US 12,585,473 B2Granted

Communication link management for expansion cards

AssigneeDell Products L.P.

InventorsPo-I Huang, Ying-Chang Tung, Chun-Wei Hsieh, Shang-Ting Qiu

Life of this patent

Estimating the term…

Loading patent…

Abstract

Methods, systems, and devices for providing computer implemented services are disclosed. To provide the computer implemented services, an identification of a startup of a data processing system may be made. Based on the identification, a determination may be made regarding whether a device is present in an expansion slot of the data processing system. If the device is present, then another determination may be made regarding whether identification information is able to be obtained from the device. If obtained, the identification information may be interpreted to obtain communication link bifurcation settings for the device. Default communication link training settings may then be updated based on the bifurcation settings to obtain updated training settings. Communication link training may then be initiated for a communication link using the updated training settings.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A method for managing a startup of a data processing system, the method comprising:

identifying a startup of the data processing system;
making a first determination, based on the identification, regarding whether a device is present in an expansion slot of the data processing system;
in an instance of the first determination in which the device is present in the expansion slot:
attempting to obtain identification information from the device by:
requesting, via a request and by a management controller of the data processing system, the identification information from a controller of the device;
making a second determination regarding whether the identification information is obtained;
and
in a first instance of the second determination in which the identification information is not obtained:
initiating communication link training for a communication link between the device and a communication device of the data processing system using default communication link training settings, the default communication link training settings being pre-stored within the data processing system and are used to configure how conductors of the communication link should be used for the data processing system to communicate with additional devices connected to the data processing system through the device;
and
in a second instance of the second determination in which the identification information is obtained:
interpreting the identification information to obtain communication link bifurcation settings for the device, the communication link bifurcation settings also being pre-stored locally on the data processing system;
updating the default communication link training settings based on the communication link bifurcation settings to obtain updated training settings;
and
initiating the communication link training for the communication link using the updated training settings.

12 more elements

A non-transitory machine-readable medium having instructions stored therein, which when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations for managing a startup of a data processing system, the operations comprising:

identifying a startup of the data processing system;
making a first determination, based on the identification, regarding whether a device is present in an expansion slot of the data processing system;
in an instance of the first determination in which the device is present in the expansion slot:
attempting to obtain identification information from the device by:
requesting, via a request and by a management controller of the data processing system, the identification information from a controller of the device;
making a second determination regarding whether the identification information is obtained;
and
in a first instance of the second determination in which the identification information is not obtained:
initiating communication link training for a communication link between the device and a communication device of the data processing system using default communication link training settings, the default communication link training settings being pre-stored locally on the data processing system and are used to configure how conductors of the communication link should be used for the data processing system to communicate with additional devices connected to the data processing system through the device;
and
in a second instance of the second determination in which the identification information is obtained:
interpreting the identification information to obtain communication link bifurcation settings for the device, the communication link bifurcation settings also being pre-stored locally on the data processing system;
updating the default communication link training settings based on the communication link bifurcation settings to obtain updated training settings;
and
initiating the communication link training for the communication link using the updated training settings.

12 more elements

A data processing system, comprising:

a processor;
and
a memory coupled to the processor to store instructions, which when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations for managing a startup of a data processing system, the operations comprising:
identifying a startup of the data processing system;
making a first determination, based on the identification, regarding whether a device is present in an expansion slot of the data processing system;
in an instance of the first determination in which the device is present in the expansion slot:
attempting to obtain identification information from the device by:
requesting, via a request and by a management controller of the data processing system, the identification information from a controller of the device;
making a second determination regarding whether the identification information is obtained;
and
in a first instance of the second determination in which the identification information is not obtained:
initiating communication link training for a communication link between the device and a communication device of the data processing system using default communication link training settings, the default communication link training settings being pre-stored within the data processing system and are used to configure how conductors of the communication link should be used for the data processing system to communicate with additional devices connected to the data processing system through the device;
and
in a second instance of the second determination in which the identification information is obtained:
interpreting the identification information to obtain communication link bifurcation settings for the device, the communication link bifurcation settings also being pre-stored locally on the data processing system;
updating the default communication link training settings based on the communication link bifurcation settings to obtain updated training settings;
and
initiating the communication link training for the communication link using the updated training settings.

15 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.