Implementing io expansion cards
AssigneeIntel Corporation
InventorSundeep Raniwala
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Methods and systems may provide for an expansion card including one or more peripheral ports, a connection edge having a first bus interface and a second bus interface, and an input output (IO) controller coupled to the first bus interface and at least one of the one or more peripheral ports. The expansion card can also include an embedded controller coupled to the IO controller and the second bus interface, wherein the embedded controller has logic to receive a general purpose input output (GPIO) signal from the IO controller. The logic may also notify an off-card host device of the GPIO signal via the second bus interface. In one example, the IO controller is a Thunderbolt controller, the first bus is a PCI-e bus, and the second bus is an SMBus.
Claims26
1-33. (canceled)
A computer implemented method comprising:
- transferring a general purpose input output (GPIO) signal from an input output (IO) controller of a PCI-e compliant expansion card to an embedded controller of the expansion card, wherein the GPIO signal includes at least one of a power management signal and a hot plug signal;
- using the embedded controller to translate the GPIO signal into a notification command;
- issuing the notification command to the host device via a system management bus interface, wherein the notification command complies with a protocol associated with the system management bus interface and instructs the host device to issue a system management interrupt;
- transferring data from the host device to the embedded controller via the system management bus interface;
- and
- using the embedded controller to generate one or more additional GPIO signals based on the data.
A computer readable storage medium comprising a set of instructions which, if executed by a processor, cause a system to:
- receive a general purpose input output (GPIO) signal from an input output (IO) controller of an expansion card;
- and
- notify an off-card host device of the GPIO signal via a system management bus interface of the expansion card.
A system comprising:
- a motherboard including an expansion connector, a host device, a first bus coupled to the expansion connector and the host device, and a second bus coupled to the expansion connector and the host device;
- and
- an expansion card including one or more peripheral ports, a connection edge having a first bus interface and a second bus interface, an input output (IO) controller coupled to the first bus interface and at least one of the one or more peripheral ports, and an embedded controller coupled to the IO controller and the second bus interface, wherein the embedded controller has logic to,
- receive a general purpose input output (GPIO) signal from the IO controller, and
- notify the host device of the GPIO signal via the second bus interface, wherein the second bus includes a system management bus.
An expansion card comprising:
- one or more peripheral ports;
- a connection edge including a first bus interface and a second bus interface;
- an input output (IO) controller coupled to the first bus interface and at least one of the one or more peripheral ports;
- and
- an embedded controller coupled to the IO controller and the second bus interface, wherein the embedded controller has logic to,
- receive a general purpose input output (GPIO) signal from the IO controller, and
- notify an off-card host device of the GPIO signal via the second bus interface, wherein the second bus interface includes a system management bus interface.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.