four sending registers  180 , labeled virtual channels  0 ,  1 ,  2 , and  3  are connected to a virtual channel master  182 . The virtual channel master  182  operates as described above and selects which one of the four virtual channels will be connected to the physical channel  184  in any cycle. The virtual channel system illustrated in  FIG. 6  can optionally include a storage stage  186 . The storage stage  186  includes storage for the data of the selected virtual channel on the physical channel  184  as well as protocol data for all of the virtual channels. Thus, in this example, while there are 35 bits of information (33 data+2 protocol) stored in each sending register  180 , the physical channel  184  includes 41 physical communication lines, or is 41 bits wide—33 bits for the physical channel data plus 8 bits of protocol data for all of the connected virtual channels. In the system illustrated in  FIG. 6 , the 41 bits from the storage stage  186  are presented to the virtual channel decoder  188  in every clock cycle, where they are directed into the individual receiving registers  190 .  
         [0051]      FIG. 7  illustrates a data transfer system similar to the system illustrated in  FIG. 6 . The primary difference between the two systems is that the system in  FIG. 7  has a physical channel  193  that is only as wide as a single one of the sending registers  180 . In  FIG. 7 , the physical channel  193  is 35 bits wide. By contrast, the physical channel  184  in  FIG. 6  is 41 bits wide, which was wide enough to transmit all the data in the sending register of one of the virtual channels, plus the protocol data in all of the sending registers. Although the system of  FIG. 7  may have lower hardware costs than the system of  FIG. 6 , because of the fewer wires and storage registers in its physical channel  193 , there would be increased communication overhead, however. Some information about which virtual channel that is active on the physical channel  193  would need to be communicated between the virtual channel master  192  and the receiving registers  190 . Such communication could come in the form of a channel number transmitted before or after the virtual channel data is sent over the physical channel  193 , or could be some other communication protocol, such as information transmitted over a back channel information line  196  coupled between the receiving registers  190  and the virtual channel master  192 . To save physical resources, the back channel information line  196  could carry encoded data.  
         [0052]      FIG. 8  illustrates another data transfer system similar to the systems of  FIGS. 6 and 7 . The primary difference between the system of  FIG. 8  and these others is the presence of clock-crossing circuitry  187  separating the virtual channel master  182  from the sending registers  180  and receiving registers  190 . Such clock-crossing circuitry could include those circuits described in the above-referenced and incorporated provisional patent application 60/702,727. The presence of such clock-crossing circuits  187  allow the virtual channel master  182  to operate in its own clock domain, such as clock domain B, while the sending registers  180  are in clock domain A, and the receiving registers are in clock domain C. For example, the clock domain A could operate at 200 MHz, clock domain C at 400 Mhz, and clock domain B at 800 MHz. In another embodiment, clock domains A and C could operate at a first speed, while clock domain B operates at a higher speed. For instance, domains A and C could operate at 200 MHz while clock domain B operates at 400 MHz. In such an embodiment, data could be sent along the physical channel twice as fast as it was delivered to the sending registers  180 , effectively keeping both virtual channels  0  and  1  running at full speed. In one particularly efficient embodiment, the clock rate of the domain that includes the physical channel runs at a multiple of the clock rate of the data sending registers, with the multiple being equal or above the number of virtual channels connected to the physical channel. In such embodiments, the physical channel effectively removes data from the data sending registers in a single clock cycle, as measured by the clock rate of the data sending registers, because the physical channel operates much faster than the sending registers.  
         [0053]     Due to the careful protocol control described above, each element in the system of  FIG. 8  can operate independently without risk of losing information when crossing clock boundaries. Although three separate clock domains are illustrated in  FIG. 8 , the actual number could be fewer or greater.  
         [0054]      FIG. 9  illustrates an example data transfer system  200  including two sets of two-channel virtual channels according to embodiments of the invention. Two sending registers  210 A,  210 B can take the same form as the sending register  62  described above, with a selection for one or more data elements and a selection for one or more protocol elements. Both the sending registers  210 A,  210 B are coupled to a virtual channel master  220 , which operates as described above with reference to  FIGS. 3-5 .  
         [0055]     The destination for the data that is stored in the sending registers  210 A,  210 B, is input ports of two processors,  250 A,  250 B. In this example, the processor  250 A receives data sent from the sending register  210 A, while the processor  250 B receives data sent from the sending register  210 B.  
