阅读说明：本技术 具备扩充外部装置功能的桥接芯片以及扩充方法 (Bridge chip with function of expanding external device and expansion method ) 是由 张君竹 于 2019-11-15 设计创作，主要内容包括：本发明提供一种具备扩充外部装置功能的桥接芯片以及扩充方法,其中该桥接芯片可包含至少一传输接口、一桥接控制单元以及一连接端口。所述至少一传输接口可用来将该桥接芯片外部的至少一外部装置耦接至该桥接芯片；该桥接控制单元耦接至所述至少一传输接口,并且可用来控制所述至少一外部装置进行数据传输的优先权；以及该连接端口耦接至该桥接控制单元,并且可用来将该桥接芯片耦接至一主机,以容许该主机通过该桥接芯片与所述至少一外部装置进行数据传输。尤其,耦接至该桥接芯片的所述至少一外部装置的数量是可扩充的。(The invention provides a bridge chip with the function of expanding an external device and an expansion method, wherein the bridge chip can comprise at least one transmission interface, a bridge control unit and a connecting port. The at least one transmission interface is used for coupling at least one external device outside the bridge chip to the bridge chip; the bridge control unit is coupled to the at least one transmission interface and can be used for controlling the priority of data transmission of the at least one external device; and the connection port is coupled to the bridge control unit and is used for coupling the bridge chip to a host so as to allow the host to carry out data transmission with the at least one external device through the bridge chip. In particular, the number of the at least one external device coupled to the bridge chip is expandable.)

1. A bridge chip with functions of expanding external devices, comprising:

at least one transmission interface for coupling at least one external device outside the bridge chip to the bridge chip;

a bridge control unit, coupled to the at least one transmission interface, for controlling a priority of data transmission by the at least one external device; and

a connection port, coupled to the bridge control unit, for coupling the bridge chip to a host to allow the host to perform data transmission with the at least one external device through the bridge chip;

wherein the number of the at least one external device coupled to the bridge chip is expandable.

2. The bridge chip of claim 1, wherein the connection port is coupled to the bridge control unit via an interface compliant with a peripheral component interconnect express (PCI express) protocol, a Universal Serial Bus (USB) protocol, or a secure digital input output (SD) protocol.

3. The bridge chip of claim 1, wherein the at least one transmission interface comprises a single transmission interface, the at least one external device comprises a plurality of external devices, and the plurality of external devices are coupled to the single transmission interface.

4. The bridge chip of claim 1, wherein the at least one transmission interface comprises a plurality of transmission interfaces, the at least one external device comprises a plurality of external devices, and the plurality of external devices are respectively coupled to the plurality of transmission interfaces.

5. The bridge chip of claim 1, wherein the bridge control unit controls the number of timeslots allocated to the at least one external device during data transmission according to at least one weight value corresponding to the at least one transmission interface.

6. The bridge chip of claim 1, wherein when the at least one external device and another device need to perform data transmission simultaneously, the bridge control unit determines an order of the at least one external device and the another device performing data transmission according to predetermined priority settings of the at least one external device and the another device, wherein the another device represents another external device coupled to the bridge chip or an internal device built in the bridge chip.

7. The bridge chip of claim 1, wherein the at least one external device coupled to the bridge chip comprises at least one wireless communication chip.

8. The bridge chip of claim 7, wherein the at least one wireless communication chip comprises one or more of a Wi-Fi chip, a bluetooth chip, a Wi-Fi and bluetooth integrated chip, a long term evolution technology chip, and a zigbee chip.

9. The bridge chip of claim 1, wherein the at least one external device coupled to the bridge chip comprises at least one memory device.

10. An expansion method of an external device, which can be applied to a bridge chip, comprises:

coupling at least one external device outside the bridge chip to the bridge chip by using at least one transmission interface in the bridge chip;

controlling the priority of data transmission of the at least one external device by using a bridge control unit in the bridge chip; and

coupling the bridge chip to a host by using a connection port in the bridge chip to allow the host to perform data transmission with the at least one external device through the bridge chip;

wherein the number of the at least one external device coupled to the bridge chip is expandable.

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a bridge chip, and more particularly, to a bridge chip having a function of expanding an external device and an expansion method.

Background

Nowadays, there is an increasing demand for various wireless communication applications, such as Bluetooth (Bluetooth) for short-range transmission and Wi-Fi (wireless fidelity), ZigBee (ZigBee), Long Term Evolution (LTE), etc., for medium/Long-range transmission, and thus, a demand for supporting a single host (host device) to simultaneously operate multiple wireless communication functions begins to emerge. However, the above-mentioned embodiment of operating a plurality of wireless communication functions simultaneously easily causes a significant increase in hardware cost, or cannot change or add additional devices (for example, add/add other wireless communication functions) after the hardware is implemented.

