US 12,182,563 B2Granted

Fast in-service software updating using multi-layer memory

AssigneeMellanox Technologies, Ltd.

InventorYair Chasdai

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Abstract

A peripheral device includes a bus interface, a first processor and a second processor. The bus interface is to communicate over a peripheral bus. The first processor is to manage communication over the peripheral bus by executing bus-maintenance software code, the bus-maintenance software code being executed from one or more first layers of a multi-layer memory. The second processor is to update the bus-maintenance software code from an existing version to an updated version, by (i) loading the updated version to one or more second layers of the multi-layer memory, higher in hierarchy than the one or more first layers, and (ii) invalidating the existing version in the one or more first layers, thereby forcing fetching of the updated version from the one or more second layers to the one or more first layers and to start executing the updated version.

Claims16

Dependent claims

A peripheral device, comprising:

a bus interface, to communicate over a peripheral bus;
and
a first processor and a second processor, both to access a multi-layer memory comprising multiple layers arranged in a hierarchy, the layers comprising at least (i) one or more first layers and (ii) one or more second layers that are higher in the hierarchy than the one or more first layers and serve as a cache for the one or more first layers,
wherein the first processor is to manage communication over the peripheral bus by executing bus-maintenance software code, the bus-maintenance software code being executed from the one or more first layers of the multi-layer memory;
and
wherein the second processor is to update the bus-maintenance software code from an existing version to an updated version, by:
loading the updated version to the one or more second layers of the multi-layer memory;
and
invalidating the existing version in the one or more first layers, thereby causing a subsequent attempt to read the existing version from the one or more first layers to result in a cache-miss event and thus forcing the second processor to fetch the updated version from the one or more second layers to the one or more first layers and to start executing the updated version.

6 more elements

A method in a peripheral device that communicates over a peripheral bus, the method comprising:

accessing a multi-layer memory by a first processor and a second processor of the peripheral device, the multi-layer memory comprising multiple layers arranged in a hierarchy, the layers comprising at least (i) one or more first layers and (ii) one or more second layers that are higher in the hierarchy than the one or more first layers and serve as a cache for the one or more first layers,
in the first processor, managing communication over the peripheral bus by executing bus-maintenance software code, the bus-maintenance software code being executed from the one or more first layers of a multi-layer memory;
and
in the second processor, updating the bus-maintenance software code from an existing version to an updated version, by:
loading the updated version to the one or more second layers of the multi-layer memory;
and
invalidating the existing version in the one or more first layers, thereby causing a subsequent attempt to read the existing version from the one or more first layers to result in a cache-miss event and thus forcing the second processor to fetch the updated version from the one or more second layers to the one or more first layers and to start executing the updated version.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.