         [0056]     Optionally, between the sending registers  210  and the processors  250  are a set of storage stages  230 A and  230 B and two virtual channel decoders  224 ,  244 . In this example, after being decoded by the channel decoder  224 , the storage stage  230 A temporarily stores data from the sending register  210 A, while the storage stage  230 B temporarily stores data from the sending register  210 B. Another virtual channel master  240  is coupled to both the storage stages  230 A,  230 B, with the other channel decoder  244  coupled to the processors  250 A,  250 B. The virtual masters  220  and  240  and the virtual decodes  224  and  244  may behave identically.  
         [0057]     In operation, the virtual channel master  220  selects data from one of the sending registers  210 A or  210 B to be placed on a physical channel  222 , using the methods described above. The channel decoder  224  then removes the data from the physical channel and stores it in its respective storage stage  230 A or  230 B. Next, the channel master  240  selects data from one of the storage stages  230 A or  230 B and places it on the physical channel  242 , where it is decoded by the channel decoder  244  into its appropriate input port of the processor  250 A or  250 B.  
         [0058]     Note that when data is temporarily stopped in any one of the pairs of sending registers  210 , storage stages  230 , or processors  250 , that data can still flow across the physical channels  222 ,  242 . For instance, if the storage stage  230 A is blocked, because either the valid or accept values of its protocol data is de-asserted, the virtual channel master  240  can still place data from storage stage  230 B on the physical channel  242 , for ultimate delivery to the processor  250 B. As another example, if the processor  250 B is blocked, then the channel master  220  can place data from the sending register  210 A onto physical channel  222 , and the channel master  242  can place data from the storage stage  230 A onto the physical channel  242 . Thus, data can still flow across the physical channels  222 ,  242  even though some of the components on either side of the physical channels are in a blocking state.  
         [0059]     Recall also that the storage stages  230 A,  230 B can be structured to store more than one or two data words, i.e., they can be structured to have a depth greater than ‘1’, effectively making a FIFO (First In First Out) buffer of stored data, or other storage structure. Deeper FIFO buffers will, in general, keep the physical channels active more than having only single word storage because their associated physical channels are more active if data is always available to be placed on the physical channels and not idle. Of course, having deeper FIFO buffers comes at an increased hardware cost to store the additional data.  
         [0060]      FIG. 10  is a block diagram illustrating a communication system of two programmable communication channels that may be used in various embodiments of the invention. A sender  260  includes two output ports  0  and  1  while a receiver  280  includes two input ports  0  and  1 . Two communication channels  272 ,  276  connect the sender  260  with the receiver  280 . Either of the output ports  0  or  1  can be connected to either of the communication channels  272 ,  276 . Specifically, both of the output ports  0 ,  1  are connected to selection devices  274  and  278 , which each control the switching of the data and protocol in both the forward and reverse direction. Connected to the selection device  274  is a channel select  273 , which controls which of the output ports  0 ,  1  will be connected to the communication channel  272 . The channel select  273  may be a simple electrical signal or it may be a signal stored in a memory element, for instance. If the channel select  273  includes a memory element, the selection device  274  can be pre-programmed to connect the selected port to the communication channel  272 . The channel select  277  operates in the same manner to control the selection device  278 . Note that the channel selects  273  and  277  may both be set to connect the same port, such as output port  0 , to both of the communication channels  272  and  276  simultaneously. More typically, each single output port would be mapped or selected to a single channel  272  or  276 .  
         [0061]     At the receiving end of the channel, a de-selection device  284 ,  286  routes the signal from the channel  272 ,  276  to the desired input port. The channel decode information is provided by the channel decoders  283 ,  287 , which provide a signal to the respective de-selection devices  284 ,  288 . For instance, the channel decode signal  283  can be set to couple the data from physical channel  272  to input port  0  while the channel decode signal  287  could be set to couple the physical channel  276  to input port  1 . Such programmable channels can be used in conjunction with the virtual channel system of data communication with developing systems.  
         [0062]      FIG. 11A  illustrates an example data/protocol selector  290  that can be used as the selectors  274 ,  278  illustrated in  FIG. 10 . In this instance, the selector  290  has two channels, channel  0  and channel  1 , each of which includes forward protocol information and reverse protocol information. As described above, the forward protocol information may represent an indication that the associated data is valid, while the reverse protocol information may represent an indication that a successive element is ready to accept data. In other embodiments, the forward protocol may indicate a “request” signal while the reverse protocol indicate an “acknowledge” that it has received information.  