Therefore, a novel bridge chip architecture and related method are needed to expand the functions of the external devices without significantly increasing the hardware cost.

Disclosure of Invention

An object of the present invention is to provide a bridge chip having a function of expanding an external device and an expansion method, so as to realize the function of expanding the external device (for example, a module or a chip for performing different types of wireless communication, respectively) without side effects or with less side effects.

At least one embodiment of the present invention provides a bridge chip with functions of expanding external devices, wherein the bridge chip may include at least one transmission interface, a bridge control unit, and a connection port. The at least one transmission interface is used for coupling at least one external device outside the bridge chip to the bridge chip; the bridge control unit is coupled to the at least one transmission interface and is used for controlling the priority of data transmission of the at least one external device; and the connection port is coupled to the bridge control unit and is used for coupling the bridge chip to a host (host device) so as to allow the host to carry out data transmission with the at least one external device through the bridge chip. In particular, the number of the at least one external device coupled to the bridge chip is expandable (expandable).

At least one embodiment of the present invention provides an expansion method for an external device, wherein the expansion method is applicable to (applicable to) a bridge chip, and the expansion method includes: coupling at least one external device outside the bridge chip to the bridge chip by using at least one transmission interface in the bridge chip; controlling the priority of data transmission of the at least one external device by using a bridge control unit in the bridge chip; and coupling the bridge chip to a host by using a connection port in the bridge chip to allow the host to perform data transmission with the at least one external device through the bridge chip. In particular, the number of the at least one external device coupled to the bridge chip is expandable.

The bridging chip and the corresponding expansion method of the external device can allow manufacturers to have enough elasticity to meet different requirements and applications when manufacturing products. In addition, compared with the related art, the embodiment of the invention does not greatly increase the additional cost. Therefore, the present invention can realize the function of expanding the external device without side effects or with less side effects.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a bridge chip according to an embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 2 is a diagram of a bridge chip according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram of a bridge chip according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram of a bridge chip according to an embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating an expansion method of an external device according to an embodiment of the invention.

Description of the symbols

50 host

52 processing circuit

54. 160 connection port

56. 180 interface

100. 200, 300, 400 bridge chip

110-1、110-2、…、110-N、

210-1, 210-2, …, 210-M external device

120. 220-1, 220-2, …, 220-M transmission interface

140 bridging control unit

310-1, 410-2, …, 410-M internal devices

510. 520, 530 steps

Detailed Description

Fig. 1 is a diagram illustrating a bridge chip 100 according to an embodiment of the invention. The bridge chip 100 may be coupled (e.g., electrically or directly connected) to a host device (host device) 50. The host 50 may include a processing circuit 52 and a connection port 54 coupled to the processing circuit 50, wherein the processing circuit 52 may execute a program code to control the operation of the host 50, and the connection port 54 is coupled to the processing circuit 52 through an interface 56 conforming to Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) communication protocol, Universal Serial Bus (USB) communication protocol, or Secure Digital Input/output (SDIO) communication protocol. The bridge chip 100 comprises at least one transmission interface, a bridge control unit 140 and a connection port 160, wherein the bridge control unit 140 is coupled to the at least one transmission interface, such as the transmission interface 120, and the connection port 160 is coupled to the processing circuit 52 through an interface 180 conforming to the peripheral component interconnect express (PCI express) protocol, the Universal Serial Bus (USB) protocol or the secure digital input output (SD) protocol.

In the present embodiment, the at least one transmission interface may be used to couple at least one external device outside the bridge chip 100 to the bridge chip 100, and the connection port 160 may be used to couple the bridge chip 100 to the host 50, so as to allow the host 50 to perform data transmission with the at least one external device through the bridge chip 100, wherein the bridge control unit 140 may be used to control the priority of the data transmission performed by the at least one external device. For example, when a plurality of external devices transmit data simultaneously, the bridge control unit 140 has an arbitration (arbitration) function to control the sequence and/or available period of data transmission of each of the plurality of external devices. As shown in FIG. 1, the at least one transport interface may comprise a single transport interface such as transport interface 120, and the at least one external device may comprise one or more external devices such as external devices 110-1, 110-2, …, and 110-N, wherein the external devices 110-1, 110-2, …, and 110-N may be coupled to transport interface 120. In some embodiments, the transmission interface 120 may be implemented by an Inter-Integrated Circuit Bus (I2C), but the invention is not limited thereto. It is noted that the number of the at least one external device coupled to the bridge chip 100 is expandable and/or adjustable, where N may be a positive integer, and the manufacturer may determine the number of the external devices coupled to the bridge chip 100. In one embodiment, the bridge control unit 140 determines the number of external devices coupled to meet a specific transmission function by accessing a predetermined configuration (configuration) of an internal register (register) or an external Memory (e.g., Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EPROM)) (not shown). Alternatively, the number of coupled external devices may be set by the host 50 accessing an internal register of the bridge control unit 140.

