Method, apparatus and system for power supply policy exchange on a bus
AssigneeIntel Corporation
InventorsAmit Kumar Srivastava, Kenneth P. Foust
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In one embodiment, an apparatus includes an input/output (I/O) circuit to communicate information at a selected voltage via an interconnect to which a plurality of devices may be coupled, and a host controller to couple to the interconnect. The host controller may include a supply voltage policy control circuit to initiate a supply voltage policy exchange with a first device to obtain a first supply voltage capability of the first device and to cause the I/O circuit and the first device to be configured to communicate via the interconnect at a first supply voltage based on the first supply voltage capability. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
Claims20
An apparatus comprising:
- an input/output (I/O) circuit to communicate information at a selected voltage via an interconnect to which a plurality of devices may be coupled;
- and
- a host controller including a supply voltage policy control circuit to couple to the I/O circuit, the host controller to:
- initiate a supply voltage policy exchange with a first device of the plurality of devices to obtain a first supply voltage capability of the first device via the I/O circuit, the supply voltage policy exchange to occur between the I/O circuit and the first device via the interconnect;
- cause the I/O circuit and the first device to be configured to communicate via the interconnect at a first supply voltage based on the first supply voltage capability, the first supply voltage different than a default supply voltage for the interconnect;
- and
- cause the I/O circuit to communicate via the interconnect with a power management integrated circuit (PMIC) to provide the first supply voltage to the first device in response to a first voltage request from the host controller.
A machine-readable medium having stored thereon instructions, which if performed by a machine cause the machine to perform a method comprising:
- performing, by a host controller coupled to a bus having a plurality of devices coupled thereto, a supply voltage policy exchange with the plurality of devices to identify a supply voltage capability for the plurality of devices, at least some of the devices to communicate via the bus at different voltages, the host controller coupled to the bus via an input/output (I/O) circuit, wherein the supply voltage policy exchange is to occur between the I/O circuit and a first device of the plurality of devices via the bus;
- identifying a first supply voltage capability for the first device of the plurality of devices;
- communicating with the first device via the bus at a first voltage according to the first supply voltage capability;
- and
- communicating with a power management integrated circuit (PMIC) via the bus to provide the first supply voltage to the first device in response to a first voltage request from the host controller, the communication to occur between the I/O circuit and the PMIC via the bus.
A system comprising:
- a processor having:
- at least one processing circuit to execute instructions;
- a host controller to control communication on an interconnect to which a plurality of devices are coupled;
- and
- an input/output (I/O) circuit to communicate information via the interconnect, wherein the host controller is to dynamically configure the I/O circuit to operate at a first supply voltage of a plurality of supply voltages to communicate first information to a first device of the plurality of devices at the first supply voltage based on first supply voltage configuration information associated with the first device via the interconnect, and thereafter dynamically configure the I/O circuit to operate at a second supply voltage of the plurality of supply voltages to communicate second information to a second device of the plurality of devices at the second supply voltage based on second supply voltage configuration information associated with the second device via the interconnect;
- a power management integrated circuit (PMIC) coupled to the I/O circuit of the processor via the interconnect, wherein the PMIC is to provide the first supply voltage to the first device in response to a first voltage request generated by the host controller and received from the I/O circuit via the interconnect;
- and
- the first device coupled to the processor via the interconnect;
- the second device coupled to the processor via the interconnect.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.