         [0063]     Within the data/protocol selector  290  are a series of individual selectors,  291  and  292 , represented in  FIG. 11A  by multiplexers, and an individual selector  293 , represented by a de-multiplexer. The selectors  291  and  292  each include two inputs and a single output, while the selector  293  has a single input and two outputs. If the selector  290  were connected to more input channels, then each of the selectors  291 ,  292 , and  293  would also include a likewise increased number of inputs. A selection signal controls which of the inputs  0  or  1  are selected as the output of selectors  291 ,  292 , and the same selection signal controls which output,  0  or  1  the input to selector  293  will be connected to. In operation, for example, making a first selection to the data/protocol selector  290  sets the inputs data  0  and forward protocol  0  as the data and forward protocol outputs, and simultaneously selects the reverse protocol input to be the reverse protocol  0  output. The other selection would make the same inputs and outputs select channel  1 . In a case where the data/protocol selector  290  is coupled to more than two channels, then the select has additional states, one for each channel.  
         [0064]      FIG. 11B  illustrates an example data/protocol de-selector  295  that can be used as the de-selectors  284 ,  288  illustrated in  FIG. 10 . In this instance, the de-selector  295  has two channels, channel  0  and channel  1 , each of which includes forward protocol and reverse protocol information. Within the data/protocol de-selector  295  are a series of individual selectors,  296  and  297 , represented in FIG.  11 B by de-multiplexers, and an individual selector  293 , represented by a multiplexer. The selectors  296  and  297  each include a single input and two outputs, while the selector  298  has a pair of inputs and a single output. If the de-selector  295  were connected to more input channels, then each of the selectors  296 ,  297 , and  298  would also include a likewise increased number of inputs. A selection signal controls which of the inputs  0  or  1  are selected as the input of selectors  296 ,  297 , and the same selection signal controls which input,  0  or  1  the output of selector  298  will be connected to. In operation, for example, making a first selection to the data/protocol de-selector  295  sets the data and forward protocol inputs to the data  0  and forward protocol  0  channels, and simultaneously selects the reverse protocol channel  0  as the reverse protocol output from the selector  298 . The other selection would make the same inputs and outputs select channel  1 . In a case where the data/protocol de-selector  295  is coupled to more than two channels, then the select has additional states, one for each channel.  
         [0065]      FIG. 12  illustrates an example local communication system  300  among a group of eight processing units, or processors  310 . Each of the processors  310  in the system  300  each have three local communication channels  314 : a vertical connection, a horizontal connection, and a diagonal connection. The communication channels  314  connect one processor unit  310  to another processor. The local channels  314  can be bi-directional or uni-directional. In some embodiments, like the embodiment illustrated in  FIG. 12 , the channels  314  are uni-directional, but there are two uni-directional channels between each processor  310 , each uni-directional in an opposite direction. Having such a configuration effectively gives a bi-directional communication system between any two processors  310 , but each direction operates independently. Any or all of the local communication channels may include virtual channels.  
         [0066]     Also illustrated in  FIG. 12  are eight memory units  316 . The processors  310  are coupled to neighboring memory units  316  through a memory bus  318 . Memory units  316  may also be directly coupled to other memory units  316  though a multi-bit memory interconnect  319 . The arrangement of processing units and memory units as outlined in  FIG. 12  is called a tile  320 , which may be an element of a larger system. In such a larger system, the processing units  310  at the comers of the tiles  320  can be connected to processors  310  of neighboring tiles, and memory units  318  can be coupled to adjacent memory units  316  in other tiles.  
         [0067]     The communication channels  314  transfer data between two of the processors  310 . The communication channels  314  can take the form of the multi-bit virtual channels described with reference to  FIGS. 3-9 , the programmable channels described with reference to  FIGS. 10 and 11 , the standard channels illustrated in  FIG. 1 , or other types of communication channels not illustrated but known in the art, and/or combinations of all of these types of communication channels. The communication channels  314  may include one or more sets of storage registers (not shown) to temporarily store data as it is sent between processors  310 . In some embodiments, communication channels  314  may cross clock boundaries and therefore may include clock-crossing circuitry to ensure proper data transmission between the processors  310 , as described above with reference to  FIG. 8 .  