In some embodiments, the at least one external device may include at least one wireless communication chip (e.g., one or more wireless communication chips), wherein the at least one wireless communication chip may include one or more of a Wi-Fi chip, a Bluetooth (Bluetooth) chip, a Wi-Fi and Bluetooth integrated chip (combo), a Long Term Evolution (LTE) chip, and a ZigBee (ZigBee) chip, and each wireless communication chip may be the same or different type of wireless communication chip. In some embodiments, the at least one external device may include at least one memory device (e.g., one or more memory devices), and each memory device may be the same or different type of memory device, but the invention is not limited thereto.

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a bridge chip 200 according to an embodiment of the invention, wherein the bridge chip 200 can be generated by modifying the architecture of the bridge chip 100 shown in fig. 1 and can be coupled to a host 50. Compared to the bridge chip 100 using a single transmission interface, in the present embodiment, the at least one transmission interface may include a plurality of transmission interfaces such as the transmission interfaces 220-1, 220-2, … and 220-M, and the at least one external device may include a plurality of external devices such as the external devices 210-1, 210-2, … and 210-M, where M may be a positive integer, and the external devices 210-1, 210-2, … and 210-M may be coupled to the transmission interfaces 220-1, 220-2, … and 220-M, respectively. In some embodiments, the types of the transmission interfaces 220-1, 220-2, … and 220-M may be determined according to the requirements (e.g., transmission rate) of the corresponding external devices, but the invention is not limited thereto. It is noted that the number of the at least one external device coupled to the bridge chip 200 is extensible and/or adjustable, wherein the manufacturer may determine the number of the external devices coupled to the bridge chip 200. For example, some or all of the transmission interfaces 220-1, 220-2, … and 220-M may be selectively used by a manufacturer to couple with corresponding external devices according to the requirements of the respective products, but the invention is not limited thereto.

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of a bridge chip 300 according to an embodiment of the invention, wherein the bridge chip 300 can be generated by combining the architecture of the bridge chip 100 shown in fig. 1 and the architecture of the bridge chip 200 shown in fig. 2, and can be coupled to a host 50. As shown in fig. 3, the at least one transmission interface may include transmission interfaces suitable for various types of external devices, such as the transmission interface 120 suitable for the external devices 110-1, 110-2, … and 110-N at the same time, and may further include transmission interfaces respectively dedicated to one or more external devices, such as the transmission interfaces 220-1, 220-2, … and 220-M respectively dedicated to the external devices 210-1, 210-2, … and 210-M, but the present invention is not limited thereto. It is noted that the number of the at least one external device coupled to the bridge chip 300 is expandable and/or adjustable. For example, the manufacturer can selectively use the transmission interface 120 to couple with one or more external devices and/or use some or all of the transmission interfaces 220-1, 220-2, … and 220-M to couple with corresponding external devices according to the requirements of the respective products, but the invention is not limited thereto.

Fig. 4 is a diagram illustrating a bridge chip 400 according to an embodiment of the invention. The bridge chip 400 may be coupled to the host 50. Compared to the embodiments of fig. 1 to 3, some external devices may be built in the bridge chip 400. In the present embodiment, the internal device 310-1 can be regarded as an example of the external device 110-1 from the viewpoint of circuit characteristics, and the internal devices 410-1, 410-2, …, 410-M can be regarded as examples of the external devices 210-1, 210-2, …, and 210-M, respectively, from the viewpoint of circuit characteristics. Compared to the external devices 110-1 and 210-1, 210-2, …, and 210-M, the internal device 310-1 and the internal devices 410-1, 410-2, …, 410-M are built in the bridge chip 400 and coupled to each other in a manner similar to the external devices 110-1 and 210-1, 210-2, …, and 210-M (as shown in FIG. 4, the internal device 310-1 is coupled to the transport interface 120, and the internal devices 410-1, 410-2, …, 410-M are coupled to the transport interfaces 220-1, 220-2, …, and 220-M, respectively). For example, most manufacturers' products require certain functions (e.g., wireless communication functions such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth), so related chips such as Wi-Fi chips and/or Bluetooth chips can be built in the bridge chip 400 directly, wherein any of the Wi-Fi chips and Bluetooth chips can be used as an example of any of the internal devices 410-1, 410-2, … and 410-M, but the invention is not limited thereto. It should be noted that the embodiment shown in fig. 4 is for illustrative purposes only and is not limiting to the present invention. For example, the number of extensible external devices coupled to the transmission interface 120 and the number of internal devices built in the bridge chip 400 coupled to the transmission interface 120 are not limitations of the present invention; the number of the transmission interfaces 220-1, 220-2, …, and 220-M for coupling the extensible external device and the internal device built in the bridge chip 400 are not limitations of the present invention. For brevity, similar descriptions to the above embodiments are not repeated herein.

