System, Apparatus And Method For Peer-To-Peer Communication On A Multi-Drop Interconnect

A machine-readable medium having stored thereon instructions, which if performed by a machine cause the machine to perform a method comprising:

• sending, from a first slave device, a request for a peer-to-peer (P2P) communication to a bus master coupled to the first slave device via a multi-drop interconnect;
• receiving, in the first slave device, an authorization from the bus master to perform the P2P communication;
• and
• in response to the authorization, driving a clock signal on the multi-drop interconnect and issuing at least one P2P transaction to one or more second slave devices coupled to the multi-drop interconnect.

A system comprising:

• a bus master device having bus master responsibility for a multi-drop bus, wherein the bus master device is to drive a clock signal on a clock line of the multi-drop bus;
• a first slave device coupled to the bus master device via the multi-drop bus, wherein the first slave device comprises:
• a peer-to-peer (P2P) control circuit to issue a P2P communication request to the bus master device to request authorization to send a P2P transaction to a second slave device;
• a first transmitter to transmit the P2P transaction to the second slave device when the bus master device grants the authorization for the P2P transaction;
• and
• a second transmitter to drive the clock signal on the clock line of the multi-drop bus during the P2P transaction;
• and
• the second slave device coupled to the first slave device via the multi-drop bus.