         [0068]      FIG. 13  illustrates another communication system  400 , which can be thought of as another level of communication within an integrated circuit. The communication system  400  is an ‘intermediate’ distance network and includes switches  410 , communication lines  414  to processors  310 , and communication lines  416  between switches. In this embodiment, as shown, the network  400  does not connect to the memory modules  316 , but could be implemented in such a way, if desired. In  FIG. 13 , four switches  410  are included per tile  320 , and are connected to other switches in the same or neighboring tiles in the north, south, east, and west directions. In border cases around edges of an integrated circuit, the switch  410  may instead couple to an Input/Output block (not shown). Thus, in this example, the distance between the switches  410  is one-half of the distance across a tile  320 , although other distances and connection topologies can be implemented without deviating from the scope of the invention.  
         [0069]     In operation, any processor  310  can be coupled to and can communicate with any other processor  310  on any of the tiles  320  by routing through the correct series of switches  410  and communication lines  404 ,  416 . For instance, to send communication from the processor  310  in the lower left hand corner to the processor  310  in the upper right corner, three switches  410  (the lower left, upper right, and one of the possible two switches in between) could be configured in a circuit switched manner to connect the processors  310  together. The same communication channels could operate in a packet switching network as well, using addresses for the processors  310  and including routing tables in the switches  410 , for example.  
         [0070]      FIG. 14  is a block diagram of a portion of an example switch structure  411  including two virtual channels on its communication lines  416 . For clarity, only a portion of a full switch  410  of  FIG. 13  is shown, as will be described. Generally, various lines and apparatus in the East direction illustrate components that make up output circuitry, only, including communication lines  416  in the outbound direction, while the North, South, and West directions illustrate inbound communication lines  416 , only. Of course, even in the “outbound” direction, which describes the direction of the main data travel, there are input lines, as illustrated, which carry reverse protocol information. Similarly, in the “inbound” direction, reverse protocol information is an output. To create an entire switch  410  ( FIG. 12 ), the components illustrated in  FIG. 13  are duplicated three times, for the North, South, and West directions.  
         [0071]     A virtual channel master  422  operates similar to the virtual channel master  70  of  FIG. 3 . It selects sets of data and protocol data from one of two sources, in this case the data portion of output from one of two data/protocol selectors  420 , and places the selected set of data and protocol information for both sources on the outbound communication lines  416  in the East direction. It simultaneously connects the reverse protocol information for the selected channel to the appropriate data/protocol selector  420 .  
         [0072]     The pair of data/protocol selectors  420  can be structured similar to and operate similar to the data/protocol selector  290  of  FIG. 11A . Each data/protocol selector  420  is controlled to select one of three possible inputs, North, South, or West. Each selector  420  operates on a single channel, either channel  0  or channel  1  from the inbound communication lines  416 . Each selector  420  includes a selector input to control which input, channel  0  or  1 , is coupled to its outputs. In a system with a different number of virtual channels, the selector input could choose one among all of them. The selector input can be static or dynamic. Each selector  420  operates independently, i.e., the selector  420  for virtual channel  0  may select a particular direction, such as North, while the selector  420  for virtual channel  1  may select another direction, such as West. In other embodiments, the selectors  420  could be configured to make selections from any of the virtual channels, such as a single selector  420  sending outputs from both West channel  1  and West channel  0  to the channel master  422 , but such a set of selectors  420  would be larger and use more component resources than the one described above.  
         [0073]     Connections between the data/protocol selectors  420  and the inbound communication lines  416  operate similar to the virtual channel decoder  74  illustrated in  FIGS. 3 and 4 A. For example, data lines from the North inbound communication line  416  are connected to both selectors  420 , once for channel  0  and once for channel  1 . Protocol lines of the communication lines  416 , in both the forward and reverse directions are also routed to the appropriate selector  420 . In other embodiments, a separate hardware device or process (not shown) could inspect the forward protocol lines of the inbound lines  416  and route the data portion of the inbound lines  416  based on the inspection. The reverse protocol information between the selectors  420  and the inbound communication lines  416  are grouped through a logic gate, such as an OR gate  423  within the switch  411 . Other inputs to the OR gate  423  would include the reverse protocol information from the selectors  420  in the West and South directions. Recall that, relative to an input communication line  416 , the reverse protocol information travels out of the switch  411 , and is coupled to the component that is sending input to the switch  411 .  