In addition, the priority of the bridge control unit 140 controlling the at least one external device to perform data transmission is not limited to a specific manner, and any method capable of managing the order of data transmission and/or the available time allocated to the devices when the devices (the external devices, the internal devices, or the at least one external device and the at least one internal device) perform data transmission simultaneously is within the scope of the present invention. In some embodiments, the bridge control unit 140 may control the number of time slots (slots) allocated to the at least one external device during data transmission according to at least one weight value corresponding to the at least one transmission interface; in addition, when the at least one external device and another device need to perform data transmission simultaneously, the bridge control unit 140 determines the order of the at least one external device and the another device performing data transmission according to the predetermined priority settings of the at least one external device and the another device, wherein the another device may represent another external device (e.g., any one of the external devices 110-1, 110-2, …, and 110-N and the external devices 210-1, 210-2, …, and 210-M in the foregoing embodiments) coupled to the bridge chip (e.g., the bridge chips 100, 200, 300, and 400) or an internal device (e.g., the internal device 310-1 and the internal devices 410-1, 410-2 in the foregoing embodiments) built in the bridge chip, …, 410-M). For example, each wireless communication function (e.g., Wi-Fi, bluetooth chip, Wi-Fi and bluetooth integrated chip, lte and zigbee wireless communication functions) may be set to have a respective weight value, and the bridge control unit 140 may sequentially inquire whether the modules corresponding to each wireless communication function have data to transmit according to a ratio of the weight values on a time axis, wherein among the modules that need to transmit data, a higher weight value of the function may have a longer time (e.g., a longer number of time slots) to transmit data, but the invention is not limited thereto. For another example, each wireless communication function (e.g., Wi-Fi, bluetooth chip, lte and zigbee wireless communication functions) may be set to have a respective weight value, and the bridge control unit 140 may be actively notified before any module corresponding to the wireless communication function needs to transmit data, where if more than two modules corresponding to the wireless communication functions need to transmit data at the same time (e.g., the bridge control unit 140 receives notifications sent from more than two modules at the same time), the bridge control unit 140 determines the order of transmitting data according to the respective priorities of the modules, but the invention is not limited thereto.

Fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of an expansion method of an external device according to an embodiment of the invention, wherein the expansion method can be applied to the bridge chip of the invention, such as the bridge chips 100, 200, 300, and 400 described in the above embodiments. It should be noted that one or more steps shown in fig. 5 may be added, deleted and/or modified in the expansion method as long as the overall result is not affected, and the one or more steps do not have to be executed in the order shown in fig. 5.

In step 510, the bridge chip couples at least one external device external to the bridge chip by using at least one transmission interface therein, wherein the number of external devices coupled to the bridge chip is expandable.

In step 520, the bridge chip controls the priority of data transmission by the at least one external device through a bridge control unit therein.

In step 530, the bridge chip couples the bridge chip to a host through a connection port therein, so as to allow the host to perform data transmission with the at least one external device through the bridge chip.

In summary, the bridge chip and the corresponding external device expansion method of the present invention allow manufacturers to have sufficient flexibility to meet different requirements and applications when manufacturing products, such as selectively expanding various types of wireless communication functions, such as Wi-Fi, bluetooth chip, Wi-Fi and bluetooth integrated chip, long term evolution technology, and zigbee. In addition, compared with the related art, the embodiment of the invention does not greatly increase the additional cost. Therefore, the present invention can realize the function of expanding external devices (e.g., modules or chips each for performing a different type of wireless communication function) with no or less side effects.

The above-mentioned embodiments are only preferred embodiments of the present invention, and all equivalent changes and modifications made by the claims of the present invention should be covered by the scope of the present invention.