         [0074]     The version of the switch  411  illustrated in  FIG. 14  has only communication lines  416  to it, which connect to other switches, and does not include communication lines  414 , which connect to the processors  310 . A version of the switch  410  that includes communication lines  414  connected to it is described below.  
         [0075]      FIG. 15  is a block diagram of a switch portion  412  of an example switch  410  connected to a portion  312  of an example processor  310 . The processor  312  in  FIG. 15  includes three input ports,  0 ,  1 ,  2 . The switch  412  of  FIG. 15  includes four selectors  430 , which operate similar to the selectors  420  of  FIG. 13 . By making appropriate selections, any of the communication lines  414 ,  416  ( FIG. 13 ), or  418  (described below) that are coupled to the selectors  430  can be coupled to any of the output ports  432  of the switch  412 . The output ports  432  of the switch  412  may be coupled through another set of selectors  313  to a set of input ports  311  in the connected processor  312 . The selectors  313  can be programmed to set which output port  432  from the switch  412  is connected to the particular input port  311 . Further, as illustrated in  FIG. 15 , the selectors  313  may also be coupled to an internal communication line for selection into the input port  311 .  
         [0076]      FIG. 16  illustrates four tiles  320  assembled in a 2×2 pattern as a portion of an integrated circuit  440 . Within the integrated circuit  440  of  FIG. 16  is a further communication system, which can also be formed of virtual channel communication systems.  
         [0077]     The switch  410  in the upper right of each tile  320  is coupled to a switch  451  in a first long-distance network while the switch  410  in the lower left corner of each tile  320  is coupled to a switch  452  in a second long distance network. Switches  451 ,  453  can be constructed similar to the switches  410  although they may include different numbers of virtual channels. One example of a connection between the switches  410  and  451 ,  452  is illustrated in  FIG. 15 . In that figure, the communication lines  418  couple directly to the selectors  430  from one of the switches  451  or  452 , depending on which is coupled to the switch  410 . Switches  451  are coupled to one another through a communication network  453 , while switches  452  are coupled to one another through a communication network  454 . Either or both of the networks  453 ,  454  can be virtual channel networks.  
         [0078]     Because of the how switches  410  couple to switches  451 ,  452 , each of the two long distance networks within the circuit  440  illustrated in  FIG. 16  is separate. Note that none of the switches  451  directly connect to any of the switches  452 . Instead, data can be routed from a switch  451  to a switch  452  by routing through the intermediate distance network switches  410 .  
         [0079]     In operation, processors  310  communicate to each other over any of the networks described above. For instance, if the processors  310  are directly connected by a local communication channel  314  ( FIG. 12 ), which may include virtual channels, then the most direct connection is over such a channel. If instead the processors  310  are located some distance away from each other, or are otherwise not directly connected by a local communication channel  314 , then communicating through the intermediate communication network illustrated in  FIG. 13  may be the most efficient. In such a communication network, switches  410  are programmed to connect output from the sending processor  310  to input of a receiving processor  310 . Data may travel over communication lines  414  and  416  in such a network. Finally, in those situations where a receiving processor  310  is a relatively far distance from the sending processor  310 , the distance network of  FIG. 16  may be used. In such a network, data from the sending processor  310  would first move through an intermediate switch  410  and further to one of the distance switches  451  or  452 , depending on location of the switch  410 . The data is routed to the distance switch  451  or  452  that is closest to the destination  310 . From the distance switch, the data is transferred through another intermediate switch  410  to the destination processor  310 . Any or all of the communication lines between these components may include conventional, programmable, and/or virtual channels as best fits the purpose.  
         [0080]     Details of setting up the various switches for either packet switching or circuit switching and operation of the virtual channels that can be used to transfer data in any of the above examples is identical or similar to the methods and system described above. Further, although several levels of communication networks have been disclosed, with different effective distances, any number of communication networks and any distance of such networks may be implemented without deviating from the spirit of the invention.  
         [0081]     From the foregoing it will be appreciated that, although specific embodiments of the invention have been described herein for purposes of illustration, various modifications may be made without deviating from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the invention is not limited except as by the appended claims.